Transcript of Speech at Rally in Support of Carl Paladino

I’d like to say a few words then open it up to friends of Carl’s to speak.

I am Jul Thompson, and Ellie Corcoran and I have put this event together in response to the nonsense that is being perpetrated without respite, that Carl Paladino is racist and needs to be removed from the School Board.

We are gathered here today to help set the record straight. Carl Paladino does not sacrifice his extremely valuable time, his expertise and his personal comfort to somehow feed a racist desire to exploit children stuck in the abysmally FAILING Buffalo Public Schools. He is here to REVERSE that trend. 50+ years of failure is NOT an option anymore.

The legend goes, that among his many other colorblind activities like employing scores of African-Americans, Carl Paladino is the primary financial support to an inner-city black church that ministers to the homeless. I wanted his campaign for governor to share this information after a liberal jihadist fabricated some emails and charged Carl with racism. But I can’t provide details, because as a humble man, Carl didn’t really want this information public.

But disputing the charge is really an exercise in futility, because the most rabid opponents of Carl know this is a lie, a distraction from reality. More on that in a minute.

We would like to ask the media to just STOP. RESIST the URGE to hop on the bandwagon, to force Buffalo into the national circus of racial division. We here share a collective disgust, that of ALL the important issues that Carl Paladino has brought to the fore, essentially the only thing the media has picked up on is “Damn Asians.”

LET’S BE CLEAR. If our colleges were being overpopulated by Ukrainians or by Canadians, all at taxpayer expense with no discernible benefit for our investment, and only posing a detriment to local students born and raised here, they would have been called Damn Ukrainians. Or Damn Canadians. THIS IS NOT A RACIAL SLUR. It is commentary on the failure of bureaucrats to properly address educating foreigners without bankrupting New Yorkers and limiting benefits for residents.

We are TEA — Taxed Enough Already. When private schools can successfully educate students at $15,000 a year, and WE are paying $28,000 per student in Buffalo, only to see half not graduate, and less than a quarter of black males graduate, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

If parents were really concerned about the success of their children, why wouldn’t they embrace the tremendous success of Charter Schools? Follow the Money. New York State United Teachers or NYSUT and the BTF, and all the wealth they provide to pay workers to spread the lie that Carl is racist and need to be removed from the School Board, are primarily responsible for the massive distraction that all too many people have swallowed, hook, line and sinker.

WHY, you ask? Primarily because, recognizing the incredible chronic failure of the Buffalo Public Schools and the tremendous success of Charter Schools, we, with Carl, would like to see the system changed to reflect the Charter School model.

Though this would decrease the burden on taxpayers and significantly raise the level of achievement among students, it would loosen the grip of NYSUT, and the money would flow to schools modeled after the high performers, meaning less money for the bellies and deep pockets of the union, and less money for cosmetic surgeries, breast implants and other non-essential healthcare.

What will it take? What will it take to persuade those without a vested interest in preserving poverty and failure, or the media looking for ANYTHING to cause racial strife, that THINGS NEED TO CHANGE in order for kids to succeed?

STOP THE NONSENSE.

What some LOVE to call white privilege is actually a LACK, not of privilege, but of the RIGHT to a good education – which inner-city residents have been denied for generations. They are stuck in a system designed to fail, for the benefit of a few. And the very people that have been denied that right are the very people who are working so tirelessly to preserve this failure. It’s mind-boggling.
Jul Thompson
Rally in Support of Carl Paladino, Buffalo City Hall, 5pm
22 July 2015