He's baa-ack!

Former Dover (Pa.) Area School Board member William Buckingham, who resigned from the Board and lit out for North Carolina before the Board elections and before the decision in Kitzmiller v Dover, eventually returned to town and has now spoken up in a letter to the York Dispatch.

You may remember him from his "stand up for the man who died on a cross 2,000 years ago" speech, or from his soliciting of donations from his church to buy copies of the creationist text Of Pandas and People to be used as references in Dover biology classes. My personal favorite is his "Homer Simpson" moment where, as he went to keep an appointment with a reporter (which he later characterized as being ambushed on his way to his car), he thought to himself, "Don't say 'creationism'--don't say 'creationism'--don't say 'creationism'..." but then blurted out "Creationism...d'oh!"

His letter, published the other day, addressed the issue of the reported likely non-renewal of contracts for Superintendent Richard Nilsen and Assistant Superintendent Michael Baksa. While no reasons were publicly given, speculation that their roles in bringing Intelligent Design into the curriculum is a factor is unavoidable. Buckingham holds Nilsen blameless, merely acting as a negotiator between Board and teachers. The funny part of the letter is:

Wake up people. This school board isn't what it seems to be. Their real agenda is slowly coming out.

Their real agenda? Maybe the new school board wants to avoid reminding people of "the traveling tent revivals that used to set up at the York Fairgrounds," as former Board member Carol "Casey" Brown testified in the case. Maybe their real agenda is to figure out how to pay for needed infrastructure maintenance after their predecessors blew $1M in their anti-science folly.