Ethical Conflict: Confronting Corruption *Updated 5-5-19

I was thinking about 2 days ago on the drive home. "There's soooo many issues and fires that need to be put out in this country alone. And each person is standing around with a bucket of water. When one of us tries to throw our water the the flames not much changes. As a group, we always make more of an impact. But how do you call out abuses and direct enough people's attention to even look at an issue to begin putting the fire out?" 

It's frustrating seeing people fixate and obsess over what Angelic Houston did last week verses things like Human Trafficking. Not to say Barbara Streisand and Houston defending/making excuses for  child rapists is ok, but it's also nothing in comparison to the 2 men in separate child rape cases that were found guilty and got 0 jail time -all in the past week. You can obsess over a tree or you can look at the huge, surmounting forest. 

Enter my dilemma: 

I blogged about a conversation I had with a woman who had been a guidance counselor in Denver Public Schools for over 20 years who told me of the horrific things going on while Michael Bennet was a superintendent overlooking the school system. Allegations include: 

#1 Gag orders were often placed on teachers and staff when instances of rape were reported. She told me two instances: A janitor raped a teenage girl and was quietly sent off to another state. A student raped a teacher and a gag order was placed on all the staff including her so she couldn't bring it to light. The student was then transferred to a different school. To what extent Bennet knew or instituted this practice I'm not sure. They way it was told to me insinuated that instances of sexual assault were swept under the rug to help maintain his image as a great superintendent with no reports of those sort of crimes. 

#2 Michael Bennet stood to financially gain from charter schools. He systematically imposed policies that degraded the public school system in order to garner favor over to acclaimed charter schools. He: 

-Got rid of tenure so teachers could be fired regardless of how long they'd served in that position and created a pattern of teachers being fired after 2 to 3 years -leading to inexperienced teachers being the majority in schools. 

-He tried to get rid of school counselors. He flat-out told them they were useless and sought to end their positions. Counselors are essential to schools because they guide students towards figuring out a path to college, which courses to take, and often intercede when instances of domestic violence and abuse arise in the children's homes. 

-Nepotism. There were many faculty that he hired that were buddies of his and were not qualified for those positions. On top of that there was an instance where a principal took $25,000 worth of gym equipment and instead of giving it to the athletic department he gave to to his friend who was opening a gym. When this news came to light the principal was fired -only to be rehired 2 years later. He then did the same thing Again... 

-Racism. This actually goes beyond Bennet and is a bigger issue within the Denver Public School system and many other schools across the country in general. Finances are often diverted from predominantly black, impoverished schools to more affluent, white neighborhoods. 

As an aside, I was also told, Bennet's dad was a judge and knew a lot of rich, influential people and that's how he got his position as superintendent. He had no previous experience to justify being put in a position like that. Basically he was born with a "silver spoon in his mouth". 

So what do you do? 

Last time I blogged about all this and a couple months later Bennet ran for Colorado State Senator. I wrote someone into the ballot knowing it wouldn't matter. He won. 

Today he just announced his candidacy for president. I feel like at this point we need to insist on and actively seek out transparency and accountability from political leaders and those seeking positions. 

And I know he won't win and doesn't stand a chance, but I want to lay all this out for Propublica who I follow on Twitter. If nothing else these allegations should be investigated. Thanks to the internet and journalist groups like Propublica we sort of stand a chance as individuals to get the word out a little more. 

At the same time I don't have much klout on Twitter these days. After years of avoiding it because it made me depressed I decided to delete my old account and create a new one. I'm focusing on adding artwork and positive, spiritual reflections to the land of Twitterites. 

I'll see how getting this information out goes. 

*Update: Contacted Propublica via email as a suggestion for lead to look into. 

Update 5-5-19: Haven't heard back. I get the sense that this isn't something they're going to look into. I think they think I'm a Republican spewing false rumors at a Democratic candidate or something. At least I tried and I put it out there though. It's something I've definitely struggled with in the past. And maybe at some point in the future this all will come to light some other way.