I came across an essay posted by Gregory Humphrey over at Caffeinated Politics a couple of days ago where Humphrey intentionally presented false innuendo about one of the DeForest, WI Trustees, Rebecca Witherspoon, who happens to be my sister.
First the facts, then I’ll follow up with my opinion.
Here’s a screenshot of the paragraph that Humphrey wrote that started this…
I submitted the following comment to this blog essay, here is a screenshot…
The comment I submitted was never allowed to be seen by the public, he almost never allows my comments to be posted, but there was a edited addition to the blog essay paragraph that I quoted above telling me that Humphrey did read the comment before he deleted it. Here’s a screenshot of the edited paragraph with the addition circled in red…
After I read this addition I knew Humphrey had made his choice and I submitted another comment to the blog essay, here’s a screenshot of that comment…
To be 100% transparent, the following are quotes from Rebecca’s actual resignation speech…
“Effective immediately, I am resigning from the Village Board. This decision was not made lightly, but after deep reflection. The most important reason is the sudden death of my husband less than two weeks ago. My priorities have shifted dramatically, and my heart and focus must now be on my family, who need me present more than ever.”
Rebecca went further to explain some other concerns…
“Another reason is that I no longer feel safe serving as a Trustee. “
Why would Rebecca state that she no longer feels safe, here’s why…
“Over the past eight months, the local political environment has taken an alarming turn. During recent campaigns, tactics used by some candidates and supporters included intimidation, harassment, and the circulation of malicious falsehoods about me, my late husband, and others. These were not policy disagreements but deeply personal attacks meant to damage reputations and silence differing viewpoints. Residents who expressed support for me or colleagues with similar views were also targeted with public shaming and pressure campaigns. One resident’s online posts were so offensive and baseless I was compelled to issue a cease-and-desist letter. Even Village staff simply doing their jobs were very publicly and maliciously smeared. The cumulative effect created a hostile, volatile climate that led me to increase security at my home — something I never imagined necessary in DeForest.”
[Briefly Inserting My Opinion: Rebecca not feeling safe after the in-your-face intimidation, harassment, and personal attacks and the fact that her Vietnam Veteran husband had just died and she is now alone is a completely reasonable feeling. Rebecca didn’t make this up, I personally witnessed the intimidation, harassment and personal attacks, it was terrible. Many of the Democrats and progressives in DeForest area flushed their critical thinking skills and adult reasoning straight down the toilet and allowed adolescent styled hate to completely take over their thoughts and words.]
Rebecca then went on to address some other factors regarding the board…
“I am equally troubled by the Board’s lack of leadership in addressing this hostility. Since the vote to remove fluoride from the municipal water supply — a decision I still believe was in our residents’ best interest — rhetoric has only escalated. Yet those in leadership did not publicly denounce the personal attacks or urge their supporters to engage civilly. In some cases, public comments and media interviews even appeared to condone the conduct. This refusal to call out or acknowledge the harm sent a clear message about the new standards of public discourse now accepted in our community.”
Rebecca’s conclusion was this…
“Because of these factors, I no longer feel safe or able to serve effectively as a Trustee.”
Those are the facts.
Now for my opinion.
Again; this resignation took place less than two weeks after the sudden death of her Vietnam Veteran husband and the statement from Humphrey that “she became a widow at some point in this time frame” is how a coward slithers around in the muck trying to falsely show integrity while not undermining their false narrative. Real integrity would have been to delete the entire sentence about Rebecca and post a brief honest apology for the false narrative, but that’s something that’s completely beyond a political hack like Humphrey. I gave Humphrey a chance to show genuine integrity and he chose instead not to undermine his false narrative with the whole truth.
Anyone with the intellect of a 8th grader can read Humphrey’s words “seeing the writing on the wall in letters large enough to read from orbit, exited the board as well” in context with the paragraph it’s contained in literally means “the voters are also going to throw Witherspoon out so she left the board”. This proclamation from the hateful Humphrey is a baldfaced lie, a complete fabrication, a Magic 8 Ball prediction from a partisan bigot – yes bigot. That’s how things are in Humphrey’s little bigoted world, but in the real world facts reign supreme and the facts in this are on the side of reality and they directly rebuke Humphrey’s lying narrative.
Bigot: One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.
Personally, I don’t give a damn what Humphrey’s opinion on fluoride in a public water source is and I don’t give a damn what the personal opinions of this bigoted political scum are regarding my sister or anything else, these things are irrelevant to the point I’m making in this essay, and that point is a matter of genuine dignity and integrity.
Rebecca was very specific when she presented her reasons for resigning the DeForest Board, this is all public information and bigots like Humphrey, and others, reject actual facts in favor of their baldfaced lying propaganda narratives and they try to use their lies to destroy people and silence those they disagree with. This is despicable behavior showing utter moral bankruptcy.
In my opinion; Humphrey hasn’t got a shred of dignity or integrity when it comes to anyone who’s opinions reside politically to the right of Pol Pot. Humphrey’s intolerance makes him bigoted political scum, and if that phrase happens to blow over your head then I can easily narrow that down to a very simple phrase, Humphrey is a hateful piece of shit.
It’s because of morally bankrupt bigots, just like Humphrey, that political discourse is so fucked up in the United States these days.
Thank you, Steve! This person (whom I have never met) has repeated falsehoods about me several times in the past. He along with several in my community have repeated the same false mantra about why I resigned. They ignore the facts because the facts don’t fit their bigoted perspectives and their perspectives are always “right” no matter the actual facts.
During a break at a recent village board meeting, the person whom I served the cease and desist demand to sat and stared at me the entire time I was there and accosted me during that break in the meeting. Despite me telling her four different times to “leave me alone,” it took the Chief of Police to intervene and force her to leave the building. It was disturbing but not surprising. The person is quit fixated on me, which is one of the reasons I got security on my home—who knows what that individual is capable of given her obvious mental health issues and her obsession with me. The funny thing is, I never interact with her, didn’t know her before she started spreading lies about me during the fluoride debate, and to this day I’ve said maybe 10 words to her besides “leave me alone.” It’s sad (and scary) the lengths to which some of these lunatics will go to get their way.