PART IV

Part I of this story exposed the plot to take down Dr. Looney, Superintendent of Williamson County Schools. Part II suggested the underlying motives and the plans for privatization of the schools. Part III illustrated some of the extreme views and methods being used under the aim of shifting the values of the nation, the state, and the county.

Since nearly all of the protagonists of this story are members of the 912 Project, this article seeks to understand the group in a little more detail.

The 912 Project: “The coiled serpent of reaction lies ready to strike”

At the national level, the 912 (Nine-Twelve) Project simply appears to be a values-based organization that is non-partisan. Nothing is wrong with this, and most Americans could identify with some, or even all, of the stated principles, even if there is controversy over whether one or two of them are constitutional for an elected government to adopt.

The nine core principles are:

1. America Is Good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The twelve values are:
1.Honesty; 2.Reverence; 3.Hope; 4.Thrift; 5.Humility; 6.Charity; 7 Sincerity; 8.Moderation; 9.Hard Work; 10.Courage; 11.Personal Responsibility; 12.Gratitude

Again, there is nothing that most people would disagree with here. Perhaps the only question is, with such strong values, are we really seeing the membership model them in Williamson County, even when under pressure?

Each of the local and national chapters of the 912 Project are independent, and there are several political action committees (PACs) that pool campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates.

When you find the source of the rattlesnake emblem of the 912 Project in the Library of Congress, and read the caption underneath, you can perhaps understand why the local chapters of the 912ers are beginning to take on militia-like characteristics.

On the verge of taking over the Republican Party

One of the national sites describes how the movement is already on the verge of taking over the Grand Old Party (GOP). Books are being sold on Amazon under the catch-phrase “We Surround Them”; this dramatic threat has even invaded the American station wagon, as seen on eBay. It’s perhaps easier now to see why when “terrorist group” Williamson Strong called themselves a “grassroots” movement, it put salt in a battle-wound of a group that, for several years, has been using the same label.

Recently, the lines between the 912 Project and the Williamson County Republican Party have become difficult to distinguish. The meetup pages of the 912 Project co-mingle with GOP messaging and fund-raising, and declared GOP candidates such as Steven Gawrys are both visible and active in their 912 membership.

The stated mission of the 912 Project Tennessee is explicitly to manipulate the elections by electing “any man or woman who can unwaveringly defend these ideals and understands that he works at the pleasure of the people as part of a true republic.”

Local chapter president, J. Lee Douglas, stated recently with apparent excitement that “we have a chance for the first time since we have been in existence to take our Williamson County School Board with 912ers and conservatives.”

The 912ers in this particular School Board election are Paul Bartholomew, Jay Galbreath, Candy Emerson, Dr. Beth Burgos and Susan Curlee; the 912Project also endorses candidate Dan Cash.

At the State level the progress is similar. Two weeks ago, J. Lee Douglas wrote “By the end of the week, the eight Tennessee County GOPs on record for criticizing Governor Haslam will have grown to twenty who are breaking the silence of approval to anything our Republican elected officials do.”

The Mind Control Conjecture

The Tennessee 912ers seem to believe that the United States Government, the Illuminati, or some other “liberal” groups have been and continue to “program” our children with the Common Core. I don’t mean this as a cheap jab. They actually seem to believe this.

On the group’s home page, they ask three questions commonly associated with the mind control conjecture and state “If you’ve answered YES, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie.” We won’t go into the long story of the Wizard of Oz conspiracies, but those interested in Illuminati, links to Adolf Hitler, and more should research the sources listed at the end of this article further.

While three quarters of the administrators in Williamson County Schools believe the Common Core standards are an improvement over the prior standards, the Common Core has become a divisive issue for the election.

912 founder, Glenn Bleck’s media outlet circulated an image of a father’s frustration with his son’s homework that went viral in social media, and created a movement building on fears of NSA snooping. The basic premise is that the Federal Government, the Obama administration, Bill Gates, the Pearson publishing group, and even friends of Islam are using Common Core to program the next generation with liberal and non-Christian beliefs.

Many local anti-common core coalitions express views similar to that of the Florida chapter below that has been debunked by Politifact as a “pants on fire” false claim.

“The goal of Common Core is to instill federally determined attitudes and mindsets in students including political and religious beliefs.”

The 912 Project is actually funding replacements to the Common Core with a complete “Heritage Based Curriculum” such as this example from the non-profit 501(c)3 arm of the national 912 Project. The curriculum aims to send children “on a daily journey back to the founding of our nation and learn the truth about our history and the impact faith had on both the founding fathers and the foundation of our country.”

This would certainly make back to school supplies look a little different.

The Stealthy Jihad

The local 912ers in Williamson County have been hosting since 2012 meetups such as “Foundations of Islam, Understanding the Core Doctrine”.

In the Tennessean article “Anti-Islam group finds fertile ground in Nashville” 912 Project Tennessee president and local dentist, J. Lee Douglas, describes his anti-Muslim concerns and defends his membership of ACT!, the largest group of its kind in the nation. The leaders of ACT! insist that Muslims “are involved in a stealthy jihad to destroy the United States from the inside out, replacing the Constitution with the Islamic legal code known as Shariah.”

Candidate for County Commissioner, Victoria Jackson also shares this belief. With confidential information that she apparently has special clearance to obtain as a web talk-show host, Jackson has claimed that the United States is being overtaken by radical Muslims bent on bringing the nation under Sharia law. She reported this in detail to the Huffington Post.

On her blog, Jackson routinely writes that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the White House and other branches of the government and advises us all to read www.understandingthethreat.com, a “threat-focused operational, strategic consultation.” You can’t make this stuff up.

If you think this is just one extremist’s point of view, check out the professional mini-series created by Glenn Beck’s documentary company (Glenn Beck is the founder of the 912 Project).

Organizing the 912 Candidates

We find the story of Kent R. Davis as the mastermind of this resistance activity, while factual from the emails, to be growing more tired with its increasing clarity. Even Don Beehler writes (in a public email shared with the entire School Board and with permission to share with anyone else interested) of Mr. Davis, “Frankly, he is not a very good writer and is sometimes confusing in what he writes. ‘Ugly stuff’ is not a term I would have used, but I understand his frustration.” Beehler did however confirm he is now “energized about working to elect candidates who reflect my views.” I doubt he will declare the donation of his services in kind to the State Election Commission.

We’d rather turn our attention to Dr. Beth Burgos, Dan Cash, Susan Curlee, and Candy Emerson, the four school board candidates who organized a press conference this week, along with their media organizer Alderman Bev Burger.

Burger chose to take a high profile in the James Amundsen accusations against Dr. Looney that WCS was the number one district in the State vs. number one in the country; at the time Burger stated: “Seems from the newspaper articles we have read in the Tennessean and Williamson Herald, our county has been misled by [Dr. Looney].” Burger was also implicated in the ugly stuff leaked to the Brentwood Home Page in April of this year when she was engaged in private correspondence from Kathy Danner about a secret process (denied by others later, and of questionable legality) to “to vet and encourage someone to run” for a School Board seat.

In contrast, with a lack of transparency in a press release issued Thursday to the local media, Burger used a rare private email, elka0529@yahoo.com generally anonymous but known by a few to be associated with her name, for the purpose of receiving responses from all media companies planning to be at the press conference.

The conference itself was largely ridiculed afterwards by the media. When asked why she was holding a press conference at a Williamson County public school when she didn't send any of her children to public schools (they are privately educated), Dr. Beth Burgos said “we aren’t taking questions today” and walked away, leaving members of the press bemused as to why there would be no question and answer period at what was assumed to be a press conference.

While it was harder to obtain a full transcript of the event, Victoria Jackson was kind enough to post it, and so we have reproduced it in its entirety with the press release. In it, you will find a number of inconsistencies.

For instance, all of the candidates denied “wanting to take over the school board”; if they don’t, I wonder why exactly are they running for election?

Then the denial on the desire to remove Dr. Looney:

“Not one of us has remotely entertained or expressed the desire to replace our superintendent Dr. Looney. Each of us look forward to working with him and supporting him in in his job as our superintendent and the quest to offer the best education possible in Williamson County.” (Dr. Beth Burgos)

They “acknowledge that there have been numerous emails sent out that we have been copied on” but complain that they “cannot control . . . . the emails they send to us”.

Hmmmm…. as one concerned parent put it on a public forum “If I received an email to 24 recipients suggesting a plot to overthrow the Superintendent and had no knowledge of said plan, I would reply-all and say, ‘What the heck are you talking about? Please remove me from your distribution list.’ It also wouldn’t take me several days to respond to the Tennessean about the mystery emails”

What about the sudden apparent support for Dr. Looney? Quite the opposite of Susan Curlee calling him “dismissive” on Twitter and apparently very different from the eye-witness report by one of the group’s staunchest supporters, Tim Raynaud.

Tim wrote earlier this week and prior to Dr. Burgos’ statements to the press, “When she knocked on my door, I asked Beth Burgos why she was running, and she was quite open about her belief that many on the current board, along with Dr. Looney should be replaced. There were no shadows.” So the exact opposite of what Dr. Burgos told the press.

So who are we to believe? Perhaps the Honesty and Personal Responsibility values of the 912 group are optional.

The Final Week of Early Voting

As the contest enters the final week of early voting, and a candidate forum is queued up for Monday, July 28, more of this story will likely unfold.

However, it is no longer clear if any of these 912ers, even if elected, would be able to stay in office. While this group feels the county should be above the law on issues such as Common Core, the State Election Commission may respond differently to complaints that the election law is being violated.

While beyond this author’s expertise to offer a legal interpretation, some are complaining that Tennessee code 49-2-201 would make such an election result invalid. This law states that “all elections for school board members shall be conducted on a nonpartisan basis, and no person seeking a position on a board shall campaign as the nominee or representative of any political party.”

One could well argue that the group themselves are a political party in their own right (holding joint press conferences, aligned on all issues, meeting in private to prepare for political activity according to Victoria Jackson, etc.). One could also argue that the 912 Project, as a self-declared political movement with a mission to nominate and elect representatives, is the de facto political party.

If the democrats and moderate republicans get out the vote as they are now waking up to do, then this technical question may be moot.

Only time (or the Illuminati) will tell.

Cover Photo 912 by Eva the Weaver (license)

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