Okay, I'm here for that.
It was 2008 and I was entering year two, of a four year term on our school board when it started. Suffice to say, my children were grown and off at college and I was finally free to take a strong stance against racism, classism, and other -isms in our district. More than 60% of voters had put me in office and that gave me strength.
With a 4-3 vote, we'd already terminated the superintendent. That caused a bit of an uproar, but the new superintendent was outstanding and folks settled down.
But this time, with another 4-3 vote, we demoted the junior high principal and terminated the high school principal. And all Hell broke loose.
Turns out the old, now fired, Superintendent's husband was a frigging Washington DC lobbyist and he did not take kindly to his wife losing her job and the third cushy pension he was counting on. Yes, public employees can get pensions from different states. Those with 3, 4 or more pensions are collecting several hundred thousand a year in retirement. Well, Mr. vengeful Lobbyist and his wife had organized against the school board members who had terminated her.
Trouble was, this jerky was a big city Democrat and had zero understanding of rural culture. And "his organization" was taken over by the town crazies and things grew ugly super fast. Next thing I know, I'm getting packages with realistic toy guns, and knives mailed to my home. Then the letters started, some were mailed to my home, others to my office and others were sent to me, via the school district offices. Unfortunately, the district secretaries had to open those letters and got the living sh-t scared out of them. There were death threats, and lengthy descriptions of exactly how they intended to do the killing. There were rape threats, There were threats against my children.
The police were called in, but the police were helpless - because there is NO law against threatening politicians. Politicians are public figures - and in America, public figures are fair game. Just running for election makes you a public figure and fair game.
Unfortunately, these were more than threats and the physical violence began with vandalism to private property. Rocks and bricks and a vehicle did over $3,000. in damage to my car alone.
Our town newspaper had recently put in an on-line, social media feature on their website. While the editor and publisher tried to figure out the difference between incitement and free speech, the website went wild.
Quite frankly, even I had a hard time believing what was happening.
One day I received a filthy, disgusting letter, and the writer had gone off on a strange rant about having gotten away with burning down someone's home and now he would do it to me. Three nights later, around midnight, sirens and horns woke us up . It was the fire department - our home was on fire. I was effing terrified and we moved to an apartment and stepped up the remodel work on our home up on the mountain. The police escorted me to and from board meetings, and it just got worse and worse.
The lobbyist's crazies mounted a recall election and taxpayers paid like a hundred thousand dollars just to find out, if folks still wanted to keep the board. I guess folks were behind me after all, cause I got almost 60% of the vote and finished my term. The election put out the fires, the threats stopped, and the violence came to an end.
And I was left with a huge yellow streak down my back.
I'd fought the state, I'd fought the prison industry, I'd fought the rich and powerful and I'd fought white supremacists - but no one had threatened my children's lives, or mine. I'd led some really contentious battles to wit: During a fight against one prison expansion, the effing FBI, state marshals, sheriffs, and police all showed up at a public meeting armed to the teeth.
Today, 14 years later, I am still a coward. I've been writing on-line as Raffey since the 80s, but now I never use my name. People have found me before, but not lately.
Signed,
Survivor
