Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud

~ Randy Seaver

Every voice matters. Even the voices that have a hard time crafting their message.

As my hometown of Biddeford braces for another political season, one of our city’s mayoral candidates has opted to take his message to cyberspace by starting a blog. The blog seems intended as a platform to champion the plight of the under-served and to highlight this candidate’s economic development plan: a push to “legalize weed.”

If nothing else, Karl Reed, Jr. has a unique strategy for ousting the incumbent:

He’s running a write-in campaign, otherwise known as a sure-fire way to place fourth in a three-way race.

Okay, so once you get past the horrid sentence structure, the author’s inability to spell or the grammar that would cause a third-grade English teacher to set herself on fire,  Reed’s intent should not be ignored by those who serve their community. See: Game Over, The Rent is too high.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In his initial post, Reed paints a sympathetic tale of those who are often ignored at the monthly Rotary Club breakfast meeting or the Chamber of Commerce “after hours” event.

He is speaking from the heart, a place more politicians should visit. He is a self-appointed champion of those without a voice, those who are too often discounted . . . those whom many of us ignore blissfully.

Karl worries that our public education system too often fails the kids on the edge of society. He worries that the people he encounters every day on the street may no longer be able to cope under the weight of a dismal economy and a lack of jobs.

These are important messages, an amateur-hour version of the Occupy Wall Street theme: full of sound and fury, completely aimless and an unyielding rage against “the man.”

It’s too easy to ignore it unless you have lived it.

Despite my sympathy and appreciation of his perspective, his rage and angst give me serious pause. Thus, I have no problem confessing that I will sleep better tonight, knowing his name will not be on the ballot in November.

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Published by Randy Seaver

Randy Seaver is a veteran journalist who has been covering news and politics in the city of Biddeford, Maine for nearly three decades. He may be contacted at randy@randyseaver.com

15 thoughts on “Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud”

  1. Karl, after reading your latest rant, the thing that comes to mind first is a scene in Adam Sandler’s movie “Billy Madison.” After a drawn out, pointless, moronic response in the “Academic Decathlon,” Billy’s principal turn to him and says ” Billy, that may be one of the most insanely, idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you ever close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is no dumber for having listened to.”

    It is quite comical how you even try to dismiss Mayor Casavant’s experience. Yes, Alan is in his first term as Mayor, but he is in his FOURTH term in the State House. Before that Alan was elected NINE consective times to the city council. If I am not mistaken, he has the longest tenure of any councilor in the history of Biddeford. (By the way, he has never lost a political race to date ;))

    You try to compare your political experience to anything close to that? You stood on sidewalks and signs for the Mayor of Salem and rallied for John Kerry!?! What does that even mean. Please, Karl, take off your cape and put down the weed. You are just another hit away from smoking yourself completely retarded.

    You also bring up education. Alan “only has a Masters of Arts.” You claim to be pursuing your Phd in Physics, but I would love to hear where you got your Masters and BS in and where. (Not that I need to laugh any harder at you)

    I wont even begin to ask about your novel and screenplay, because at this point I am sure you have a pet unicorn you have to go feed, so I wont try and take anymore of your time.

    Good luck! You will need it! I bet you don’t even get as many votes as your Daddy did on his complete political flop!!!!

    P.S. Randy, I am sure my rant is littered with typos as well, but I am a mechanical engineer, not a writer. 🙂

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  2. Thank you, Phyllis for asking me. Although the Mayor has a decent resume, it isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. Being a teacher does not prepare you for being mayor. Being a Representative is better. Although, last I knew, Alan only had a Masters of Arts. Not the same thing as a having your doctorate. Unless he just got his Phd. In which, congrats on finally achieving your 40+ year old dream.

    If you want to know what I think makes me qualified?

    . I’ve been involved in politics my whole life. I have been raised on politics since birth. I’ve rallied for John Kerry and I’ve campaigned for a former Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts. Stanley Usovich. I held signs for him. Which ousted the former mayor, who was corrupted. I was involved with youth politics and I’ve been a writer for years. I’m very opinionated about federal politics, among other things. In high school I worked with disabled and mentally challenged, which makes me very adept at dealing with politicians. That is not a fair comparison. The disabled and mentally challenged are a lot nicer and easier to handle.

    I think this is a good pedigree for politics.

    What about running a city?
    I started the E-bay division to fund Imagine Helping People In Need. Which I started by myself for them. That was used to fund my parents non-profit. Even going so far as to sell my own stuff to keep it going. Which I think gives me a great understand of how to run a tight ship.

    Education

    I’ve aggressively pursued education on my own terms since I was a child. I’m what is referred to as an autodidact. I got accepted into a top tier university but did not want to put myself into massive financial debt. That school is the University of New England. Instead, I’ve decided to pursue my goal of getting my Ph.D in Physics by attending a state school. I don’t think Physics will give me much of an edge as a political contender but I love science.

    I’ve also written a novel and a screenplay, on top of helping and being on set of a film shot in Biddeford. Running a movie and a city are not all that different.

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  5. “One also speaks, however, without knowing grammar, and he who speaks without knowing it actually does have a grammar and speaks according to rules, even though he is not conscious of them.”-Immanuel Kant “Logic.”

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  6. Karl is the sterling example of “low tide in the gene pool”. Some of us are meant to lead, some are meant to follow, and some are meant to serve as a warning to others. Making a case for change in city government solely through whining about how under-served or oppressed you and your people are is not a winning strategy. A vision and some out-of-the-box ideas would grow your base faster than brow beating and being venomous. Trying to be a standard-bearer for mouth breathers does not make you a leader, just a buffoon. This is not the WWE.

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    1. Nowhere did I whine about how oppressed myself or others might be. I pointed out the bullshit and cut through it. I have, according to Randy’s calender, a month until elections. I’m slowly building up until the 5th of November. One blog a day to get my voice heard. .You’re right, politics are not professional wrestling. Politics make professional wrestling seem like civilized conflict resolution.

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      1. You obviously feel driven to raise an awareness about how the city is led and how you see things differently. That’s a good thing since too many people fail to get involved at all or lend their voice to the issues at hand. I commend you for that. I do have a question for you though, Mr Reed. In the field of candidates running for various offices in this election we have educators, business owners, activists, legislators, entrepreneurs and even a doctor. So I am asking you what experience or leadership you feel you can bring to the table as a write-in candidate for Mayor? This does not suggest that you have none. Everyone seems eager to discount you and not afford you the time to promote yourself and let us learn more about you. Seems like we should allow you to do that in all fairness. So, the question remains. Explain to us why you are a viable candidate for Mayor. Thanks for reading this.

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  7. Yeah Randy are you afraid of the dumbed down voters strength or what is the new term “low information voters”. We are in a neighborhood near you. And in closing, Rotary meets every week.

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  8. Hey Karl, I mean anonymous, I just read your blog using the link above. Go back and read it again yourself to see why Randy makes the spelling and grammar comments he did. It was atrocious English but I got most of it. I live in Westbrook and your voice sounds like many here in my area. Most who have not been involved in the system or feel they have been ignored think any government is imperial or doesn’t care.
    Putting out generalities in the form or solutions doesn’t work. Come up with specifics.

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    1. I made no secret as to who I was. I Clearly pointed out who I was as opposed to signing up to comment. Again, Randy is using personal attacks to discredit what I’m saying. This is fallacious thinking. You are being fallacious as well. I challenge you to point out the atrocious use of English! You cannot. I can say anything I want as well and it could not be true. The difference is, I can point to evidence and you are shit out of luck. I can point out your errors as evidence to back up my claim. If you two could do the same, it would prove you actually knew what your were talking about. You also make blanket statements and generalize. Not the hallmark of a logical thinker. One last thing about Randy, he shouldn’t talk about errors and make similar ones himself. I can point his out, though. Typos are just that, mistakes. I’m sorry, are you infallible? No, you’re not. To err is human. I’d rather make mistakes in my writing and admit to it, rather than make fallacies in my thinking. Shows I can think. Can you say the same?

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  10. Glad to see I’m on your mind and you are pimping my page out. Which is great for me. I’m sorry but I always did well in English. I get all A’s and B’s. I have the evidence to prove it. I’m sorry if I pissed you off. Guess I am doing my job. Glad to see how you paraphrase it and didn’t even bother to do the research. No wonder you are retired as a journalist. You cannot even fact check. Microsoft word and Strunk & White disagree with you on my grammar, though. I’m even more elated that you cannot understand my own use of irony. If you’re going to come at it, maybe try not bringing a knife to a gun fight.

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