MCPS Boundary Study Meeting Tonight (12/11) at Julius West @ 7pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The more these people speak out in public, the better it is for the cause of equity in this county. This is a really, really bad look for them. Media coverage will be embarrassing. Reasonable people in the middle will not want to be associated with them. Keep at it.

I don’t think so. The more you call them racist and segregationists, the weaker your argument becomes. This playbook is getting old. If everyone’s racist, then no one is a racist. Plus no one believes that there are racists in MoCo. We’re waaaay to liberal for that. Everyone’s a fragile little snowflake here.

The people that want these changes are basically saying “agree with me or you’re a racist segregationist”. Attacking people that disagree with you isn’t a great way to win an argument.

When you have no compelling argument, attacking people who disagree with and name calling are the only options.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County actually has some of the highest achieving racially diverse schools in the country. Harvard, Yale, Princeton love our minority scholars because they are so well-educated and ready for college. MCPS literally bends over backwards trying to narrow the achievement gap.

But we’re all racist segregationists here. Yeah right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This pretty much never happens. It’s “calling out” culture at its worst. “Calling out” doesn’t make people change their minds or think about their positions, it makes them dislike you and get defensive. You have to go at people with questions, facts, and compassion. That’s how you get people to rethink their beliefs.

You know what? I've spent a lot of time and energy being an advocate. And the reality is that going at people with questions, facts, and compassion is unfortunately pretty darn ineffective at getting people to change their minds. The problem here is not that some people's feelings are hurt because other people are calling them mean names. The problem here is that people do not like change, feel threatened by change, and feel entitled to stop change.

Some of these boundaries have been in place since the 1980s, if not even earlier. It's now 2019. There is going to be change, whether people want it or not. And I simply do not have the energy for long, sensitive, compassionate, understanding discussions with people who think they ought to be able to stop change, on the off chance that some of these people might change (!) their minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The more these people speak out in public, the better it is for the cause of equity in this county. This is a really, really bad look for them. Media coverage will be embarrassing. Reasonable people in the middle will not want to be associated with them. Keep at it.

I don’t think so. The more you call them racist and segregationists, the weaker your argument becomes. This playbook is getting old. If everyone’s racist, then no one is a racist. Plus no one believes that there are racists in MoCo. We’re waaaay to liberal for that. Everyone’s a fragile little snowflake here.

The people that want these changes are basically saying “agree with me or you’re a racist segregationist”. Attacking people that disagree with you isn’t a great way to win an argument.

When you have no compelling argument, attacking people who disagree with and name calling are the only options.

Lots of defensiveness here. Maybe ask yourself why you feel so defensive about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This pretty much never happens. It’s “calling out” culture at its worst. “Calling out” doesn’t make people change their minds or think about their positions, it makes them dislike you and get defensive. You have to go at people with questions, facts, and compassion. That’s how you get people to rethink their beliefs.

You know what? I've spent a lot of time and energy being an advocate. And the reality is that going at people with questions, facts, and compassion is unfortunately pretty darn ineffective at getting people to change their minds. The problem here is not that some people's feelings are hurt because other people are calling them mean names. The problem here is that people do not like change, feel threatened by change, and feel entitled to stop change.

Some of these boundaries have been in place since the 1980s, if not even earlier. It's now 2019. There is going to be change, whether people want it or not. And I simply do not have the energy for long, sensitive, compassionate, understanding discussions with people who think they ought to be able to stop change, on the off chance that some of these people might change (!) their minds.

Just how long have you spent as an advocate? I’m 1000% sure there’s plenty of folks on this board who’ve been doing it a lot longer than you. You might learn from them, if you’ll listen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I stated, some of those parents should be ashamed of themselves and were terrible role models for our children.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/this-is-just-people-screaming-tension-boils-over-at-school-boundaries-meeting/

“I would never want to come to a meeting like this again,” an eighth grader at Julius West said. “This is just people screaming and people screaming back.”

I'm glad now I didn't go, and I live in this cluster. I'm pretty disgusted by some of the parents. I would've been seriously annoyed at the constant disruptions when all I would've wanted is to listen and get some information. This was an informational night, and some of the parents turned it into a mob.

Wow, I'm surprised at uber liberal MoCo residents. I guess they are NIMBYs after all.

Uber liberal does not mean that you burn their houses to light up yours and in the process they will be happily sitting on the sidelines. Welcome to the real world!

I always thought uber liberals wanted equity and championed diversity. But, I guess, not at the expense of their home values. So, I guess you are "uber liberal" in name only?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This pretty much never happens. It’s “calling out” culture at its worst. “Calling out” doesn’t make people change their minds or think about their positions, it makes them dislike you and get defensive. You have to go at people with questions, facts, and compassion. That’s how you get people to rethink their beliefs.

You know what? I've spent a lot of time and energy being an advocate. And the reality is that going at people with questions, facts, and compassion is unfortunately pretty darn ineffective at getting people to change their minds. The problem here is not that some people's feelings are hurt because other people are calling them mean names. The problem here is that people do not like change, feel threatened by change, and feel entitled to stop change.

Some of these boundaries have been in place since the 1980s, if not even earlier. It's now 2019. There is going to be change, whether people want it or not. And I simply do not have the energy for long, sensitive, compassionate, understanding discussions with people who think they ought to be able to stop change, on the off chance that some of these people might change (!) their minds.

Just how long have you spent as an advocate? I’m 1000% sure there’s plenty of folks on this board who’ve been doing it a lot longer than you. You might learn from them, if you’ll listen.

Feel free to start an Ask An Advocate thread.

[Anonymous]

Lol ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I stated, some of those parents should be ashamed of themselves and were terrible role models for our children.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/this-is-just-people-screaming-tension-boils-over-at-school-boundaries-meeting/

“I would never want to come to a meeting like this again,” an eighth grader at Julius West said. “This is just people screaming and people screaming back.”

I'm glad now I didn't go, and I live in this cluster. I'm pretty disgusted by some of the parents. I would've been seriously annoyed at the constant disruptions when all I would've wanted is to listen and get some information. This was an informational night, and some of the parents turned it into a mob.

Wow, I'm surprised at uber liberal MoCo residents. I guess they are NIMBYs after all.

Uber liberal does not mean that you burn their houses to light up yours and in the process they will be happily sitting on the sidelines. Welcome to the real world!

I always thought uber liberals wanted equity and championed diversity. But, I guess, not at the expense of their home values. So, I guess you are "uber liberal" in name only?

Conservatives don’t understand liberals. They only believe what they see on Faux News.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I stated, some of those parents should be ashamed of themselves and were terrible role models for our children.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/this-is-just-people-screaming-tension-boils-over-at-school-boundaries-meeting/

“I would never want to come to a meeting like this again,” an eighth grader at Julius West said. “This is just people screaming and people screaming back.”

I'm glad now I didn't go, and I live in this cluster. I'm pretty disgusted by some of the parents. I would've been seriously annoyed at the constant disruptions when all I would've wanted is to listen and get some information. This was an informational night, and some of the parents turned it into a mob.

Wow, I'm surprised at uber liberal MoCo residents. I guess they are NIMBYs after all.

Uber liberal does not mean that you burn their houses to light up yours and in the process they will be happily sitting on the sidelines. Welcome to the real world!

I always thought uber liberals wanted equity and championed diversity. But, I guess, not at the expense of their home values. So, I guess you are "uber liberal" in name only?

Conservatives don’t understand liberals. They only believe what they see on Faux News.

? So it's true that uber liberals are NIMBYS and care more about their house values than diversity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I stated, some of those parents should be ashamed of themselves and were terrible role models for our children.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/this-is-just-people-screaming-tension-boils-over-at-school-boundaries-meeting/

“I would never want to come to a meeting like this again,” an eighth grader at Julius West said. “This is just people screaming and people screaming back.”

I'm glad now I didn't go, and I live in this cluster. I'm pretty disgusted by some of the parents. I would've been seriously annoyed at the constant disruptions when all I would've wanted is to listen and get some information. This was an informational night, and some of the parents turned it into a mob.

Wow, I'm surprised at uber liberal MoCo residents. I guess they are NIMBYs after all.

Uber liberal does not mean that you burn their houses to light up yours and in the process they will be happily sitting on the sidelines. Welcome to the real world!

I always thought uber liberals wanted equity and championed diversity. But, I guess, not at the expense of their home values. So, I guess you are "uber liberal" in name only?

Conservatives don’t understand liberals. They only believe what they see on Faux News.

? So it's true that uber liberals are NIMBYS and care more about their house values than diversity?

It’s true that liberals, at least those over 30 or so, feel conflicted when their values conflict with their strong personal interest in stability and in their largest financial investment (home). Personally, I don’t think a lot of the loudest, angriest people are liberal at all. Montgomery County does actually have Republicans who live here, as well as conservative Dems. But lots of liberals feel conflicted and unsure about changes that they would support ideologically but that have the potential to cost them a lot of money personally and/or make life difficult for their kids (which I’m not convinced is in fact true, that it would cause problems for the kids, but which is a real concern).

Again, not in any way justifying the behavior of angry hordes, but also as a fence sitter who isn’t all in on supporting change.

[Anonymous]

Great news people, we are now Twitter infamous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great news people, we are now Twitter infamous.

Forgot the link https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1205211939120599040?s=21

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This pretty much never happens. It’s “calling out” culture at its worst. “Calling out” doesn’t make people change their minds or think about their positions, it makes them dislike you and get defensive. You have to go at people with questions, facts, and compassion. That’s how you get people to rethink their beliefs.

You know what? I've spent a lot of time and energy being an advocate. And the reality is that going at people with questions, facts, and compassion is unfortunately pretty darn ineffective at getting people to change their minds. The problem here is not that some people's feelings are hurt because other people are calling them mean names. The problem here is that people do not like change, feel threatened by change, and feel entitled to stop change.

Some of these boundaries have been in place since the 1980s, if not even earlier. It's now 2019. There is going to be change, whether people want it or not. And I simply do not have the energy for long, sensitive, compassionate, understanding discussions with people who think they ought to be able to stop change, on the off chance that some of these people might change (!) their minds.

+1, some people in that Facebook group are still bitching about a boundary change that sent neighborhoods from Wootton to Richard Montgomery THIRTY YEARS AGO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The more these people speak out in public, the better it is for the cause of equity in this county. This is a really, really bad look for them. Media coverage will be embarrassing. Reasonable people in the middle will not want to be associated with them. Keep at it.

I don’t think so. The more you call them racist and segregationists, the weaker your argument becomes. This playbook is getting old. If everyone’s racist, then no one is a racist. Plus no one believes that there are racists in MoCo. We’re waaaay to liberal for that. Everyone’s a fragile little snowflake here.

The people that want these changes are basically saying “agree with me or you’re a racist segregationist”. Attacking people that disagree with you isn’t a great way to win an argument.

Some of the people who disagree actually are racist segregationists. And while others are not racist segregationists, they are nonetheless advancing racist and/or segregationist positions.

Maybe the people who are being called racist segregationists, and who don't like being called racist segregationists, should spend some time thinking about why they are being called racist segregationists.

+1. There are definitely racists in that group, because I recognize the names as friends of friends who’ve made comments on other people’s pages, or from comments I’ve seen in other groups. And someone at that meeting last night called a black woman who is in the group a monkey. Under his breath but she heard it. Not everyone in that group is a racist. But they’re agreeing with racists and that’s a problem.