Shame on the Journal. Seriously, shame on Kent Walz

If you read Journal coverage of APS Supt Winston Brooks before and after his demise; you will find two different men; a veritable Jekyll and Hyde, wikilink.

Granted, before his demise, the Journal sold as much advertising as they could reporting on Brooks major blunders; how could they not?  But they really didn't dig any deeper.  Readers never read about investigations into the allegations of bullying, misogyny and anger management issues.

If you read the press on Brooks before he came to APS,
you will find evidence of the problems that ended his administration here.  After his demise, the Journal and interim APS Supt Brad Winter are happy to point out fundamental flaws in Brooks' character and personality.

macquigg photo

In between the before and the demise, the Journal failed to inform the democracy.  They failed to investigate and report upon credible evidence and testimony of Brooks problems.

Had the democracy been informed, school board members who gave Brooks a three quarters of million dollars worth golden parachute might not have been (re)elected.

Had the democracy been informed all these years, the Brooks debacle would have ended before it started.

When the question is; will you tell the truth? the whole truth and nothing but the ethically redacted truth, any answer except yes, means no.

It means no from a public schools superintendent, it means no from a school board member, it means no from from a news director or managing editor.

Not saying yes, means no.

The standards of conduct, of which Brad Winter is the senior-most administrative role model;
APS' student standards of conduct, link,
could not be more explicit;

"telling the truth" precludes all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context statements, and even silence, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading. emphasis added

Stonewalling is prohibited.

APS students, if they are given any character education at all,
are told they forfeit their good character if they stonewall the response to a legitimate question.

Brad Winter and the Journal are stonewalling at least three questions;

1. Why don't interest and stakeholders know the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd?  Why is there no candid, forthright and honest audit of spending at 6400 Uptown? and
2. Why won't the school board and superintendent produce the ethically redacted finding of investigations of allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators? and
3. Why won't the senior-most administrative role models in the entire APS not explain to students in words they can understand;

why students are expected to hold themselves honestly and actually accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law, and senior administrators, school board members, and their lawyers, are not?

Not one of them, not one senior administrator, not a one school board member, not one politician nor public servant, not one Journal editor, not one a single news director or broadcast affiliate owner in the entire city of Albuquerque.

There are two reasons the truth isn't being told;
lack of character and or, lack of courage.

If there is a third reason that legitimate questions cannot find answers in the APS or in the establishment's press, I would like to know, what is that reason.

I cannot imagine what good and ethical reason could possibly be.

So far, not one superintendent, not one senior administrator, not one school board member, not one editor or news director has articulated a third reason - much less in words that any student can understand.

If we really want students to embrace character and courage and honor, we have to show them what they look like.

There really is no equivalent gesture.

When the federal grant money was still around, APS' trainers of trainers used to have T-shirts to give to students after we talked to them about Character Counts!

On it's front and back it read;

Stand up for what you believe in
even if you are standing alone.

In truth, a child standing up for the right thing should never be standing alone.  There should be an adult behind in support, an adult beside to share the burden and, an adult in front of them leading by personal example; showing them what it looks like.

Character is taught by personal example.

We are at a fork in the road.

Stake and interest holders don't know about the choice because there are powerful people who like things the way they are, and who don't want the people to know that they a choice; that they can make a difference.

The powerful people who like things the way they are, own and manage newspapers and broadcast news outlets.  Or, they know people who do.  They have the will and the wherewithal to manipulate and mislead interest and stakeholders.



The choice has to do with an upcoming school board election and subsequent retention of a new superintendent. With a new school board and a new superintendent, there is an opportunity to move APS in an entirely different direction; one that includes

transparent, honest and actual accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for politicians and public servants within their public service in the APS.

This is not about Character Counts! it is about
honest accountability to any higher standards of conduct at all, ever.

This is not the time to debate the meanings of the words or
whether the right choices were made.

This is the time to discuss "the terms" of politics and public service in the leadership of the APS.  It is time to consider whether the setting of the terms is the prerogative of the people or of the politicians and public servants.



School board meeting today.   5 pm.  public forum

If not you, then who?  If not now, then when?

You pick a side when you don't pick a side.

Silence gives consent.

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world
is for good people to do nothing.  Burke derived.




photo Mark Bralley