My 2 Cents: When Mice Roar

Coeur d’Alene was thisclose to another public relations disaster caused by a few well-positioned conservative hardliners this spring. That 4-1 Coeur d’Alene School Board vote to keep Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” on the ninth-grade reading A List was watched from New York (Coalition Against Censorship) to Los Angeles (L.A. Times). The publicity was denounced by activist Mary Jo Finney and two allies on the school board — Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour — as part of a media bullying effort. But there’s another way to view the attempt to semi-censor Steinbeck’s classic. It was an attempt by the minority to enforce its will on the majority via a small ad hoc committee and a five-member school board. We saw the same thing happen with the House Judiciary & Rules Committee of the Idaho Legislature, where 9 ideological Republicans (including 4 from North Idaho) almost scuttled the state’s child support system. We saw the same thing happen prior to the mandated expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, when Councilman Steve Adams challenged judicial confirmation for the project before backing off. A delay in the project might have cost the city of Coeur d’Alene federal grants, putting city taxpayers on the hook to pay for the upgrade themselves. One hardliner in the right — or wrong, depending on your outlook — place can produce mischief. It’s important to keep hardline ideologues from gaining key elected office in Coeur d’Alene. And to elect individuals who truly reflect the community to positions now held by the ideologues/ DFO.

Question: How do you think the vote for Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ would have turned out 2 years ago, under then chairman Tom Hamilton?