One thing you never want to do, and I think I am excessively fair to the people around me. Even if I disagree, I give people a lot of latitude in how they live their personal lives. You never want to make me an accomplice to moral depravity, which is precisely what Lakota school board member Lynda O’Conner had done with me in how she handed Darbi Boddy, a fellow school board member and other members of the Lakota staff during the year of 2022. I can deal with disagreements over topics and people who think ultimately differently than I do. But don’t ever think that threatening me in any way possible to hide bad behavior will have some profitable outcome. And that happened on an August afternoon while I was with my family in St. Ignace, Michigan, after spending a long day on Mackinac Island, getting ice cream and trying to enjoy a charming day. I was reminded of just how bad the Lakota situation has been, and still is through an interview with Eric Deters and Darbi’s attorney Robert Croskery. I have a history with both people, so it captured my interest when I saw that they had done an interview together. And in so doing, it reminded me of that August day, and specifically my entire relationship with Lynda O’Conner up to that point, which I would have said was a friend. Early in the process before there were ever tag-alongs, I was trying to help Lynda get a majority vote on the school board because I liked her and felt sorry for her situation, this was before there were any other people who invested in Darbi’s political efforts when it was early, and people were trying to save the world.
I don’t get involved in such things quickly; getting me on someone’s schedule for anything is hard. I’m a very busy person and in these last few years, I have traveled a lot, including that referenced time in St. Ignace where I was on a family trip in our RVs and my phone was lighting up with all this panic from the police report I suggested the Butler County Sheriff’s department look at before anybody jumped to crazy conclusions about the previous superintendent at Lakota schools. I’m not the one who was involved in all the bad behavior, but once I know that such horrendous things are happening in my community, it’s my business. I’ve lived in Butler County longer than most people have been alive, certainly longer than the Skippy types who are always whispering in the ear of Lynda O’Conner from the Rinos for Lakota groups that she would tell me about. But what was obvious to me early in the process as all these forces decided they were going to “get Darbi” much the way those same types of people in politics are trying to “get Trump” you realize that the efforts at personal destruction are to hide the horrendously bad and immoral lifestyles of a lot of people in the Lakota school system. And they feel entitled to destroy the lives of anybody they choose to preserve their lust for moral depravity. I already think public schools are horrible for children, but when there is evidence that the adults are advocating for moral corruption with taxpayer money, making me part of the process, fury is going to be the natural reaction, and everyone should understand that going in, especially Lynda O’Conner who is the current school board president running for re-election. The dirty tricks that have come from her and efforts at personal destruction have been unforgivable. To what degree was obvious in hearing Darbi’s attorney once again on the Bulldog Show with Eric Deters.
So there we were; I had my kids and grandkids in St. Ignace getting ice cream on an excellent double-decker bus converted to a restaurant with a nice view of Lake Huron and Mackinac Island. The word was coming to me as we were distributing those ice creams to the kids, and they were all fighting for my attention in healthy ways, that legal action was headed in my direction by a bunch of scandalous characters who were emerging from that police report as having done some evil activity. And I was not OK with that. That’s when I got a call from Darbi’s attorney, Robert Croskery, which I took reluctantly. At that point, I was tired of talking to lawyers, which interfered with my travel. A few calls were fine, but this was nonstop for several days. So, by the time Robert called, I had my guard up, figuring that it would be a careful conversation in legalese. I was not enthusiastic about talking to him. But by the time we were finished, I realized just how good some people can be, and Robert was undoubtedly one of them. Darbi was, too. Many good people were getting pushed around and bullied over actions that Lynda O’Conner was directly responsible for, and I wasn’t going to turn my back on any of them. Even if I only wanted to read the police report and eat some ice cream with my grandchildren on a nice day in upper Michigan.
And the ridiculousness has continued, but it hasn’t been Darbi that was the problem; it has been an effort led by Lynda O’Conner to hide truly moral depravity behind legal action Lakota thought it could hide behind to intimidate private people into shutting up about it. Once I returned from this trip and read the contents of what the police had reported about their investigation, which was very much watered down to protect the Lakota people, I was infuriated that Lynda could have read the same report and then chosen to be the spokesperson for moral depravity in our community—many of the losers surrounding her, who were advising her very badly I understood. The swingers, cheaters, and personal scum bags who will do anything for the free babysitting service Lakota offers neurotic, lazy parents too busy to care for their children felt entitled to bizarre liberal lifestyles they expected the taxpayers to fund. And I was not OK with it. So, I have supported the only school board member who has been honest with me during all this, Darbi Boddy. As Lynda has been a friend, I will not maintain friendships with people who chose to be spokesmen for moral depravity in my community or anywhere. For the swingers and casual drug users who decide to participate in destructive social lifestyles, that’s a personal choice until you drag me into it. And once I find out about it, I’m then involved. But don’t ever think that I will be intimidated into turning away from that awful behavior, masking itself as some altruistic conservative movement, all this “greater good stuff.” Don’t hire derelict employees; get rid of them when you find out how bad they are. And don’t ever try to make me part of the story. I’m glad that people like Robert Croskery are out there defending good people like Darbi Boddy. And I like seeing that people who supported Darbi are willing to stand up to moral depravity when it certainly wasn’t to their social advantage to do so. But I wouldn’t say I like seeing what Lynda O’Conner has been willing to do when faced with such vast moral depravity. Rather than reject it, she became one of its strongest advocates. And to the way I see things, that is reprehensible.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 