It takes a strong person to speak truth to power. It's harder yet to boil home truths down to a few well chosen words. If you think Phil Hemingway comes on too strong, practice saying all the things you'd like to say to the Iowa City Community School Board in three minutes or less after months, no years, of betrayal, lies, deliberate deception, and frustrating delays.
Have you noticed that the more telling those truths are that community commenters tell, the more school board president Marla Swesey tries to hurry the speaker along to his or her conclusion? She even tried to stop people from clapping and cheering when community speakers without exception opposed the board's plans to close one or more schools. Her shushing only made people clap and cheer more. We're not third-graders, Marla. You can't control us. We're adults. You should have learned that by now.
As someone who knows Phil Hemingway as a warm friend and honorable mechanic who has worked on my family's vehicles, I see someone who is kind, generous, courteous, and thoughtful. With Phil, what you see is what you get. There's no pretense there, which is refreshing in a town like Iowa City.
Since I'm all about trust and our current school board and school district administration has proven itself anything but trustworthy by general acclamation, a wise and trustworthy friend who is knowledgeable about school board and school district issues is important and valuable to me.
In his younger days, Phil traveled the world over, including to Belize and Russia. Under tight deadlines, he managed crews in third-world countries under appalling conditions. He's a good man and a good judge of character. As a businessman and entrepreneur in southeast Iowa City near Fareway, Phil knows the value of a dollar and is conscientious about not wasting his own or his customers' money.
He has a curious mind and taught his daughter, his only child, to ask questions when she doesn't know something in class. As a result, his daughter is an outstanding student who is studying engineering on scholarship at the University of Iowa. She also participates in the UI marching band and symphony orchestra.
Phil lives with his wife, his daughter, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law from Belize. You can trust him. He won't take money for his campaign. I tried to give him some, but he refused. He doesn't have a website and he doesn't have leaflets to give out. He just asks people if they've watched the board meetings and read the paper. He knows what the issues are and comes to all of the board meetings.
He does have hand-painted signs that he will deliver and put into your yard himself. I chatted with him after he put mine in my yard this morning. He was raised on an Iowa farm and can talk to anyone.
If you want to vote for someone with a fancy website and 20 different ways to donate to his campaign via credit card, you can, but I'm voting for Phil Hemingway September 10, 2013, and I hope you'll do the same.