So, before or immediately following submission of nominating positions I had a conversation with a fellow board member and current candidate and we agreed we didn’t want to run a negative campaign even though we weren’t running together. Well, what does that mean? To me it means to get out there and spread YOUR message and goals. Tell who you are, what you hope to accomplish, why and how. I have tried to do just that. I answer EVERYONE…even when someone asked me some non-relevant political questions. People DESERVE to hear from each candidate and are ENTITLED to an educated decision. Last week, after about 4-5 years of being a member of the Oak Valley Our Own Little World Facebook page I was suddenly deleted from the group. I was shocked and quickly asked to re-join. I posted on my private FB page and 100+ comments later I think my friends are more angry than me. After I posted (it was public) the candidate that was an administrator of the page was no more. There was even a post that she was no longer an administrator for personal reasons. I don’t know if it was the candidate that was also administrator that deleted my posts or me but it is certainly suspicious that said individual was an admin. I made a public post and shortly thereafter she is no longer a page administrator? I’ve never been a big believer of coincidence. I think I posted 3-4 times over the last month and someone else shared my blog. Two other candidates are sharing their information as well. I think it is great to inform the voters. I am relying on social media, my reputation as an education advocate and word mouth to help me get elected. Grassroots here, friends! I mean they already got me in signs and mailers 1,000 times over. So, I was approved back to the page by the next day but only one post pertaining to my campaign remains. I had also commented on another post where a citizen was asking for more information from candidates. The candidate who posted never responded to the citizen. Today, another citizen asked for goals as well. Now the ENTIRE post is gone! So censorship! (Ironically, there was another post circulating on another Deptford page about an admin not taking down a post about a lynching and in the screenshots the reason given was in regards to NOT censoring someone. I had nothing to do with that, I’m not on that page, and it wasn’t my story to share but someone brought me up in the comments so that’s how I found out. I actually felt for the candidate and reached out because I am told it got heated and ugly.) Wasn’t going to mention it but here we are. To me that is negative and totally non-transparent. As a voter it is also worrisome to me. Pretty mailers with buzz words and stock photos purchased and made by some media or political firm look nice but are shallow (in my opinion). Why would you NOT share your vision and goals? If you post that you are transparent then prove it. Will you be transparent as a board member?
Alas, I didn’t expect do another blog post today but I’m a tad aggravated and very disappointed. Deleting me from a page, censoring and deleting comments is negative and the opposite of transparent. Something to think about…. sigh.
Stacy Gray For Board Of Education 