Yes, I love “My Darlings”: The Rise of Kristi Ertel and the benefits of being a “Crazy Cowboy”

Suppose you listen carefully to the pro-Matt Miller faction of Lakota schools. In that case, you’ll hear from their diatribes of insanity a proclamation of no accountability, which is the cornerstone of liberalism and the most destructive element of any public school. After all, that is at the heart of the case with the former Lakota Superintendent who threw the Lakota school board under the bus, who had been defending him as he resigned from the public school under tremendous pressure as of this writing, the 31st of January 2023. Even with all that has been revealed about his bizarre personal lifestyle, he was recently at the Kona Grill at Liberty Center parading around his new girlfriend even as he was in charge of her compensation and benefits, daring school board members who were there to say something about it. On his way out the door, he was clearly setting up a lawsuit to extract more money from the district in the hope of a settlement since the school board always tends to settle cases rather than fight them in court. It would be smart in this case for them to fight this one because there is a lot that would be in their favor; as one of my good friends in all of this effort said in a few good interviews on radio and podcasts recently, Kristi Ertel, attached here for your convenience. For instance, the housekeeper story would be something that would not hold up well in an actual courtroom. Kristi was also one of the speakers at a very contentious school board meeting that took place on 1.23.23, just a week before. At that meeting, things were getting out of control as the pro-union, pro-Matt Miller faction came ready to openly harass the community for passing any kind of judgment on their lives or that of their leader, the outgoing superintendent.

But to drive home the point, I saw lots of feedback in the aftermath from what critics call “my darlings” as the pro-Matt Miller faction revealed their innermost thoughts for analysis. A few of those “darlings,” who don’t mind the title in the least, were Justin and Vanessa Wells, who were drug into this story from the start and are the community members Kristi Ertel mentioned during her interviews, especially on 55 KRC with Brian Thomas. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen every bit of the ugly from the pro-union, pro-big government schools for several decades. But under pressure, they are revealing their weaknesses more blatantly than ever before, which is the feature of a Facebook posting by one of them who showed a lot regarding their mentality of panic at a government education world that is falling apart in front of their faces, an expectation of no accountability for any administrators and staff, and ultimately what they hope kids learn which masks all the bad decisions they’ve made in their own lives. It’s quite a fascinating thing to witness. Vanessa has been the flytrap that has been the soundboard for much of the worst because the assumption has been that if not for Justin and Vanessa, that Matt Miller would still be the superintendent of Lakota schools. There would be no Darbi on the school board, there would be no Tea Party, and they would still have their shield in the superintendent position, hiding so much that is wrong behavior-wise among the employee staff; that is obviously only the tip of the iceberg. 

I can understand why the writer of the Facebook post was so upset with Justin and why he referred to me as a “crazy cowboy.” He also indicated that I was “little Richie,” and he said similar things about Justin. In private meetings, the Facebook guy would find out that we’re not so little, but it’s not what he said that reflects reality, but the mind of the liberal in general that is so interesting. Sure, these radicals are upset that there is a vast network of supporters at Lakota schools that runs all up and down the hierarchy of society, and they are supporting Darbi Boddy as there have been organized efforts to remove her from the school board. They are not used to anybody fighting back against them and are upset about it. And how they express that frustration is like some drunken loser at a football game who thinks they could play better as an armchair quarterback as they stuff beer and hot dogs down their throats trying to shape reality to their limited sentiment. The attempt to paint their enemies as “little” is to help them build up the courage to say anything at all because the position they are defending is indefensible. And to fit it into their minds, they must diminish the concept of opposition into something they believe they can manage until reality confirms otherwise. So long as it’s just a Facebook posting, they can easily believe they have a fighting chance. But also with such rantings is fear of the opposition’s significance. Yes, I have a lot of “darlings” in the Butler County community, especially on Lakota issues. And I am proud of them all. I’ve been laying out the game plan for beating these antagonizers in public schools for years, and it has really taken until recently for people to start listening and fighting back.   And now that people have seen what Darbi Boddy is doing on the school board, they are seeing how to do the right things as a school board member. If people like these Matt Miller supporters are upset, that’s great because it means that the real need in public schools is getting addressed. 

As Kristi Ertel indicated in her great interviews, the reason for all this is to protect kids. I think of these government schools as dangerous and expensive. But they produce way too many employees within their system like Matt Miller, and it is under pressure like we have seen over the release of his divorce records that reveal just how bad it is. And the anger at “my darlings” tells us so much about what those real dangers are. The position among the left-leaning supporters of public education, to begin with, is to fight for no accountability, no judgment, and no consequences for bad behavior. What the supporters of Matt Miller are advocating for, and are frustrated with, is that the public, the Darbi Boddy supporters, the team behind the website Protect Lakota Kids.com, and even vast political support that has taken a stand in ways nobody is used to, have come together at the joint opportunity to protect kids from the dangers of adults who want no consequence lives, then expect to teach that to our children. Then there is the fear of expectation that their jobs may not be so secure after all and that personal choices might make them unemployable. Because if you really dig behind the façade of all the tough talk, you see a group of people who know they are in the extreme minority who puff themselves up like peacocks to look much more extensive than they really are, which are why they fantasize that their enemies are so much smaller than they are in real life, to fit their world view, who worry that everything they ever believed about employment and social safety nets might be wrong, and irrelevant. And to maintain that fantasy, Matt Miller had to resign, as all those followers will have to follow to maintain the same illusion. And they are mad that there are people out there judging them. But of course, they will because after all the smoke clears, a parent’s fundamental task is to provide children with the best opportunities for a decent future. And they won’t get that opportunity if what they learn in public schools, which is a reality we can’t ignore, to live life with no accountability, then we have destroyed those poor kids before they ever get a chance at life. And that would be the worst crime of all. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

2 thoughts on “Yes, I love “My Darlings”: The Rise of Kristi Ertel and the benefits of being a “Crazy Cowboy”

  1. Justin Rhine is a primitive jobless anarchist who lost all of Vanessa’s money with an investment in the worst-performing cryptocurrency. For this and many other reasons, Vanessa will never be on the Lakota School Board.

    Like

    1. I think there are other people who can be on the school board other than Vanessa. She and her husband have found a good role for themselves, that they wouldn’t be able to do if they were on the school board. So that freedom for Vanessa is more important than a technical role as an elected representative. I would advise her not to run, to do more of what she has been, and let other people handle the more traditional roles of education reform.

      Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.