The real legacy of the Obama years

Cowardice masquerading as courage...

If you watched the news at all this past Tuesday then you know that Los Angeles Unified School District closed some 900 schools, stranding 650,000 kids and their parents because of a dubious threat of terrorism.

The threat, in the form of an email, was also sent to a New York City school system who deemed it so preposterous that not only did they keep schools open, but Police Chief Bratton was out in the media within hours openly mocking Los Angeles for falling for this hoax. On cue, the LAUSD Superintendent, in full on CYA mode, appeared before cameras spouting that most odious of Bureaucratic weasel phrases "out of an abundance of caution"....

I'm sure that was a relief to a million or so parents who had to scramble for childcare that day with less than a half hour's notice.

But it was the response to the overreaction the following day that revealed what I think is the true legacy of the Obama years, and that is this... across America in towns big and small, are public officials by the thousands... each with a staff, and a salary, and an office, but without much in the way of courage or basic common sense. But what they've learned from the man in the White House, is that there is no amount of stupidity that can't be covered up with a flowery, meaningless speech.

Take the President of the LA School Board, who obviously spent the night getting an earful from pissed off parents. He walked in front of the microphone this morning and, hoping that he could use an elegant turn of phrase to make us forget how badly he and his colleagues overreacted to a threat so bogus the author couldn't even be bothered to capitalize "Allah", said "what you saw yesterday was a community turning towards one another, not against one another"...

Really?!

I mean what hell does that even mean? Who in god's name wrote that and how much do they get paid? Did you write that WHILE parents were scrambling to find a place to park their kids for the day? 

Listen, that crap may work with the President, who has been getting passes he doesn't deserve since he took office, but this is a low level Bureaucratic functionary we're talking about. I don't need to hear poetic bon mots about the better angels of our nature from this guy. I need him to shut up, do his job, and let me know when it's done.

And then our own Police Chief stood up and, flashing his anger that we mere citizens would dare to challenge his judgment, complained "it's easy to sit in judgment when you're not responsible for the outcome..."

What!?

I'm not responsible for the outcome!? These are OUR kids we're talking about you douchecanoe. To misquote Breaking Bad... "I AM THE RESPONSIBILITY!!!"

Oh and by the way, we only know the contents of the email threat because it was leaked (probably by New York in an effort to shame LA). LA Officials tried to keep it secret because they were worried, correctly, that we would all see what reactionary pussies they really are and call them on it.

Look I'm not highly a paid public servant, but this is not hard. Here's what a smart, confident, capable Authority Figure would have said...

"My Fellow Angelenos,

This morning we received an email threat of terrorism. You can read it yourself as I have directed my Deputies to immediately release the full contents of this email to the Public. In short, an anonymous terrorist claims he and others have planted bombs and nerve gas in several Los Angeles area schools. They claim to have done the same in New York City.

We cannot, as of yet, verify the claims contained in this email but I want to stress that we have no credible evidence to suggest that this threat is real.

Nevertheless, I know how scary this must sound. We are talking about the safety of your children and I do no want to give the impression that we are taking that lightly. I have asked the Police Chief to give me two armed officers to place on the front steps of every LAUSD school... that's eighteen hundred armed men and women... who have pledged to protect your children with their very lives. SWAT and Bomb Disposal units will spread throughout the city doing random checks on school across the area.

You will feel an armed presence today and you will feel safe. I can promise you that.

Any parent who elects to keep their child home today, I want you to know that I understand. And to any LAUSD teacher who feels uncomfortable coming in to work today, I get it, and we will work hard to accommodate you.

But LAUSD schools WILL be open for business today.

To the terrorists who would threaten our children I say this. We will take every precaution to defeat your plans and deny you these victories you seek, but make no mistake, we will not upend our lives at your every whim.

This is Los Angeles... we can take it.

Have a great day at school."