| It's days like this that I wish I had never retired my "Creep" posts over at the B'birds. Yes, it was uncool to pick on deranged letter-writers, but some well-deserving targets - Dallas Erickson, Ralph Nader and Bill Napoli, and Eric Dondero - got nailed, and it was good.
So today, I'd like to haul out the "creep" label out of storage for Ravalli County Commissioner candidate Jim Shreve. Not because he's "Fiscally Conservative," self-identified supporter of "Capitalism and Free Markets" and "Personal Property Rights," but because he wrote this on his campaign site...
I have always been committed along the way to learn, listen and help people around me.
..and then did this:
The original photograph was a group picture of the students, teachers and staff in the schoolyard of Florence-Carlton Elementary school, taken five years ago for the school yearbook by former Florence-Carlton trustee Rick Paris. The altered image is a composite with a superimposed and smiling Shreve and a banner which appears to be held by the students that reads "Vote Jim Shreve for Commissioner"...
When Florence-Carlton superintendent John McGee contacted Shreve on Tuesday and complained that the district felt it was improper to use a photo of students for political purposes, McGee said Shreve refused to take down the image.
Saying the photograph had been "changed and manipulated" and was used without the school district's knowledge or consent, McGee said he explained to Shreve in no uncertain terms that "the students in our school district do not publicly support the candidacy of any candidate for political office."
Paris, who served as a trustee from 2007-2008 and quit after claiming that the district finances were being mismanaged, said the district has no right to dictate how the photograph is used.
"It's my picture," Paris said. "So I can do anything I want with it."
Teachers and parents of students in the picture wrote a letter to Shreve, in which they expressed concern "about the use of our school children to further one's political agenda," and said it was bad form to "insinuate that the employees, parents, or students of the school you represent support your candidacy."
A complaint was brought to Dennis Unsworth, the completely overworked and underpaid commissioner of Political Practices for Montana, who said he couldn't do anything about the photo because it wasn't "about the disclosure of campaign finances."
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I understand the law, but I'm not the person who's going to break the law" knowingly, Shreve said.
Shreve pointed out that the photograph of the elementary students had been altered in a similar fashion last year to campaign for a teacher the school administration was planning to cut loose.
Nobody cried foul then, Shreve said.
"And I'd say, if (it's not a crime) now, then I want the people who are creating this issue to stop it and maybe even apologize to me," Shreve said.
Got that? Shreve appropriated the image of school-children for his political campaign...and then demands an apology from the parents and teachers who asked him to take the image down!
But...maybe he's right. Maybe we do owe him an apology. So...here goes...and sorry if it's a bit rough, I haven't done this in a while.
Jim Shreve: I am heartily sorry that you are such an *sshole. |
