100th Anniversary of the Hillsborough NAACP

Last Friday evening at St Lawrence Parish, my wife and I attended a dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the local chapter of the NAACP. The dinner was MC-ed by Delia Riley of local TVs ABC ActionNews. Outback Steakhouse cooked dinner. This evening was a wonderful time for everyone…and a great history lesson for many of us.

I will say upfront that my wife and I were seated at the table bought by the Hillsborough County Republican Party. And I must tell you, in this house of Democrats, not once did we feel uncomfortable.

Well, maybe once………

Simply by chance, our table and/or my seat was immediately next to the table purchased by our school district. Seated there were Superintendent Elia, Deputy Superintendent Dan Valdez, Asst Superintendent for Facilities Cathy Valdes, along with Board members Jack Lamb, Doretha Edgecomb, and Madam Employer X.

During the pre-dinner reception, I chatted at length with Dr. Lamb, spoke briefly with Mrs. Elia, got into some golf chit-chat with Dan Valdes, and qave Ms. Edgecomb a big hug and kiss.

As always, Ms. Edgecomb is the ultimate in professional dress and manner. Lamb is mr. everman and speaks to everyone with equal energy and eye contact. He reminds me a bit of former Tampa mayor Dick Greco.

As my wife now points out, Madam Employer X has become a stalker of sorts. At any event where we are at and she is at, Madam Employer X will do anything and talk to anyone to get within 5 feet of us. I can’t figure out if she is trying to over-hear our conversations, simply trying to get our attention to show us she’s not intimidated by my comments….or simply trying to prove that her inappropriate dress code remains in tact. The whole thing is kinda creepy. I’d make “Adams Family” comments here, but I’m a sensitive kind of guy. My own tender feelings have been too often hurt by Lurch-type associations.

Besides, I should not advance personal attacks here and now. I should stick with reality, and perhaps my reader’s general outrage, that Madam Employer X spent over $50,000 of our taxpayers money in the past five years traveling around the country for on-the-job training.

Thank God all other school board member had more integrity…..and common sense and professional judgment. Even April Griffin and former Tribune chief editor Rosemary Goudreau could not defend her debacle.

posted by admin @ 6:10 PM