The Fountain of Bad Ideas

Roeser’s little empire of personal pet peeve pushing is far more connected to much of the right wing crap brought up in this state. Case in point is the recent kerfluffle in District 214 over novels deemed pornographic by a few well organized angry folks.

How well organized? Check out one guy quoted in the Daily Herald, The Pioneer Press and Tribune as if he were just another resident (misspelled his name).

Resident Bruce Pincknell was one of the few who supported Pinney’s plan, saying that teachers promoting the books were motivated by their own progressive social agendas.

And from the Herald:

Bruce Tincknell, a former Prospect High parent, read an excerpt from the book, omitting some terms he felt were too inappropriate.

“This is unacceptable to many of us,” he told those in the room. “We want better.”

Pioneer Press

Arlington Heights resident Bruce Tincknell said although he does not have children currently attending District 214 schools, he is concerned about the content of the required novels.

Tincknell said he has read The Perks of Being a Wallflower and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, as well as excerpts from the list of books.

“When I read some of the excerpts, it concerned me as a parent, as a taxpayer. It’s quite outrageous. I can’t see any literary value,” he said prior to the board’s decision.

Who is Tincknell?

He’s a Board of Director at the Illinois Family Institute

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The IFI Board of Directors consists of:

Dr. John & Dena Koehler (Chairman)
Dr. Gary & Mary Draper
Mrs. Virginia Nurmi
Dr. Don & Sandra Helfer
Mr. Bruce Tincknell

This is a case of the Right Wing Wurlitzer continuing the efforts to make a controversy out of something where the community doesn’t find anything controversial. I don’t blame the reporters since Tincknell, Pinney and the others affiliated with IFI and Roeser probably set it up to get exactly this kind of coverage, but it is something to watch out for.

It gets better, his affiliations go unmentioned in other articles where is more of the focus. In one from the Herald on February 12th,

“It’s branded Paul Simon. It is an institute representing the Democratic Party,” said Bruce Tincknell, a former District 214 parent who’s heading up Citizens for Quality Education, a watchdog group focused primarily on District 214 goings-on. “It’s more than a name.”

He’s also in a December 3rd article challenging the current superintendent in relation to his record in Stevens Point.

Funny, the guy shows up talking about public education funding and ‘family values’, two of Jack Roeser’s hobby horses, but he never is identified as attached to Roeser affiliated groups.

Now to Erin Holmes credit, she does identify Tincknell on April 1, 2005 as

Meanwhile, Illinois State Board of Elections records show Jack Roeser, head of the Family Taxpayers Network that endorsed Pinney, made a $12,000 contribution this week to Mount Prospect-based “Just the Facts,” a group headed by Tincknell.

This was during the election which Pinney won.

The point here being the amount of noise from a small number of people is awfully loud and this ought to be pointed out more regularly.

0 thoughts on “The Fountain of Bad Ideas”
  1. Larry, they’re getting ready for the 2007 muni elections…

    Now they have grist for walk pieces and fundraisers (not to mention motivation for the few boots on the ground they can muster).

    No doubt.

    This whole issue wasn’t about the 214 curriculum and was only peripherally about those particular books. The agenda item was about book purchases (meaning all textbooks and any required reading books). Pinney hijacked the issue to drive her agenda into the limelight.

    She ought to keep her culture war out of our communities, but no, she sucks up the infamy like … well, like something she’d want banned.

  2. On the upside, she managed to get badly voted down, containing the embarassment she could cause to my alma mater.

    I’m not sure how often Roeser’s financial backing is mentioned in print, but it isn’t often enough. And even when it is, it fails to get across the outthereness of FTN. Its one thing to be a conservative group, but they’re the goofy fruit of the ha ha bush.

  3. The yahoos at Illinois Review just can’t let it go… Glory be.

    Link here: digbig.com/ 4hwaf (take out the space)

    “Sonja” is taken aback that a woman can be a reverend and that she and an evangelical Lutheran pastor were the only two priests there after 50 conservative churches were contacted — and these two faith leaders spoke against the ban! Horrors.

    “Sonja” goes on to do everything but say she was ashamed at being in agreement with a Muslim and an atheist who didn’t think the books were appropriate. (News to the atheist: these books are in opt-in classes, they’re elective honors classes. And the parents have opt-out options also. It’s a two-fer.)

    I think this was a coordinated attack to get right-wingers ready for the next elections… (What else do they have going for them? Bush and DC Repukes have gone back on everything they promised the wingnuts). Word from 214 is that this Pinney woman has been a major pain in the rear — Micromanaging with a capital M — and that she’s egged on by Tincknell who sends threatening messages to the superintendent and the rest of the board.

    Intolerance ain’t an American value.

  4. Even complete jokes can be dangerous with as much money as Roeser is willing to toss around… He gave $15,000 to 20,000 to Pinney so she could buy her seat on the 214 board and waste taxpayers’ time and money with her micromanaging crusade.

  5. The real interesting thing here of course is that those opposing the books never read the books.

    I imagine when District 214 students get poor grades on book reports for books they haven’t read, they can respond by pointing out that the school board members also don’t read books they report on.

  6. Quote:
    “This is a case of the Right Wing Wurlitzer continuing the efforts to make a controversy out of something where the community doesn’t find anything controversial.”

    Comment:
    I think you are sorely mistaken. The fact is, the speaking procedure was changed at the the last minute. Only those in favor of the books were notified – leading to almost 2 hours of nonstop testimony in favor of the books. It gave the erroneous impression that the community was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the books. Judging from who was clapping when, it was actually split about 50/50.

  7. Whether or not turnout was heavy on either side rather misses the point that the vote was 6-1 meaning this isn’t nearly as controversial as Pinney and others would like to think .

  8. ArchPundit, regarding your last comment,

    “the vote was 6-1 meaning this isn’t nearly as controversial as Pinney and others would like to think”:

    The board may not acknowledge the controversy, but when 1000 people show up at a school board meeting where the normal attendance might be 40 (guessing) – about half to support and half to oppose – it makes no sense at all to say that the issues isn’t controversial.

    The board did indeed vote to purchase the 183 titles, but the questions raised in the minds of parents/taxpayers are not so easily resolved. Stay tuned. I predict this is not over…

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