The Washington Post published Michael Miller's Immigrant kids fill this town’s schools. Their bus driver is leading the backlash. early Sunday evening. It's a must read.
By Monday, the story was picked up around the region, with the Forum Communications chain newspapers shifting the emphasis with headlines like Resettled migrants pack schools, divide Minnesota town. At City Pages, Mike Mullen did a quick take on the bus driver in Washington Post profiles Worthington's anti-refugee bus driver.
We'll take a look at bus driver Don Brink in a bit, but since Mullen has ably stepped up to the plate on the bus driver, unsuccessful 2018 school board candidate and former Worthington Citizens for Progress Committee co-chair and primary spokesperson, we'll start with the current WCPC chair cited in the article, Dave Bosma.
What Miller reported about Bosma
We'll get back to the pig farmer-bus driver in a bit, but here's what Miller wrote about truck driver Dave Bosma:
“They shot for the moon,” said Dave Bosma, who transports livestock for a living. He voted for the referendum the first time around only to join Brink and others in opposing it in 2016. They called themselves Worthington Citizens for Progress, raising money door-to-door and distributing “Vote No” fliers at the town’s annual turkey race. . . .
Members of Citizens for Progress says their concerns are purely financial at a time when farmers are already hurting from flood-damaged crops and the trade war with China.
“On a weekly basis I’m told I hate children,” said Bosma, 37, whose kids go to a private Christian school. “I’m just a young guy trying to make a living for myself and put food on the table for my family. I look at the bank account at end of the month and say, can I afford another $200 in property taxes this year?”
Here's Bosma's reaction to the piece on his Facebook page:
Here's the full text:
I talked with this reporter at length between January and August about numerous examples of systemic racism in nobles county.
I researched footnoted and hand-delivered examples from all levels of leadership, within several different entities in Nobles County all the way down to individual instances of the type that were displayed in this report.
The reporter agreed with my assessment on them and could have very well written a college thesis level report that would have done some real good not only in Nobles County but possibly elsewhere.
Instead he went the easy route and decided to write somthing that belongs in the tabloids and target a retiree who says cringy things.
I won't bother to respond here any further because it would likely be fruitless.
But if anyone wants to have adult conversation about real causes, to real problems, and real solutions for them, I'm sure you can figure out how to reach me.
Well, there you go. Don't quote the leaders of the opposition to the referendums, or report on what one observes. But there's more about Bosma that isn't in the article.
Bosma served as Nobles County Republican chair in the recent past, a fact noted by then-congressional candidate Jim Hagedorn in 2014:
In 2016, the Worthington Globe reported in Huge turnout at Nobles County Republican caucus:
As voting wound down, Nobles County Republican Party Chair Dave Bosma acknowledged the impatience expressed by several in attendance.
“I never thought we’d have this many people,” Bosma began. “... This is a miniscule little bit of impatience that we are having to endure tonight by doing this (caucusing). I’m actually kind of proud that we are doing this. Maybe this will start a fire within us at the local level. … Maybe tonight is the night.”
“I just want to thank everyone,” Bosma told the crowd. “I don’t think the Republican party has had this much fever since I was a kid. I’ve never seen it like this, and I am excited. I really am.”
Not a naif truck driver, but an experienced political volunteer.
As for Bosma's characterization of Brink as "a retiree who says cringy things," that's a peculiar thing to say about the person who held the chair of the group one now leads. Indeed, given the cringy things that stroll out of Jim Hagedorn's mouth, one might suspect Bosma is attracted to these types.
Assess his Facebook page timeline on your own. His headnote on the shared content just before his disappointment with the WaPo:
Government schools are murderers of liberty.
If you involve yourselves with them you are part of the problem.
We're surprised Bosma ever voted for a "government school" bond, as Miller reported.
More about the bus driver
While Bosma dismissed Brink as a retiree who says "cringy things," it's clear that he's not a stereotyped crotchety old guy left behind by the world.
In 2018, Brink ran for school board, coming in last in a field of six. The Worthington Globe reported in Two more file for District 518 board vacancies:
Two more candidates have filed for Independent School District 518 Board of Education vacancies.
Don Brink and Tom Prins filed before Tuesday’s deadline. Brink was formerly the Worthington Citizens for Progress Committee co-chair and primary spokesperson. Prins is currently the WCPC co-treasurer.
Brink talked about himself in Six candidates seeking District 518 board of education seats:
Don Brink
Occupation: Farmer, District 518 bus driver
Residence: Rushmore
Why are you seeking this position? To help alleviate the overcrowding of our school district in a fiscally responsible way. To bring a fresh approach to the board with some new leadership. Over the last two years I have attended 10 or more school board meetings to gain knowledge on the overcrowding topic.
What experience would you bring to the position if elected? I was a postal worker for the Worthington Post Office and retired at 20 years of service. I am a farmer and father of four children. I have served on the Rushmore elevator board and currently drive school bus for District 518.
What is your vision for the future of District 518? The vision is bright for District 518 if we, as a community, can all come together to support the kids.
Additional comments: I will listen to all sides and options presented to the school board to help make the best decision for the kids of District 518 and our rural community.
Brink appears to enjoy a good reputation as a farmer. In 2015, the Globe reported in Residents air concerns over odors in Rushmore:
It was standing-room only Wednesday night at the Nobles County Public Works facility in Worthington, where a public hearing was conducted on a proposed swine nursery barn within a mile of Rushmore’s city limits.
Nearly all of the comments about bad odor wafting through town weren’t directed at the family farming operation seeking a permit to construct a second barn, but rather at a cattle producer seated on the county’s Planning Commission.
Michael Hoffman appeared before the commission Wednesday evening requesting a conditional use permit to construct an 82- by 205-foot swine nursery barn in the northwest quarter of Section 29, Dewald Township. The barn is proposed to be built just east of an existing nursery barn on the site. The farm site is owned by Hoffman’s in-laws, Donald and Kris Brink. . . .
Planning Commission member Mike Hoeft said there seemed to be a consensus among attendees that the Brink-Hoffman operation has been diligent and responsible, and no one in the audience took exception to that statement. . .
One comment at City Pages objected to farm subsidies, yet Brink's operation has received under $10,000 in conservation subsidies for participation in the Conservation Reserve Program, according to the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidies Database.
In short, neither gentleman seems outside of the conservative norm in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa, although neither has given a reportable amount to state-level candidates, according to a search of the contributor database at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
Nor do we find any federal campaign contributions from either gentleman in the database at the Federal Election Commission, not even to poor Jim Hagedorn.
In short, whether making "cringy remarks" or not, these guys are leaders in the local starve-the-government-schools group.
For more on the divisive consultant this group has brought to Worthington to help with that effort, check out Enemy of Public Schools: How one man has spent 25 years thwarting bond money for rural districts from APM Reports.
Photo: Don Brink in his hog barn, via the Washington Post. Something stinks here and it's not the pigs. Try saying "Good Morning" to all children riding your bus, dude.
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