Larry Pastor's Battle - Neshaminy's Loss

One thing is clear from Larry Pastor’s guest opinion article in the Bucks County Courier Times of October 3, 2011: Larry Pastor is engaged in battle with a horrible enemy. This is an enemy that spews lies every time they open their mouths. They are “exclusively focused on increased monetary gains” and on their own “luxurious compensation.” They are “extremists” with a “programmed entitlement mentality.” They are “unyielding” protectors of the “failed status quo.” They prefer an “insular world.” They are the “mortal enemy of reform.” They have “declare[d] war on [the] community and oppose reform with every ounce of their being.” They have spent the last decade “nearly bankrupting our school district.” They “provide zero value to education and in our case, they are a huge negative.” They deliver “mediocre results.” Who are these evil people Larry is waging war on? Why they’re teachers of course. Who else could possibly be so capable of “hurting our children?” Who else could be so without redeeming value?

Larry Pastor has found a dragon to slay. He is not interested in bargaining. He doesn’t seem too interested in facts or supporting any of his assertions either. He is interested in placing blame on the Teacher’s Union. He is interested in trying to separate the Teacher’s Union from the teachers it represents, and make it into a sort of greedy ghoul that needs to be destroyed. He is interested in destroying the Teacher’s Union. If it benefits the school district along the way, that might be OK, but given the level of anger, defensiveness, and vindictiveness that drip from nearly every one of his comments, the well being of the school isn’t his primary goal. No one interested in negotiated reform throws around insults and personal attacks the way he does. No one interested in building anything traffics in as much fear and anger as he does. No one interested in solving problems laces their arguments with as many fallacies as he does. He even accuses others of utilizing ad hominem attacks in an article in which he engages in probably half a dozen of his own. No one interested in the facts and the truth, provide so little of it in what they write. No one sees problems in the way Larry Pastor does should have anything to do with solving them.

It simply doesn’t matter whether Larry Pastor has a substantive and meritorious message. What matters is the way he has chosen to deliver it. He is engaged in battle when the situation calls for engagement in conversation and negotiation. The enemy he has created is at best a gross exaggeration, and at worst complete fiction. What isn’t at all fictional is the damage that has been done by his anger and hate. It is really very clear.