As was reported here two months ago, Ron Price, one of the sixteen candidates - including myself - who ran for Board of Education here in Rockingham County this past November, was caught stealing campaign signs belonging to U.S. House incumbent Brad Miller on the night before the November 7th election. The story only got out about noon on Election Day and it wasn't very well known until that evening, well after most people had gone to the polls. Price admitted to Reidsville Police that he had stolen the signs. He even went on live television that night and admitted that he did it. And then he wound up coming in fifth place in the election: enough to get a seat on the school board.
You can read up on the case if you go through the posts from November and December 2006. A lot of people, and I was one of them, called for Price to give up his seat: Price is too morally tainted to sit on the board and set an example for the children. He was sworn in along with the other new members on December 11th (click to read how I addressed the issue that night in my own unique way).
Well, today the legal case against Ron Price apparently reached its conclusion: the charges were dismissed. Ron Price, admitted thief, walked away free and clear.
Here's the story that's being reported at The Reidsville Review.
So unless the petition to the state school board that's currently circulating around the county has some effect (which at this point is highly doubtful), Price is going to continue serving on the school board.
Somebody told me over a month ago that if and when he got off the hook - and I think most people expected that to happen - that Price was going to consider himself "a double winner" because he not only won a seat in the election, but he "beat the rap". And then he would really pour on the cockiness.
Doesn't look like it took very long for that to happen. From the above-linked story at the Review website:
Price said he has learned from the sign incident."I've learned who my opponents are and who will work with me"...?"I've learned who my opponents are and who will work with me," he said.
I have never heard an elected official in this county say anything with the condescension and egotism that Price has done here.
Jesus taught us to "love your enemies". Ron Price, self-professed "Christian", has now boasted that he's keeping an enemies list. I'm assuming that my name is toward the top of the roll. Especially after all the creative ways I came up with to poke fun at the absurdity of the situation, like "The Rockingham County Star Chamber" and "But Mommy it's okay to steal...".
Price is right though: I wouldn't work with him. Because Ron Price is part of the rot at work in the timbers of this country. I count myself as one of those working to keep things in this land from completely falling apart, however daunting that task seems. To work with someone like Price, now that I've seen him for the kind of person he really is, would disgrace and destroy the efforts I've made in my dedication toward those ideals.
I think it's now pretty safe to openly state that Ron Price and Christopher Knight are at diametric opposites so far as what it means to serve other people.
I do not hate Ron Price. I would wish no harm to come to him. But I now take it as a badge of honor that he considers me to be his enemy.
That's all I really know to say about this. For now I'm going back to my sabbatical from blogging, so that I can focus on several other things going on in my life right now. It was only because I'd written so much about this case already that I felt obligated to return here and post about what looks to be the conclusion of the matter.
In spite of all this, I still intend to be a regular attendant of the school board meetings.
Who knows, I may even have more to say during the public comments portion of the meetings...
