Outspoken Scott Williams

For several years I have conducted an attempted conversation with Ione’s Scott Williams. In the context of a discussion the of state capital anti lock down demonstration on the FB page entitled “District 2 Politics, Suggestions, and Information” he  made the following statement: “Kind of like the next incarnation of the Tea Party, which was actually a continuation of the John Birch Society, which may have been an extension of the KKK. Timing is about right, as is philosophy.” Since I like challenging, or in this case perhaps, impossible tasks...I will attempt to educate Scott Williams and counter his ignorant remarks.

 Firstly, there were two KKK’s. The first was a self defense organization of locals during the reconstruction period. Many historians consider it to have been a valid, necessary and responsible organization. The second KKK is the vile anti-black, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic organization with remnants still around today. They were morally empowered by progressive Woodrow Wilson’s membership that many claim lead to the Tulsa riots of 1921. Many white people drove to the ghetto, risking their lives, to save black people and then hide them in their homes. How much credit are they given in the current left wing renditions of history? The Klan blacklisted them along with threats of murder.

The John Birch Society was an upper class reaction and seemingly WASP group that included leaders of dubious distinction such as the Koch brothers,along with very credible people such as William Buckley, Jr. He was appalled by the prejudice against his Catholicism and also credited by many as opposing anti-Semitism among conservatives. But whatever one thinks of the Birch Society, their calls such as exit the United Nations has proved pubescent.

The Tea Parties were a mass, populist uprising to the Obama tyranny. Muslim appeasement, anti-Christian maneuvers, under the table but devastating changes in government procedures such as changing the question on the citizenship exam from freedom of religion (American style) to freedom of worship (Soviet style), severe over regulation including usurpation of not granted powers best exhibited with the Pebble Bay EIR, politicizing government agencies into Gestapo type organizations including the Justice Dept., increasing the Federal deficit to unconscionable levels,and many more that I can only list if I decide to allow myself to get sick. Larry Elder, a black man, was a Tea Party leader in Los Angeles while Mark Meckler, a Jew, was a founder of Northern California’s Tea Party Patriots. This is quite different than the Birch demographic and a radical opposite of the Klan.

There is vast diversity among those right of center as there is among those left of center. To believe otherwise is not only ignorant, but also dangerous because it precludes understanding, responsible thought and concomitant, sensible proposals.

Just prior to the above in the same discussion I answered that corrosive comment with:  “I’ve said this before about you and I will repeat it. You seem to take an 1890’s muck raking novel and blindly apply it to Amador County as a template. A few years ago you commented that Pine Grove being in three supervisorial districts is likely the result of gerrymandering. A few decades ago, Pine Grove setup a Community Services District to manage the new group septic system. By custom and probably by law,a Community Services District has to be within one supervisorial district. (That’s called commonsense and functional democracy) The group septic system is good for the environment (remember that there is a creek behind the shops on the south side of Hwy 88) and good for small businesses by relieving them of separate septic systems and their maintenance. It was a consensus project with no known opposition.
But you don’t check before you speak. You once made the comment that there are plenty of jobs in Amador County based on a cursory look at the Ledger. If you actually read those ads, you would notice that they are almost all specialized and affect a tiny number of possible applicants. You have opposed the Newman Ridge project based on your statement: “All that pollution for just nine jobs” I read the complete EIR, that pollution is minimal to nonexistent. How about some facts? The average skilled wage job supports two and a half people. Plus the increased retail employment and sales tax revenue. How about the andesite produced for stronger roadbeds? The recycling of older roadbed materials? The cost lowering nearness of hot mix that will help repair our roads at no additional cost? The property tax revenue to the County? The needed traffic on our railroad to sustain it for the future? To oppose Newman Ridge is a dead wish for our County. You make (or post) snap judgments rather than think critically. I may not be as vociferous as some commentators here, but I can be just as upset.

Did you support the candidate that opposed Brian Oneto in the last election? I went to every forum/debate of that election. That candidate had no rapport with the audience and made no eye contact with them. She frightened me as a possible elected official; totally separate from her various positions.”

He never responded with direct statements to any of my posting nor has he justified his unsubstantiated statements .In 2016, I posted here: “Scott Williams, Citizen Extraordinaire."

Over the course of many local Facebook discussions I have become familiar with a denizen of Ione named Scott Williams. He writes well and seems intelligent. But all his statements and responses have a cookie cutter quality. After a while they become banal; it’s as if I could write his dialogue in less time than it takes to read it. Then a possible explanation occurred to me, he has read too many 1890’s muckraking novels and has applied them carte blanche, as a template, upon Amador County. 

He comments resonant to that prior reality with often very little attachment to the present day. He has stated that our county supervisors lack accountability. Has he seen them interact with constituents’ during the open comment period at board meetings? Has he emailed or called any of them?  His insults to two of our supervisors were so unwarranted that a scripted agenda seems the only answer. He asserted that the supervisorial districts were gerrymandered without any factual basis. He questions the validity of ag zoning around Ione related to Newman Ridge while ignoring the obvious that the General Plan is general. Ag zoning around a town is a holding zoning. To rezone for industry or dense residential would unfairly raise the value of one parcel over another. The taxing consequences would be akin to an inverse condemnation.  Overzoning has been a frequent and sometimes accurate criticism of the environmentalists.

He feels that predatory power companies are the reasons behind resistance to solar. While that is true he neglects the rest of the equation which includes big labor opposing rooftop solar in favor of mega projects with Davis-Beacon style wages and sometimes environmental damage. But if you question his answers he will usually attack rather than discuss. Pushing his beliefs far outweigh finding a solution. He claims that Amador County is secretly ruled by an old boy’s network. Probably it appears that way to his perception. When I moved here as a total stranger I was warmly welcomed by the old timers. Probably that was because I liked it the way it was when I moved here and didn’t enter in an attack mode telling others how to live or govern themselves.”

Along with the above history, there is much more to the recent FB discussions with Scott that merit rebuttal, but I’ve made my point.

Note: The movie, Birth of a Nation (about the first Klan), is considered by many as the anthem of the current Klan. But remember that D.W. Griffith was a liberal who founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin to be free from the studio system.  The film historian I studied under, who wrote the now standard text on Hollywood history, said Birth of a Nation was edited into the released version against Griffith’s wishes.  I don’t claim to be the final word on this, but it’s certainly worth further study. Griffith’s next film, Intolerance, was according to some a response to what he felt was unjust criticism of Birth of a Nation.

Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett