Share the School Board debate, Will Harrell, Chairman of Lakeland First and founder of Citizens for Polk Education

I’d like to challenge Will Harrell, Jack Harrell, and Jeff Chamberlain to spend their $11,000 or more in dark campaign money sharing the recent School Board debate between me and their candidate.

If they believe at all in the public good; if they care at all about your children or reopening schools safely; if they have any confidence in their own candidate at all, I would think they would want everyone to see the full, unedited debate. I certainly want everyone to see it. It’s very clarifying and informative. And it’s easy to evaluate both candidates side-by-side – both in ideas and personal character. It would be quite an act of Civics to pay for sharing it in digital ads.

I've embedded it here; and they can certainly share this post if they like.

If you know Chamberlain and the Harrells, encourage them to embrace this idea. I think it’s a better and more Civic way to spend $11,000 than building childish memes casually accusing people they’ve never met of racism in the dumbest, most incoherent possible way. But I’m helping to lead a positive, civil, all-inclusive, public movement. And I care about the public good, for all people, even those who disagree with me. They appear to fear that greatly. So we must see things differently.

See an example of Will Harrell's handiwork here. He's the founder of "Citizens for Polk Education," as the paperwork above shows. This is his idea of Civics in the time of COVID. This is how much "Citizens for Polk Education" cares about education or your child or your loved one who works in a school.

If the Harrells and Chamberlain won’t share this important debate, perhaps Lakeland First will. What’s that you say, the Harrells and Chamberlain are Lakeland First? Well, I don’t know. They seem off on their own here. But I admit that it’s hard to tell the different parts of the Polk County and Lakeland “Swamp” apart.

Perhaps we can ask Lakeland First to clarify. Is this what you value? Is this your sense of Civics and the public good for Lakeland and Polk County? Is this what Lakeland First thinks of kids and teachers. Is this all just an ugly game to you?

Perhaps we can ask Lakeland First if comically, childishly false racism memes are the tool that Lakeland First will be using moving ahead for people they don’t like or find somehow threatening. Or is this just key members of Lakeland First freelancing? What does Lakeland First stand for?

Finally, the Harrells and Chamberlain seem to be trolling through one particular essay that I wrote in 2016 about trying to unify the country and community through the shared humanity of our children – no matter who you prefer as president. It’s a great essay, if I do say so myself. You should go read it. I want you to. It's linked right below.

https://billytownsend.com/2016/11/the-wages-of-common-core-and-a-message-for-townsendtrump-and-townsendhillary-voters/