Lack of transparency raises questions

by Aaron Warner

Hartford High School Principal Nelson Fogg’s office last week sent out an email to parents reporting a type of “hate” crime had been committed off campus affecting a Hartford High School student.  The report  makes no mention of who, what, when, where or why:

“We were made aware of a concerning incident that happened to one of our students.  The incident was hateful and racially motivated.  This did not happen on school grounds or during the school day, but as a school district, we will not tolerate or ignore threats to members of our community and we condemn all forms of racism.”

Per the suggestion in the email, Vermont Daily Chronicle reached out to Hartford’s new Equity Coordinator Maggie Ibrahim at ibrahimm@hartfordschools.net for comment and clarification and have yet to hear back.  However it appears rather than respond directly she forwarded the request to superintendent Tom Debalsi who simply re-issued the original statement: 

“Your email request has been forwarded to me. I did reply to your editor last week in regards to your questions. Everything I can tell you is in the email we sent home to families. I have enclosed my reply to Mr. [VDC editor Guy] Page and email sent home below for your convenience. 

‘Hi Guy, Your message was forwarded to me by our equity coordinator. All I can share is the actual message that went out. Here you go: (what follows is the original email).

The lack of transparency raises serious questions.

At the risk of sounding incredulous, the problem with this type of report is both the absence of detail and the now lengthy list of hoax self-hate crimes the likes of Williams College, Duke University, Lebron James and Jussie Smollett.  One might even recall Vermont’s own Dwight Walker, a gay pastor who set his own car on fire to curry political support. Walker said he “wanted people to see him as a victim.” He was also the perpetrator.  He faced felony arson, lying and fraud charges as a result.   

The number of hoax hate crimes (178 since 2001) compared to known hate groups in Vermont (2) gives one pause.  The timing of the incident is also suspicious given the school sent out another email later that week announcing a “Day of Racial Equity” field trip to the Vermont State House occurring Friday, September 30.  

The lack of transparency, given the history of these types of incidents, leaves the serious investigator no choice but to raise questions.  Who was involved?  When did it happen and where? What was said or done? How do we know it was racially motivated?   

If this incident is real, and until we get the full story we can’t know for sure, it must be condemned.  However the vagueness of the report disallows people to give it the necessary vitriol and rebuke any racially motivated act of hate deserves. Whoever was targeted should feel supported and unafraid of shedding light on the who, what, when, where, why and how?  

I can think of no other town in Vermont than Hartford that would quickly rise to defend anyone, especially a “marginalized’ person from any act of racial hatred. They don’t just lean left, they live it.  Which, given the amount of lying and hoaxing done by the left of late is more of a problem than a defense. Which is why this report needs to be transparent for all to get behind the victim, if in fact there is one.  

If the school or town refuses to shed the necessary light, then the opportunity to drive another nail in the anti-hate coffin will be missed thanks to the false altar upon which the hate hoaxes have been committed over the years.  

Finally, the arbiters of designating hate groups remains the Southern Poverty Law Center who have added a “hate map” to their site.  Out of all of the United States Vermont has by far the least in all of New England with two.  The first is the Patriot Front which finds its base in Texas. The second is a neo-Nazi group called the Nationalist Social Club. NAZI stands for National Socialist.  

Vermont’s proud tradition of being the first state in the union to abolish slavery in 1777 to its credit, remains a decidedly anti-hateful place to develop a racist hate group since only two claim residency here. However the number of hate crimes reported in Vermont (138) is nearly triple that in New Hampshire (48) who have twice our population and nearly four times the number of hate groups.  Which begs the question, how is Vermont, the bluest state in the U.S., three-times as hateful as New Hampshire, a historically red state? 

Though today’s Democrat party would have everyone believe they are not historically the party of racism the facts speak otherwise.  A brief history lesson on the US government’s historical fight against racism and hate crimes goes back to Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, who fought bravely after replacing the deceased Abraham Lincoln.  Among Grant’s many battles was against the lynching of both black and white Americans who were targeted for their stand against slavery and racism.  Over 1,000 Republicans were lynched during his term in office, though Grant’s efforts brought the extremist Democrat sponsored Ku Klux Klan and their terrorism in the north to a screeching halt while he remained in office.  

Democrats have also trotted out another hoax in the form of the great reset between the parties where the historically racist Southern Democrats magically switched their ideology with the historically anti-racist Republicans prior to the Civil Rights era.  However any semi-serious researcher can find out that is as false as the Duke – BYU race hoax: 

… the actual voting record for both Houses of Congress shows that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the Senate on a 73-to-27 vote. The Democratic supermajority in the Senate split their vote 46 (69%) for and 21 (31%) against. The Republicans, on the other hand, split their vote 27 for (82%) and 6 against (18%). Thus, the no vote consisted of 78% Democrats. Further, the infamous 74-day filibuster was led by the Southern Democrats, who overwhelmingly voted against the act.

An examination of the House vote shows a similar pattern. The House voted 290 to 130 in favor. Democrats split their vote 152 (61%) to 96 (39%) while Republicans split theirs 138 (80%) to 34 (20%). The no vote consisted of 74% Democrats. 

I wonder if they’re teaching that at Hartford High School.