Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Scott Vetter is dropping from the slate...but is still in the race

Apparently, Scott Vetter is worried that his tweeting may bring down his running mates, Donna Kurtz, Raphael Kamner and John Pletz in the race for the District 155 Board of Education.

So, according to another Northwest Herald article, he is leaving the slate. However, he is not leaving the race.  "I would still love to win," he stated.

His running mates have not really commented on the matter, except in this recent article. No one, except Kamner, has actually come to Vetter's defense. That's pretty telling, isn't it?

Kamner stated in the article, "He is not a racist now nor has he ever been, and he’s not anti-religious."

Funny, but do the videos claim that he is a racist? No, not really. The tweets are just shown as an example of inflammatory rhetoric not befitting of a school board member.

It's interesting that Vetter supporters are honing in on two of the tweets.  In fact, the McHenry County Blog recently posted an article about Scott Vetter with a screenshot from the video of the the "BLM racists" tweet Vetter sent on July 31, 2016.  The article is entitled "So Scott Vetter's a racist?" And, in an attempt to prove something about Scott Vetter that was never even claimed in any of the videos, author Cal Skinner posted a picture of Vetter and his wife.

This is a classic example of a "Strawman Fallacy." Skinner and supporters of Vetter are focusing on the two race and religious tweets and declaring that Vetter is not a racist. This misses the entire point of the video. The video used the tweets to show the inflammatory rhetoric of a candidate for the school board. If people are thinking that others may think that Scott Vetter is a racist are reading more into the video than is there. This actually says more about them than about Scott Vetter.

So I attempted to set the matter straight by commenting on the article in the McHenry County Blog. But, alas, my comment is still "awaiting moderation:"


The point is this: if someone wants to post inflammatory tweets, call people names on social media, that's fine. They have the right to do that. We all do.

But don't be surprised when you run for a position on a board of education that those tweets will resurface as an example of your demeanor. Remember, this is behavior we teach our kids not to engage it. Go ahead: call people "fucking idiots" on Twitter. Or, post an article about the President on Facebook and call him an "Ass Clown." That's fine.

But don't cry when these things are brought to the attention of voters. Right, Raph Kamner?





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