Mary Kinda Contrary: Episode 8 – I Was Targeted By Proud Boys and the Far Right After Speaking at a School Board Meeting and You’re Next – Part 1 of 3
On Election Day 2024, Mary Lemanski is hanging out live on Facebook and sharing some of the things she has been through for the past 3 years after speaking at a school board meeting with Proud Boys present and being targeted by them afterwards. Part 1 of 3.
Transcription
It’s Mary Lemanski, and this is the Mary Kinda Contrary podcast. And, um, I just want to, um, to say hi to everyone and see how your day’s going. I don’t know if you guys, it
looks like you can. Um, so drop a, drop a comment. Um, if you voted and I’d be interested in knowing who you voted for and why, if you are. Comfortable sharing that information. Um, I’m just decided to go live and I really, um, again, no fanfare, no music before this podcast starts because I really just want to get down to business and talk about things.
And, um, I, I see that there’s about an hour left for some places on the East Coast, maybe 2 hours. depending on what state you’re in. Um, but I just want to kind of hang out. It’s election night. Um, I just kind of wanted to hang out and talk about some of the things that I’ve been through in the past three years.
Um, and, um, yeah, share some things with you guys and all that sort of thing. So there was something I wanted to check. Um,
I’m just getting set up. So But I have no assistance or anything. I’m a single mom. I do this all by myself. , um,
I saw earlier where I could share my screen and stuff, and now I’m not seeing anywhere where that is. Um, moderation,
uh, well, settings perhaps.
Well, there’s a few things I didn’t set up. Uh, I don’t want that.
Okay. Uh,
Well, ooh!
Not sure what that’s about, but I know that I pretty much didn’t have anything going on. There’s some things I could be doing. Um, And I’m just, I’m just hanging out and, um, going to talk about what I went through the past three years. Um, I was hoping to share a screen with you, but I’m, oh, I’m not seeing where I can do that now.
Uh, perhaps in a bit I will research more fully where I can share if I can. It’s weird that you would be able to share. At the beginning of the broadcast and not in the middle of it somewhere.
I’ll, I’ll tackle that monster when I get to it. Anyway. Happy election night. I hope you all have voted and if not, you have one or two hours or maybe a few more hours if you’re on the West Coast to vote. It is five o’clock where I am, which means it’s six o’clock on the East Coast. Some of the polls will be closing.
If you go to pbs. org forward slash news hour forward slash politics. Actually, it’s probably just easier to look up. When is the poll? When are the polls closing? And my state, um, but PBS news has a page with them on there. Um, so after politics is forward slash here’s with no apostrophe dash when dash polls, dash hard dash, closing dash and you dash your dash state.
Um, you could just go to PBS news and it’s probably just search when her polls closing and, um, you can get. Those, those answers there. So, just to give you, I’ll just give a rundown just because I’ve got time to burn. Why not? Um, so, for, and all these are given an eastern time. So, you’re going to have to convert that to your time zone if this applies to your state.
But, the, um, states that have, uh, uh, A polling closing poll closing time of 7 PM. We’ve got Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, and Vermont at 730 PM. The polls closed for North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia at 8. P. M. The polls closed for Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine.
Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington, D. C. Now, remember, these are in Eastern times. So those Midwestern states, um, you’re, it’s actually going to be 7 PM.
And then Arkansas 830 PM Eastern time. Um, is is when it closes, um. I believe they are, we’re in the central time zone. So it would be 730.
And then 9pm Eastern time
is Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. At 10pm Eastern time. Polls closing are Montana, Nevada, and Utah. Uh, polls close at 11 p. m. Eastern Time, California, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Hawaii closes at 12 a.
m. or midnight, um, Eastern Time. So if you’re like, why aren’t the results in? It’s probably because the polls are closed. Or why aren’t they completely, you know, why don’t they know who really is the winner? And if it’s close, it’s because Hawaii and Alaska are still out. Alaska, the polls don’t close until 1 a.
m. Eastern time. So, um, that gives you a rundown of when the polls are closing.
Okay. Um, First, let’s have, um, something, uh, lighthearted before we get into this heavy stuff. Um, I, I, I’m really thrilled because I found this, this sweatshirt and I’ve got to, I’ve got to show you the full extent of this sweatshirt because I’m going to stand on my chair, but it goes, it goes all the way.
I’m sorry for those listening to the podcast because you can’t see it. It all goes almost all the way down to my ankles and has a super huge pocket that you could probably store a baby in if you wanted to go around like a kangaroo. Um, yeah, I love it. And, and, oh, and I can look like a total hermit on top of it all.
So maybe I should get the whole podcast like this.
Anyway. I love this, uh, sweatshirt I got yesterday. Thought I’d share that with you.
Um, it’s very cozy, especially on these rainy days that we’ve been having the past couple days here in the Midwest, at least where I’m in the Midwest, where I am in the Midwest.
All right. I need sugar and caffeine again today to stay up to see if there’s any kind of decision tonight. I’m guessing there will not be, but you never know. It may be a landslide. All right, so um, let me get back over to my controls so I can see what’s going on.
Okay,
all right, so, um, As some of you may or may not know, um,
about three years ago in November of 2021, um, when the Waukesha tragedy happened, I had made some remarks on my private Twitter and, um, it got blown up on Fox news. And, um, and so, uh, it was really bad. Um, but, um, I, you know, I took everything in stride. I, I spent a lot of time working on myself. And, um, and, uh, I still need to come out and, and, and tell my story about what happened before that and what happened after that.
Um, you, you all just saw like a little snapshot of, of me. Um, and I’ve explained in my, in it first podcast, you know, kind of my thoughts at the time of what was going on. Um, and I still stick with, you know, most of that. Um, I haven’t watched it in a while, so I can’t say 100 percent that I That the person I am today agrees with stuff they said back then, but at the same time,
if you go back and watch that, I kind of explain all of that, all about my thoughts and everything about that incident. And, um, and so that will fill you back in, uh, we’ll fill you in on the details about that story. But I would actually today first like to talk about what happened before that and what happened after that.
Um, I started writing a book, uh, all about this experience and I actually wanted it to come out before the election. Um, but I kept changing my focus and things kept happening to me. Um, so. It was hard to, to get the book out in the three years time. I honestly probably should have just kept a journal or whatever of my thoughts, um, and the, the happenings, um, as it was going on.
Um, but I, you know, you don’t really think about stuff like that. Um, It would have been nice to kind of a therapy tool because I’ve recently back gotten back into journaling and stuff. And, um, it’s I found found it very therapeutic. So, um, anyway, I digress. Um, so I started writing this book and at first I had a different focus and it’s changed a couple times with different things that have happened.
And, um, And I, I may still put it out after the election. We’ll see, perhaps I’ll, excuse me. Perhaps I’ll put it out on, um, Amazon and see how it goes. And then if it, you know, if people want a hard copy of it, then I’ll work at getting a hard copies done. But, um, for right now I have my copy of my book. Um, And I thought I would share with you, since it’s election night, what I’ve already written so far.
And I’m going to tell you that it hasn’t been edited, so it’s probably not the best. And, um, there may come some times when, um, people’s names might need to come up. And, well, some of those people are in newspaper articles and stuff, so I probably won’t bother I’m not saying who they were because everybody knows they were there.
Um, so, but like, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m going to read to you the book, um, which is like a, you know, not very much of it, um, that I’ve feels ready to share, but I thought I would go ahead and start with, um, With that, and then from there, I would probably tell, go on and tell my story further. And, um, I wanted to share with you, um, I wanted to share with you on screen, some of the things that I have.
So you can actually know that it really is real and I’m not making this stuff up. Um, but. I am just not seeing on here where I can,
where I can, um, share my screen because I didn’t set it up through Zoom. Um, it was just at the beginning that it allowed me to share the screen. So, and I messed up and didn’t choose that option, I guess. Thinking, oh, why couldn’t you just share the screen in the middle of a broadcast like you would on Zoom?
But maybe that’s just not possible. Anyway, I don’t want to go on and on about that. Um, okay. Let me pull up my book. So, the working title of the book Currently, um, so if you, if you know my story, I, um, I said something about karma when it came to Waukesha and in regards to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, which, um, uh, I, I don’t think that was appropriate thing to say at that time.
Um, but I said it on my private, um, Twitter account that I thought nobody listened to and I’ll tell you The whole story of why it went viral so the the the name of the book and the name there’s a music video out if You look up Mary Lomanski karma Klansmen are ruining my America k a r m a Klansmen are ruining my America The, uh, the first letter spell out karma of each of those words.
Um, anyway, uh, that, that video is available. You can watch it. It shows the actual, um, uh, uh, uh, like, um, well, first of all, it’s a music video. I took all of the, like, um, Uh, voicemails and I turned the voicemails into a song, like the clicks and stuff. I turned ’em into beats and then like the, the voice parts are like the people, um, bitching me out and then, and harassing me.
And then, um, then there’s, um, like a synth line that I, a added, but it all ties together and it’s, it’s, it’s a musical piece made out of the voicemails, the hateful voicemails that I received. Plus, in the music video, I added all the text messages, so you can see it, and I told my story through the video. If you, it goes pretty quickly, so if you really want to read it, and stuff, and actually understand what is going on in the video, you need to kind of slow it down to watch it.
But it was kind of just my way of saying, hey look, this is, What these people said to me, and these are all of their remarks and they all lean predominantly toward the white supremacist side, honestly, they’re, and really like, um, right, far right wing, uh, calls there. Um, I believe I got one or two, um, messages from people on the left, but it was predominantly all.
From people on the right. So the name of my book goes along those same lines. Cause we have a theme going here and the name of the book is karma. Klansmen are ruining my America and they will ruin yours too. And I was going to add whether you, uh, agree with me or not, but I didn’t add that, uh, but that’s what, how I feel.
Like, I, I feel like some people. Maybe they just don’t think ahead to the ramifications of some of the things that Trump has done, which I covered four episodes. My last four episodes were all of, um, broken down year by year of Trump’s, uh, civil and human rights rollbacks while in office. Um, and, um, let me, let me tell you, they’re all targeting.
LGBTQ people, women, people of color, and, um, and, uh, uh, the poor that’s predominantly who they were targeting. So anyway, I’m going to share with you the book that I started, um, what I’ve, what I feel comfortable sharing so far of. Karma, Klansmen are ruining my America and they’ll ruin yours too. So please vote tonight.
That’s not part of the title. First of all, the, the, uh, dedication. This book is dedicated to all those who are political targets, to those who are forced into silence for speaking their minds, to those whose views are not shared by the mainstream, to those canceled by society for their beliefs and actions.
You are not alone. You will live through the situation. You will overcome your demons. The situation will not define you. It’s just a passing moment, but use it as a teaching moment. You’ve been given a gift. Few have been given. Now rise like the phoenix.
Epigraph. Do not overcome. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12 21
Um, so, uh, here’s a little preface to the book that I wrote. On November 22nd, 2021, in the wee hours of the morning, some tweets of mine went viral. I was tired after working all day and fed up with the political situation in my country. I’m not defending what I said, but I will explain a few things. I’ve already apologized for the hurt it caused, but I want to tell the story of what happened and the events leading up to the tweet.
And in the months that followed it going viral, I feel is tremendously. And now I should say years that followed it going viral. I feel it is tremendously important that people know what our lives in America may become if we don’t stop domestic terrorism in its tracks. Now, having grown up in a family of local politicians from both sides of the aisle.
I feel that the United States of America is on the brink of losing the representative democracy that has held it together for nearly 250 years. And one reason we are losing it is because one side has become completely intolerant of anyone and anything opposed to their viewpoint. At the writing of this book, the conservative led Supreme Court broke 50 years of precedent to legislate from the bench.
For By overturning Roe versus Wade and a number of other civil, human, and environmental protections. The terrifying thing is that the conservative right has now also resorted to scare tactics, getting friendly with groups like the Proud Boys and other radical militia and white supremacist groups who show up to school board meetings and protests to intimidate those who speak out against their radical conservative viewpoints.
If you stand in their way and speak up against their fascist policies, they might just send domestic terrorists to follow you and bully you. They are hoping that they can terrorize enough people that nobody will speak up against them at all.
Over a year after my tweets went viral, so I, this was, this was a year after my tweets went viral that I wrote this preface, so I still need to go back and edit as you can see. But over a year after my tweets went viral, I’m still getting reminders every few weeks that I have not been forgotten. And I’m going to tell you that I have, I have been getting those, um, reminders every few weeks for three years.
I’ve decided to tell my story so that others might have the courage to tell their stories as well. And I know there are other people who have told their stories. suburbanite This is just an aside.
Together we can stand united against the tyranny that is destroying our nation. Together we can fix what has been dismantled and build back a nation that truly is a place of liberty and justice for all. Together we can create the country we all deserve and love. Let’s stand strong together.
This is my story of what it’s like to be a white suburbanite single mother who became the target of white supremacists who White supremacist domestic terrorist.
Sorry about that. Let me take a breath for a minute. Emotional on this, uh, this night that we might lose our nation.
All right, so here’s chapter one.
Life and politics.
This up.
My whole life I tried to avoid politics like the plague. I grew up in Springfield, Illinois, the capital of Illinois, home of Abraham Lincoln. Um, the first Republican president where my mother’s family has been involved in local politics for nearly a hundred years. I’ve had family members from both sides of the aisle in public office my entire life.
I love my family, but I’ve always hated the politics. There would be lively political discussions around the dinner table on Saturdays when my granny used to cook her famous chili for the entire family. Seriously, the best chili I’ve ever had to this day. Uh, she actually had an offer to can it commercially and she turned it down.
Anyway, as a kid, I would stay outside playing and away from the adult political discords. But as I got older and closer to voting age, I would listen to both the Democrats and the Republicans in my family. Later, there were even a few Libertarians. I was actually a Libertarian for 20 years, believe it or not, before they got run over by the, um, by the Tea Party.
Or overrun, I should say. Maybe that was a Freudian slip there. They got overrun and run over. Now they kind of tend to like, like Trump for some reason. I don’t know why they should like their own candidates. Never mind, I’m gonna, I’ll talk about the Libertarians in another episode. Um, anyway, I actually used to do social media for them.
Um. So anyway, as a kid I would stay outside playing and away from the adult political discourse. But as I got older and closer to voting age, I would listen to both the Democrats and the Republicans in my family. Later, there were even a few libertarians and I could empha em, empathize with both sides, at least on some issues.
But I decided at a young age that I most definitely did not want to be involved in politics. I just wanted to write and perform music and maybe act, write and do other artsy things. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted to do. However, I have always stood up against injustice and intolerance, which has led me into activism and charitable work throughout my life’s journey.
In 1979, at the age of four, I was completely baffled as to why my mother was against the Equal Rights Amendment after I asked her what ERA meant and she told me. Why were she and her friends against equal rights for themselves? It made no sense to me. I was four years old. Another time, around the same age, when other white kids were saying racist things about the only black boy in our neighborhood, I pointed out to them that my freckles, were made from melanin, and that he just had melanin all over his skin like my freckles, which is what my father had taught me.
And then I marched across the street to play with the boy while the other kids chanted the n word. That’s not all they called me though, nor was it the first time. From age one to age seven, I was bullied by the neighborhood kids for being Polish. My brother and I were called Dumb Polack Daily. My brother was dropped on his head while other kids laughed.
They forced my hand down on bees that stung me twice and sicked their retired police dog on me once. They hit us with wiffle ball bats. They pushed us down. They stole and broke our toys. They found a new reason to make fun of us anytime we went outside. The worst was that the ringleader was a police officer’s son who lived a block over.
And some of the kids were my own non Polish older cousins. They didn’t even stand up for us. My parents were afraid to report the daily assault because one, it might be dismissed because it wasn’t officers sons who were involved and two, it might make things worse. By the age of five, I was terrified to go to kindergarten because I thought everyone at the school would make fun of me for being Polish.
I refused to tell people my last name because it always seemed that people pointed out it was Polish. Sometimes adults would say, even say, Oh, you’re a Polack, which just made me cringe inside after having all these kids make fun of me. My parents had got me a sweatshirt with Snoopy holding a Polish flag, and I refused to wear it.
They bought me a coloring book of Polish history, and I refused to color it. It was a horrible blow to my sense of self at such a young age to be bullied for my ethnicity, but it also made me extremely sensitive to racism and bigotry. Being white and being targeted by other white kids for your ethnicity Ethnicity forces you to understand how language and physical violence is used in subtle ways, and not so subtle ways, to keep others down.
One day when I was seven, I was walking outside and had to pass by two of the kids house that were my bullies, who live three doors down from us. The main bully was not there, but his younger brother was. And I, Um, he was a year older than me. There were a bunch of kids hanging out in front of the house on the sidewalk and in the driveway.
I stopped to say hi. Even though I was bullied, I still always held in my heart that we could all be friends. At one point in time, I was an eternal optimist. Anyway, I do not remember what the conversation was about, but I think I remember correcting someone, because by age seven I discovered I was not a dumb Polack, but was one of the smartest in my class and a straight A student.
Since I was bullied, I stayed home and read a lot of the time, so I knew stuff. I had started reading when I was three. One of the girls didn’t, and I want to take a, uh, a pause here to, uh, to thank, um, Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for, you know, teaching me, um, uh, how to read and also about healthy relationships.
So thank you PBS. This isn’t a plug for PBS, but it seems like it’s turning into one. I’ve already mentioned them twice. Anyway. We, we love our public broadcast system, right? We, we, that’s our taxpayers dollars pay for it. We want to keep it that way, right? We want to keep it that way. So please, um, vote for the, the party that will keep those things.
Uh, all right, let me get back into reading. If you are just tuning in, I’m reading the unedited version of the book. I was going to try to publish before the election, but I It was just, it was just too difficult. The focus changed a few times and, um, uh, it just, it just didn’t happen. Maybe I’ll get it out afterwards.
Anyway, it’s called Karma. Klansmen are ruining my America and they’ll ruin yours too. Um, okay, and I was just talking about, um, how I was bullied. By, um, other kids and other white kids in the neighborhood when I was, uh, when I was younger. Um, let’s see. Oh, I was telling the story. Okay. So, um, Again, by age seven, I discovered I was not a dumb Polack, but was one of the smartest in my class and had straight, and a straight A student.
Since I was bullied, I stayed home and read a lot of the time, so I knew stuff, and I had started reading when I was three. One of the girls did not like that I was right all the time and yelled, Shut up, you dumb Polack, and then tried to kick me. I grabbed your foot and flung it into the air as hard as I could, and all I could hear was the other kids screaming.
Yell No. After that, everything was like in slow motion. I saw her do a flip in the air and had enough to pray. Please God, not enough time to pray. Please, God, don’t let her land on her face. She’ll be hurt and they will kill me. Right before she landed on her face, on the torn up asphalt driveway. Then as she started crying and, and I stared in shock at what I, I had just done, the kids started yelling at me.
Mary, what did you do? They looked as if they were all about to surround me when something snapped inside of me. I completely flipped out, started screaming and went ballistic. I ran after the main bully’s brother and I just started beating and beating and beating on him. And the other kids tried to separate us and he ran off up the driveway and I went after him.
I had had enough. And you know what? After that day, the neighborhood bullies never bothered me again, and I never heard her dump whole lot from them ever again. And I learned from this incident that sometimes standing up to bullies is necessary if you want your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness back.
In high school, I was an honor roll student who was involved in music and theater. Most weekends, I would go to a dance club called Stage 2 for 12 to 20 year olds. For 5, you could hang out from 5 p. m. to 1 a. m., drink soda, and dance to the latest house, industrial, EDM, pop, R& B, rock, and hip hop hits. It was an eclectic mix of people and music.
And it was also a lot of fun and probably kept me out of trouble. I would also go to look local punk rock shows as well. Oftentimes if an ethically diverse band would play. the neo nazi skinheads would show up. And all you punk rockers who, uh, went to shows in the late 80s, early 90s know what I’m talking about.
Um, they were young men who had been recruited and indoctrinated by white supremacist groups. They didn’t want white people playing in bands with black people, I guess. I don’t know what their deal was, but they certainly were not there because they were fans of the bands. They got shows shut down for their violence.
I remember one show at a VFW hall, a friendly circle pit started. The neo Nazi skinheads decided it was an opportune time to ruin everyone’s fun. So they got into the pit and punched people until all that were left were the skinheads dancing. A friend and I were standing toward the edge of the pit watching the show.
The next thing I know, they had pulled her into the pit. Without thinking, I went in after her and pulled her out, but as I was pulling her out, they pushed me down. She was able to get out, but I was down in the middle of the circle pit, getting nudged by, uh, neo Nazis skinheads with their steel toed combat boots.
I put my left arm over my head to protect it. and started swinging at them as hard as I could, trying to hit them as hard as I could with my right. I was in fight or flight mode and afraid they were going to seriously hurt me, so I did what I could to get out of that situation. I probably hit five or six of them as they danced by me before a member of one of the local punk bands performing that night pulled me out of the pit.
Unfortunately, that was not the only time I had the opportunity to spend with white supremacists. My senior year of high school, I was dating a boy and we broke up. I was friends with his roommate because we worked together at the ice cream shop at the mall. She invited me to come over one night and spend the night.
She was having a party. She was out of high school and I was renting a house with my ex boyfriend. My mother dropped me off and when I went inside, there were a bunch of neo Nazi skinheads there. I felt like I needed to get away, but I couldn’t. This happened before cell phones. And the house had no phone, so I had to stay there all night until my mom came to get me there the next morning.
I did not realize my friend or my ex boyfriend hung out with neo Nazi skinheads. That night I learned some other things, though. I learned from white supremacists that I’m not white because of the freckles on my skin. They also told me I’m not white because I’m Polish. Because there’s a lot of Jew, Jewish blood in Poland.
Quote, unquote. Coincidentally, in high school, I had taken a psychology class in my junior year, where I wrote a thesis on the propaganda techniques used by Hitler and the type of people who would be persuaded by those techniques. It was the same type of people that are persuaded by white supremacists and neo Nazi group propaganda.
Some might think a person who would be persuaded Um, Turned on by these propaganda techniques would not be intelligent, but they are most of them are average or above average in intelligence. They have been disenfranchised for whatever reason. Maybe they live in the south and were raised by white parents who hated black people.
That’s just all the all they know. Um, maybe it’s because they were beat up by a minority. Maybe they lost a job opportunity or. Or saw somebody of color get ahead of them. Or maybe the person is just a loner with no real friends. The people that run these white supremacist groups look for people that are down and out and disenfranchised, and they make them feel welcome.
They build a brotherhood or some cases sisterhood with them. Back in the day, the female skin bird, uh, skinheads were called skin birds. Um, They became like a family to them. They make them feel accepted when others don’t. So when I was in my twenties, I lived out in Arizona and I had a friend who was a former skinhead.
Um, we’ll call him Ron. Ron was a former Arizona skin hammer skin. And I learned about a lot about, um, militant white supremacist groups from him. I learned about how the groups organize. They’re very militant and structured. I learned about their symbols. I also learned some of their code words and phrases like 1488.
The 14 refers to two slogans originating from David Eden Lane, who was one of the founders of a white supremacist movement. Separatist Insurrectionist group called The Order. The first slogan of 14 words is, we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. The second slogan is because the beauty of the white AAN woman must not perish from the earth.
The 88 comes from h being the eighth letter of the alphabet. It is code for HH, which stands for Heil Hitler. I also learned that somewhere in the early 2000s, the neo Nazi skinheads traded in their shaved heads for the rockabilly look. This does not mean that everybody with the greaser look is a white supremacist, but they changed their style up because it harkens back to the golden era of the 1950s American working class.
The time when men were men, and women did what they were told, and minorities were separate but equal. The previous skinhead style had been adopted from the British working class. The white supremacist groups needed an American look with, um, which everyone is familiar and at ease for their propaganda to continue to be effective.
Shaved heads remind Americans of the military and convicts. It’s a menacing look. The greaser look is much more friendly and familiar like Elvis and the Fonz.
Growing up as a Generation Xer, there was a time when if you saw someone with a shaved head at a punk show, you would ask them if they were skin or a sharp. Sharp stands for skinheads against racial prejudice. Of course, they would say sharp, unless they were, unless they had deceiving tattoos. You could not tell, but it only proves that the white supremacist leaders needed a new working class, all American look.
That was recognizable and distinctly theirs, but that would also make them no longer look so scary. They found it in the greaser style. I mean, who doesn’t love Elvis or the Fonz? They’re American icons. One night in Arizona, my fiancee at the time, and I went to the bars with Ron, and he ran into some of his old Arizona hammer skin buddies.
His friends wanted us to go hang out at their place afterwards. They were all rocking their pompadours, except one who looked like a mountain man with a beard and overalls. He also appeared to be the leader of the group. He called the shots and the others would look to him for guidance on what to do.
They lived in an apartment. I had strong objections to going there, but my fiancé and Ron insisted we go. We were sitting outside the front of their place drinking beer. In the apartment building next to us, there was a party of Hispanic and Black young people all underage Some of the white, uh supremacists went over to the party and had a confrontation with the people there I had not been paying attention.
I was talking to my fiance and Ron and not paying attention was going on with Ron’s friends Whom I did not want to be associated with anyway
One second. I need to get a drink. I’m getting dry here
If you’re just tuning in i’m reading, um Part of, uh, the book that I started writing, Karma, Klansmen Are Ruining My American, They’ll Ruin Yours Too. I’m telling you my, my history of life and politics and, um, it started when I was four, so, um, anyway. All of a sudden his friends come running back and they run into the apartment building, load up on guns, and they start handing them out to all the men in the group.
They come over and hand my fiancé and Ron guns and I immediately take off running across the parking lot away from the any potential violence. I was gone. I was like, see you guys later. This is not my kind of hang, sorry. I was not going to come back But we were three towns away from my home. My fiancé ran after me and talked me into returning.
By the time the police had showed up, and most of the party had, the, uh, most of the party had been diffused. The cops actually gave all the beer to the neo Nazis, because everybody was underage at the other party. We left a little while later. I’m including these stories about my experiences with white supremacists because it is important for the reader to know that I’m intimately aware of the dangers that these groups pose for all of us.
They have always gotten their way by intimidating others. Some of them even enjoy it. They are determined and ready for the long haul. They will continue to refine their propaganda because for many of them, this is their last hurrah. They are afraid for the future because white people are losing power.
And they are afraid that people of color will treat white people the way white people have treated other races. The main thing that really bothers some white people in American society is that in 2045, America will become what is called a majority minority. What that means is that although the non Hispanic white population will still be the largest single group in America, the combined populations of all non white racial and ethnic groups will make up more than half of the U.
S. population. Another thing Ron taught me about was that whites, the, about the white supremacy concept of Rahoa. Now this is where the religion gets tied into the. The racism. Uh, REHOA stands for racial holy war. This term was first used by Ben Closson, who was the founder of what later became known as the church of the creator.
It’s individual church members were called creators and the religion they practice was called creativity. Ben wrote a book called REHOA, this planet is ours. And in it, he claimed that Jews created Christianity in order to make white people weaker. He popularized the term racial holy war within the white nationalist movement.
And I think many of these white supremacists think that this is the time of the racial holy war for which they’ve been waiting. This concept has been fed into the evangelical Christian movement and their idea of the rapture and the returning of the savior. The fact that many of them consider former president Donald Trump to be the is the icing on the cake for the, this.
Heretical disaster, and it’s coming to a culmination tonight. That’s not in the book , but it is.
When Donald Trump was elected president, the white nationalist movement in America saw him as the Messiah for the race, racial Holy War. He was their chosen one. It just flowed right into their paradigm of how life is, and so they thought it was their time. They felt that Trump had come to bring about whatever heaven on earth they thought he was going to bring.
And they still believe that he will, although some are beginning to distance themselves from him. And hopefully enough will distance themselves from him tonight that we will defeat him and we won’t, we won’t have to worry about this anymore because he claims he’s not going to run for president again.
In May of 2018, when Donald Trump made the decision to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said that it was filled with biblical significance. She said Donald Trump recognized history. He, like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods worshipped by Jews, Christians, and yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free, and sovereign Israel.
This is the mindset of these people. Janine went on to call the move a truly historic moment in Israel’s history. You can’t get much more messianic than that. So if I hate politics so much, you might ask, how did I get involved in politics? From 18 to 20, I was a Democrat. When I was 20, I discovered the Libertarian Party.
I agree with most of the Libertarian Party platform, except voluntary taxation, because nobody is voluntarily wanting to fix our roads and bridges is now. And they are crumbling, so I don’t see that concept ever working. However, I must admit, the thing that attracted me the most to the Libertarian Party was the fact that they were the only political party at the time advocating for cannabis legalization.
Their policy seemed to me to be a mix of the best of the Republican and the Democratic parties. I ended up doing, I ended up volunteering to do social media for the National Libertarian Party because I felt anxious. That the only two viable parties in this country that they’re there. I mean, sorry that we only had two viable parties in this country.
And I really firmly believe that that is one of the major reasons why we are having the problem we are having today. There is no choice. There really is no choice. You have really horrible person that wants to take revenge on people for speaking out against him. Or you have. You, you have a person that’s at least qualified to do the job, but nobody really chose her, did we?
So we really needed, we really need more political parties in this country. Anyway, I ended up volunteering to do social media for the National Libertarian Party because I felt anxious that we only have two viable parties in this country. But I had some issues with the direction that the leadership of the party was taking during the Tea Party era and afterwards.
I also felt that the party was infiltrated by too many failed Republicans. The final straw was that I did a really huge project on my own to help them out for free. And it took me, well, they took the information I gave them and didn’t even acknowledge the three months of work I did. So I left, I quit volunteering for them.
From the day Donald Trump took office as president, his policies systemically attacked civil and human rights and dismantled the administrative agencies in the executive branch. You can see a full list of the civil and human rights rollbacks published by the leadership conference on civil human rights at civilrights.
org forward slash Trump dash rollbacks. And you can, I also read and commented. Did commentary on each year of his administration and the previous four episodes. So you can listen to all of that too, about how he did all of these things with, um, attacking our civil and human rights and dismantling the administrative agencies and the executive branch and appointing acting acting, um, secretaries in his cabinet.
I felt something needed to be done and there’s strength in numbers. So I became a Democrat again. I agree with the democratic platform. I just don’t like how slow the party moves. I gave Trump a year because everyone said to give him a chance, but his rollbacks to human and civil rights were just too much for me to take sitting down.
So in 2018, when I saw that the DuPage County Democrats were looking for someone to help them with their blog, I immediately volunteered. I have an MBA in e business and my specialty is. Internet and social media marketing. In other words, I know how to play the social media algorithms to get results. I also have an understanding of what makes posts go viral.
So I had lots of success with the DuPage Democrats blog and because of my experience and education, they asked me to sit in while they interviewed a possible candidate to be social media manager. The person did not show up but called and said to call him if we have any questions about his quote. The chair of the DuPage Democrats at the time turned to me and said, well, he’s not here and you are, you seem to be knowledgeable about social media.
Do you want to handle it for this election? And of course I said, yes. So DuPage County is the second largest county in Illinois after Cook. It has always been strongly Republican, despite being a color county of Cook, which is where Chicago is. Before the midterm election, there was one Democrat on the county board.
After the election, there were seven Democrats on the county board, as well as a Democratic judge and Park District Board president. My social media campaign was pivotal in attracting young voters and turning DuPage County from red, solid red, to purple. It was an historical win. The Chicago Tribune quoted Jim Rule, the chairman of the Naperville Township Republican Organization at the time, as saying that, quote, What the Democratic Party did was, well, was targeting young voters directly or via social media.
He’s talking about me there. That was my marketing idea, my memes, and my implementation. In the 2020 election, my social media campaigns, We’re helpful once again and winning more countywide seats and changing the county board from purple to a Democratic majority. Then in 2021, I decided to run for Downers Grove township clerk.
And while I lost, I only lost by seven to 10 votes per precinct. Not bad in my opinion for my first time running for office in a township who has never seen a Democrat hold a seat.
I was active as an elected precinct committee person as well. I started going to township and school board meetings to speak up about various local political and educational issues. In fact, I spoke at a school board meeting where the domestic terrorist group, the Proud Boys, were in attendance, which was covered by both CNN and the Chicago Sun Times, exactly one week.
Before my tweets went viral.
Let’s take a little break here for a moment and see what’s going down. See if anybody has made any comments.
How is everybody doing tonight?
Not seeing any comments or anything. Hopefully I’m not talking to myself again, but it happens. I do publish this to other places. So, um, and it should be up tonight. Maybe not before, well, maybe before some of the polls close. It’s coming up on 6 o’clock midwest time, central time, which is 7 o’clock on, uh, on the east coast.
So some of the polls will be closing in about four minutes. If you are in line, remember to stay in line. Um, and you can vote, but, um, if there are long lines, get in line and stay in line and you can vote. If, if the polls have closed at 7 o’clock or 7. 30, um, you will be able to still vote as long as you stay in line, if, and when, if you’re in line before the polls close.
Okay, what else? Oh, I’m going to continue on with my story, um, but I did want to take a quick break. Now this next, um, this next chapter is not finished. In fact, um,
well, we’ll see what I, we’ll see what I actually, um, read, end up reading. Um,
I do have my, um, I do have it kind of an outline, kind of measured out. So, um.
So I can kind of talk about what I would have written in some of these chapters that have not been finished yet. Um, okay.
Reading on. So that was the end of the first chapter. Life and politics. Now here’s the beginning of
This next chapter.
Okay,
so this is Moms vs. Proud Boys. That’s the name of this chapter. Chapter 2. So, I’ll just read as much as I can.
After the Downers Grove Township election in early 2021, I was asked by members of the Downers Grove Township Democrats to help out with a special project. During the Township election, our campaign showed light on nepotism and corruption in the Republican dominated township. As noted previously, there has never been a Democrat elected to Downers Grove Township.
The plan for the Downers Grove Township Integrity Project was to continue to expose the corruption and lies at the township level. Around this time, far right groups were starting to show up at local school board meetings complaining about LGBTQ plus inclusion. masking, you know, wearing masks during the pandemic and critical race theory.
The Democrats felt something needed to be done to counter their harmful lies. This project came to be called the Downers Grove Township Integrity Project or DGT Integrity Project. The purpose of the DGT Integrity Project, which I believe there is still,
Uh, let me see.
Oh, there’s no website anymore. So the DGT Integrity Project,
uh, the purpose of the DGT Integrity Project is one of truth. The slogan is Stand for Truth. We wanted to provide resources and information for Downers Grove Township voters that were, that are based in hard facts and not the sensationalist, sensationalism people on the right side of the political spectrum were spreading very rapidly.
We wanted to bring truth to the people of Downers Grote Township because they were being bombarded with misinformation. We built a website to serve as a hub to disseminate information. The website reads, We are the Downers Grove Township Integrity Project. We are a committee of Downers Grove Township Democrats who are working to bring our communities together to accomplish the following.
We will promote the truth. We will seek out and share with you information regarding local, state, and national issues. We will pay attention to our local, state, and national government actions to better understand the issues and policies that impact our communities and lives and share what we have learned with you.
The website goes on to say about DGT integrity project, we support diversity, equity, inclusion in our communities. We support family and community values. We support critical thinking, reasoning and facts. In addition to the website, in order to counter the right wing racist and bigoted lies, we decided that we would all start going to the school board meetings in Downers Grove of Township and speaking out on issues like mask wearing book banning critical race theory, diversity inclusion, and how the far right are trying to literally whitewash history.
The DGT Integrity Project Committee would we meet weekly to discuss progress on the website. Talk about the school board meetings and discuss our research findings. We developed talking points on the purpose of an equity audit and why the school districts would benefit from one. We also developed talking points to use when discussing critical race theory and the culturally responsive teaching and learning standards proposed by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Two different concepts that Republican leaders were confusing and selling us the same at school board meetings. Some of these Republican leaders. We’re G knives, Terry Newsome, Laura hoist, who’s actually currently on the ballot here in Illinois for, I believe, county board and Jim Devitt and Dave Tomek.
Um,
1 2nd, I need to look something up.
So we went to the school board meeting. Um, oh, before I go on. Um,
Terry Newsome actually has a whole page dedicated to him on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s um, hate watch for 2022. Um, 11 30 2022, actually, coming up here. Um, so this, um, let me read, let me, let me read to you about Terry Newsome. Um, Illinois radical parrot activist has hate group ties. History of racist posts.
An official in Illinois DuPage County GOP who frequently appears in local and national media associates with extremist groups and shares racist posts on social media, Hate Watch has found. Content warning. This depicts symbols and gestures promoting white supremacy. Reader discretion is advised. If you want to.
Um, if you don’t believe me, just look up Terry Newsom and, um, the Southern Poverty Law Center and you’ll find the page. Um, Terry Newsom, 62, of Darien, Illinois, leads Illinois Parents Involved in Education. The group opposes public school policies such as accommodations for trans students, LGBTQ inclusive education, and classroom discussion of the U.S. legacy of systemic racism.
Newsom has a history of attempting to shut down community events associated with LGBTQ inclusion and smearing other parents in his community who challenge his views, like me. He participates in anti LGBTQ protests organized by the hate group The Proud Boys,
and he is seeking to organize a local chapter of the anti LGBTQ hate group Mass Resistance. On social media, Newsom posts racist memes and claims he was present at the U. S. Capitol’s Stop the Steal rally on January 6, 2021. Despite connections to extremist groups and a history of using bigoted rhetoric about Black people and LGBTQ people, Newsom won a seat as a Republican precinct committee person.
He has a growing presence in local media, which portrays him as the prototypical voice of angry conservative parents, often without disclosing his organized far right activity. While Hatewatch was in the process of reporting this story, Newsom sent messages to this reporter’s personal email address and LinkedIn page, inquiring about FOIA requests for his email correspondence with public officials.
He volunteered information about his family’s political affiliations and offered to contribute to any research. When Hate Watch contacted Newsom with a request for comment on the facts detailed in this reporting, he declined. In these exchanges, Newsom copied David Smith, the executive director of Illinois Family Institute, an anti LGBTQ hate group.
Newsom wrote, After further advice from counsel, I was suggested not to respond to your request. I was informed that Southern Poverty Law is A very extreme, discredited far left organization. Furthermore, I am, was informed that you are a self proclaimed far left activist intent on using social, um, using media and communications to disrupt privilege for the sole purpose of social justice.
Therefore, I will not be responding. Newsom did not respond to questions about whether his counsel was David Smith or anyone else affiliated with Illinois Family Institute. Uh, the Republican precinct captain from District 141, Newsom’s rise as a far right activist began, like many in his cohort, in, with the pandemic.
In 2021, he mobilized parents to oppose COVID 19 safety measures, particularly masking, in his suburban Chicagoland school district. Later, he pivoted to attacking critical race theory, inclusive curricula, and public education itself. Newsom now leads the Illinois chapter of U. S. Parents Involved in Education, a group committed to getting.
public education whose national president was endorsed by anti LGBTQ hate group family research council. Newsom also organizes with Awake Illinois, an organization led by the DuPage County chair of radical parent groups, uh, Moms for Liberty. So this article is written in 2022. I’m not sure if these groups are still active, but I imagine some of them are on some level.
They might be secret and hiding. Um, The professed goal of radical parent groups like Newsom’s, along with Awake Illinois and Moms for Liberty, is to stop what they say is indoctrination of children into a harmful non Christian and unpatriotic worldview. To accomplish their goal, these groups target school board meetings and members in pressure campaigns to ban books and curriculum from schools.
Similar efforts have taken place across the U. S., with the IR usually concentrated around the same few titles for high school audiences that spotlight race, gender identity, and sexuality. Here in Downers Grove, they targeted the group genderqueer, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that here in a bit.
These groups also encourage like minded people to run for local elections and support the political campaigns of hard right candidates. In June, Newsome defeated the incumbent to represent Downard Grove District 141 as their Republican Precinct Committee person or Precinct Captain. Precinct Committee persons serve two year terms and are responsible for for voter outreach, shaping party policy and selecting candidates for elected office at local, state, and national levels.
Just a month after he was elected as a GOP precinct captain, Newsom used his new position to circulate a propaganda video produced by U. S. parents involved in education about perceived leftist indoctrination in schools. Indoctrinating. Indoctrination. Indoctrination in schools. What did I say?
Indoctrination. Indoctrination in schools. Um, Newsom’s victory came after a year of involvement in hard right activism. An anti fascist collective first reported Newsom’s ties to the Proud Boys in December 2021 after he and Proud Boys members engaged in an online harassment campaign against participants in a holiday event at a Methodist church in Downers Grove, Illinois.
that featured a trans man dressed as Santa Claus. Actually, they attacked me a month before that, November in 2020, November 2021. They must have felt emboldened by it, so then they did this, um, impersonate, uh, online, I’m sorry, online harassment campaign. They did such a good job online harassing me that they did an online harassing campaign against participants in a holiday event at the Methodist Church in Downers Grove, uh, in here in Downers Grove.
Um, that featured a trans man dressed as Santa Claus. Newsome directed attention to the event on social media, and during his appearances on far right media, called for his allies to protest. A participant in the event, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, told Hatewatch the group received many threatening phone calls, emails, and online messages.
The nature of these messages were, you need to cancel it. Your groomers, your pedophiles. This is un Christ like. Santa Claus is a real man and you’re endangering children, the participant said. After the Proud Boys began targeting the event, organizers decided to move their holiday party to a church in nearby Naperville, Illinois, the participant said.
Protestors still appeared outside the church in Downers Grove and outside the new location in Naperville. Coming to threaten and antagonize children’s events does more harm than anything we could program, the participants said. In September, local media reported allegations from staff at the Downers Grove Public Library that they were experiencing harassing Harassment connected to a drag time bingo night planned for October.
Since August, Newsom had been using his public Facebook page to threaten to shut that event down, writing, This event will not happen. If it does, we will overwhelm it with tons of protesters from multiple organizations. I promise. Emphasis Newsom’s, um, in big letters, uh, upper case letters. Capital letters.
Organizers cancelled the event after library staff received a wave of threatening messages. Within a week of the cancellation, the library sent a bullet in the mail, along with a message signed, Your friends at MAGA, calling the staff commies, and threatening more to come. On Getter, Newsom denied having anything to do with the mail threat and denounced it as a hoax.
Newsom also began attending and speaking at far right events. In October, Newsom planned to speak alongside election deniers and COVID conspiracists, including Overstock. com founder Patrick Byrne, who helped fund the recount of Arizona ballots demanded by 2020 presidential election deniers, and spoke at a pro Trump rally near the U.
S. Capitol before this January 6th insurrection. The October event was canceled. Also in October, Newsom promoted and attended a MAGA themed rap show in suburban Chicago, which featured an on stage discussion between white nationalist Nick Fuentes and right wing provocateur Alex Stein. Fuentes, who received a subpoena from the U.
S. House Committee investigating the January 6th attacks, Insurrection is an anti Semitic far right influencer seeking to normalize white nationalism in the Republican Party, and he’s doing a good job of it. Stein peddles conspiracies on One America News Network. He had a brief moment of national notoriety after a video emerged of Stein sexually harassing Representative Alexandria Ocasio Ah, I can’t speak.
Ocasio Cortez on the steps of the U. S. Capitol. Several Proud Boys were also in attendance at the October show, including the head of the Illinois chapter, Edgar Remy del Toro Gonzalez, according to photographs posted to social media by one of the performers. Also in attendance, as seen in the same social media post, was Stephanie Trostle, who at the time Was campaigning as the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor.
Terry Newsom’s online presence reveals further ties to the Proud Boys. He was photographed next to a known member of the Proud Boys at a Blue Lives Matter rally in Mount Prospect, Illinois in 2021. It’s not clear if Newsom knew he was posing with a member of the Proud Boys, but the man was wearing the black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirt that has been adopted as the uniform of the hate group.
The rally occurred after community members asked the police department not to fly the thin blue line flag, which is used to signal support for law enforcement.
Some use the flag to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. In the photograph, the Proud Boys member and Newsome give what appear, appeared to be the okay hand signal, which is used by far right activists to troll anti racists. Newsom also has an active presence on hard right social media, where he displays his extremist views and affiliations.
On Truth Social, which Trump founded after Twitter banned him following the January 6th insurrection, Newsom shared an announcement by the Proud Boys on July 12th, calling for a counter protest of a Pride event. At a bakery in suburban Chicago. Pride organizers canceled the event after a reported associate of the Proud Boys, Joseph Collins, allegedly smashed the windows of the bakery and vandalized the business.
Authorities charged Collins with a bias motivated crime. He pleaded not guilty and his trial is ongoing. I’m not sure what’s going on with that, as this has been written a couple years ago, I believe, but
Newsom has used I believe, um, Terry Newsom is coming up for re election, if he’s still a precinct committee person.
Coming up for election next year.
Newsom has used Getter, a popular site among white nationalists and other far right figures, to try to organize a local chapter of Mass Resistance, an anti LGBTQ hate group. Mass Resistance, founded in 1995 by vocal anti LGBTQ activist Brian Kamenker, Circulates anti LGBTQ pseudoscience under the guise of Christian values, while pushing policymakers to restrict the rights of anti LGBTQ Americans and remove LGBTQ references from schools.
Just like Trump did, uh, when he removed all the LGBTQ references from, um, the Department of Education, um, and other administrative agencies. That’s the theme. And then what they’re doing. Newsom has also used Getter to issue veiled threats against public officials and such events as the Downers Grove bingo night.
For example, following the FBI search of Mar a Lago, the re Possess several highly classified documents from former president Donald Trump, Newsome wrote on the site that Merrick Garland, the U S attorney general, quote unquote, needs to be removed from this earth in the days after the raid threats against the FBI Garland and the judge who signed this search order, drastically increased.
Newsome also used, uses getter to smear other parents in his community, including me, labeling them groomers and radical leftists. for supporting inclusive programming. On Getter, Hatewatch also found Newsome twice shared a racist caricature. The image features a cartoon depiction of a black man drawn with exaggerated features.
Hatewatch has chosen to provide that image to illustrate the exact nature of Newsome’s online activity. To view the caricature, which readers are reminded is explicit and offensive, click here. And you can see that if you go to the Southern Poverty Law Center website and look up Terry Newsome. It’s about three quarters of the way down the page you’ll see a paragraph and there’s a link to it.
You can see the image yourself with your own eyes. Whether you choose to believe your own eyes or not is up to you. White supremacists have used these caricatures for centuries. In the first instance on August 22nd, Newsom used the racist caricature to respond to a thread about former professional basketball player Dennis Rodman and imprisoned Dennis Rodman.
W, at the time, WNBA player Brittany Greiner. A few weeks later on September 8th, Newsom used the same image on a thread about a black woman who was running for Congress in Florida. Newsom deleted the racist caricature from his Getter page in early October. Also on Getter, Hatewatch found Newsom liking an anonymous comment that uses the n word.
More attacks on white Americans and they wonder why we call them n words. Uh, comment is now deleted. The comment is now deleted on the thread on Getter that Newsom liked. In September, Newsom went to, Newsom went to a hotel in Burr Ridge, Illinois, where migrants had been sent from Texas. He filmed people in the lobby, and there’s links to all of this, you know, there’s links to some of this stuff.
Um, so you know that these events actually happened and stuff. The Southern Poverty Law Center is doing good at leaving sources here. In September, Newsom went to a hotel in Burr Ridge, Illinois, where migrants had been sent from Texas. He filmed people in the lobby, many of whom were children, and posted the video on Getter.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, bused 64 migrants to Chicago in late August as part of a plan to protest President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. State officials reportedly housed the migrants in a shelter in the city before moving them to Burr Ridge, which is right next to Darien, where Newsom lives.
He drove to the hotel and recorded the video inside the lobby. He circles around the room to capture video of migrants who are mostly families with young children eating breakfast and talking amongst themselves. Nobody appears to notice Newsom recording the video, which lasts for about a minute.
Outside the hotel, Newsom records himself confronting a Spanish speaking person and attempts to use a translation app on a smartphone to find out when they arrived. After the migrant uses the translation app to respond, Newsom cannot figure out how to play it and condescendingly barks. No comprende before ending the recording.
Newsom also spreads misinformation about the January 6th insurrection online. Without furnishing proof, Newsom explicitly states on social media that he was on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, but he does not say whether he stepped inside. I was there. They didn’t even fight the cops during the initial confrontation between the Capitol police and protesters, Newsom commented on a June 30th Getter thread.
about whether the Oath Keepers inspired violence that day. His comments directly contradict extensive video evidence from the day of the attack.
Local media prominence. Since Newsom began his public activities, he has appeared as a source for NBC News, Chicago, ABC7, Chicago, WGN TV, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and the Daily Herald. I will read an article shortly about from the Chicago Sun Times that he, I believe he was quoted in about the Proud Boys Um, school board meeting that I was at
his connections to hate groups and embrace the far and embrace the far right extremist rhetoric have gone unremarked upon in these publications. The funny thing is, um, I told the Chicago Tribune my story and I told them that I had been believed I had been targeted by proud boys and I told them all of these reasons why that I’ll get into more of it later.
But. They didn’t even print any of what I said about being targeted by Proud Boys. And yet they let this guy go on there and say whatever, and they don’t point out that he’s a far right extremist.
He has also appeared on Newsmax, which circulates misinformation about COVID, the 2020 election, and crime rates. Newsom appears as a source in junk news outlets that disguise conservative talking points as local news coverage. These media operations use computer generated content and content published by outsourced writers who use fake names.
Commonly referred to as pink slime, which refers to a meat byproduct used by a filler in the beef industry, these These outlets were, are found across the U. S. Approximately 1, 300 of these news sites are operated by conservative operatives Brian Timpone and Dan Proft. In his appearances on these sites, Newsom largely plays the role of an aggrieved suburban dad upset at perceived leftist policies in his children’s schools.
Newsom also frequently appears as a guest in local Chicago media as a source for reporters looking for the voices. Voice of a parent engaged in efforts to ban books and curricula that challenge reactionary views on American culture and history. In September, Newsom appeared on a local news program, Chicago Tonight, opposite Jonathan Friedman, a director from PEN America, an organization that opposes efforts to by anti education activists to ban books.
After discussing efforts to ban the book Genderqueer, which I have already mentioned, Newsom tells Friedman, It has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with LGBTQ. The parents in my community are against the graphic pornography. Friedman’s response puts these images into a larger context that Newsom left out.
When you read that book from cover to cover, it is impossible to find those images tintillating in some way.
The book is about a main character’s feelings of asexuality and how off putting they find those acts. In that sense, it’s not really about sex at all. It’s actually about not engaging in sex. And the funny thing is, when these people showed up at the school board meeting, they were, they were, they were protesting banning this book.
And if, and I will share, um, maybe I can share the link. I’ll share the links to all these things, I guess I can do that for you. I don’t know. In the comments, so you can actually read them for yourself. So this is all about, um,
this is Terry Newsom and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Link,
uh,
oh, I know I wanted to put in. So, in case you were just interested in reading it yourself and didn’t want to, um, look up the link, I am going to put the link for.
I’m going to put the link for, um, Trump administration, civil and human rights rollbacks
in the, in, so you can read it yourself. Okay,
let’s see, let me go back this way. I’m going to see something really quickly. Oops.
Okay. All right. I’m just looking up something really quickly. Okay. All right. So, um, all right. So that’s just a little bit of the, um, background on the people that are involved in and Jim Devitt also ran for, um, it was one of the people that I had mentioned before he actually, um, he actually ran for, um, Um, village commissioner of Downers Grove in the last election and, um, luckily he lost, but, um, But he, um, was working with Terry Newsome on a lot of stuff.
Like, I don’t know if he’s just, like, Terry Newsome’s sidekick or what. But, um, uh, I’m looking for something really quickly.
So, if you happen to be here on Facebook, I’d like you to look up, Mary Lemanski is misunderstood. And, um, Uh, these people created a, um, Facebook group and they were targeting me. Um, and, uh, I think they’ve gone through since and, um, and, um, deleted a lot of the posts. Particularly there was one, um, where Terry Newsom was talking about, um, about my body armor.
Um, And it was kind of suspect. I can, uh, I have saved a lot of this stuff in a folder. Um, and so, like, at some point, I’m going to go through it all and really, um, if I do the book and really post it, but, um, so, like, here’s, here’s one, um,
There, there’s just different, um, quotes, or they’re, they, they go on and, um, They, they shared my posts into these, this group and they, um, there was one where I was doing a little, it was, um, it was perform on your porch day. Or something like, I think that’s it, Perform on Your Porch Day. In August, it’s like the first, second, first or second Saturday in August is Perform on Your Porch Day.
And I was performing on my porch and I had posted on social media that I was performing on my porch and they were driving by my house while I was performing. Um, but you can, you can see, um, where they were targeting me. And, oh, here’s one. This is Jim Devitt Anybody know if she ever got like she wanted?
Too bad is illegal for a felon to have body armor lol They think I’m a felon. I don’t know where they got the idea that I’m a felon
I seriously don’t know
I like the reputation that I’m a bad girl, but But I’m definitely not a felon. I’m a single mom with two kids. Um, but he seemed very concerned that I, I, about whether I have body armor or not. So you can go and just look up, Mary Lewanski is misunderstood, and you will find the group on Facebook. Um, See for yourself, uh, they, they have deleted a lot of the posts on there.
I, because I called them out, uh, when Jim Devitt was running for Village Commissioner, I posted all of that stuff on Facebook, on the Downers Grove Facebook groups. I went around to all the Downers Grove Facebook groups I could find and posted, Hey, look, this guy targeted me on social media. Um, after my comment about, uh, after my tweets went viral.
They had this group and they continued to harass me for years afterwards. And they still, I’m still getting stuff. So you can see it for yourself. Mary Lemanski is misunderstood. Look it up. It’s a group on Facebook. Join it. Chat me up. Um, anyway, uh, let’s see, what else can I cover? Haha, I’m just getting started.
So one thing we learned, um, there was, so, so there was a group called Wake Up DG99, um, which is, was the, uh, DG99 is the school district, Downers Grove 99, District 99, uh, and, uh, so there was a group called DG, Wake Up DG99, and through our, um, research in the Downers Grove Township Integrity Project. We learned that, uh, Wake Up DG99 was funded by Wake Up Illinois, and Wake Up Illinois has ties to Turning Point USA.
Um, and Turning Point USA is basically, um, a, a group that, um, targets school boards all across the United States.
So, big money, huh? Let’s get into it, shall we? So they claim, okay, Trump, uh, Turning Point USA is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom. But yet they’re, they’re actively giving money to groups to go around and work on banning books.
Um, I’m not going to get into Turning Point USA right now. Uh, you can look into them yourself, research them yourself. Um, they have, it looks like a four day event. Um,
uh, ultra conservative people. Let’s see.
Student Action Summit is a three day event for students and young adults. This conference brings you the best and brightest speakers in the country, hundreds of like minded sponsoring organizations, and an energy you can feel. Student Action Summit was created to activate and mobilize a generation that will boldly defend America’s freedom.
I just don’t, and they have a Young Women’s Leadership Summit. I just, I just don’t see how banning books is
freedom.
Okay.
Um, the Wake Up Illinois Facebook group administrator, Dave Tillmack, was associated with the Freedom Movement USA.
And Freedom Movement USA
I am not findingFreedom Movement USA.
They seem to be a Trump hacker or something.
So it looks like it’s not being posted on currently. Since October 8th of last year, it hasn’t been posted on their, their, um, Instagram page has not been posted on. However, what did I see back there? It says,
if you want to hold a Trump rally or have one plan, let us know. We have a goal to help organize and then it cuts off. Um,
So yeah, they’re definitely, definitely, uh, a far right, um, group.
It’s Freedom Movement USA. So, um, one second. And I will, um, so,
I will read here, um, about,
I will read here about the Pratt boys, um, and how they came to the school. Um, so as I, as I was saying before, um, this is the part of the book that, uh, it’s kind of, I’m not all written down right here or it’s not written down in a way that I want to read. Um, So, I’ll just tell you. So, we, we, we’re, we’re doing these weekly meetings.
Um, we are doing a lot of research. We were, um, into these groups. Um, like, who is funding them? Who, who is funding Wake Up DG99 and all these other groups? And, um, what was that? Uh, Awake Illinois. And, and those we were looking into who was funding them. And, um, looking how to counteract the lies that they were spreading.
And, um, and so we were going to the school board meetings and speaking. Um, and, um, one of them happened to be at my son’s high school and the proud boy showed up
and, um,
they had us split up into two sides. So we weren’t all mixed up, or at least that’s the way people naturally sat. So, um, so on one side you had like Gene Ives, Terry Newsome, or, I don’t know if Gene Ives was there, but Laura Hoyce was there, Jim Devitt, um, Terry Newsome, I don’t know if Dave Tomek was there, but, um, But I know Terry Newsome and Jim Devitt and Laura Hoyce were all at the meeting.
The meeting and sitting on the same side as the Pratt boys. And I believe, um, Terry Newsome was the one that handed out the signs. Now, the signs, so they’re protesting, right? They’re protesting, pornography as they say, because these images they say are pornography and there are students on the school board.
There’s student representation on the school board and there were students attending the school board meeting because they wanted to get up and speak. And these far right activists are in proud boys. Well, the far right activists were the ones. The Namely, probably Terry Newsome. Um, He handed out signs.
To the proud boys and these signs were giant, like, like three foot, four foot signs of the, of the, the pornography that they didn’t want the kids to see. Like, let’s just blow it up. We don’t want the kids to see this, but let’s just make huge poster boards of it and show it to everybody. I mean, how does that make any sense?
Yeah, they were trying to probably show the adults, Oh, look at this bad thing. But the adults can pick up the book and read it and go and protest against you. You know, I mean, they can make educated decisions to not, to not go with your bigoted viewpoint. You don’t have to, to, to make a sign that’s four feet tall of what you consider pornography.
That you don’t want kids to see. That where there’s going to be kids doesn’t make any sense at all. None.
