Blaska accused of flattening a relationship

‘Why don’t you believe women?’

Friends and the morbidly curious asked why the parking lot attendant here at Blaska Policy Werkes would subject himself to a grilling at the hands of his school board election opponent on notoriously progressive WORT-FM 89.9 here in Madison WI. Why do missionaries, he retorted, preach to the heathens?

Aside from politics, Ali Muldrow can be a very pleasant person. For a progressive, she is intellectually curious — and some of her beliefs are very curious, although (unfortunately) mainstream in Madison. Ali hosts the community radio station’s noon-hour A Public Affair program on Wednesdays. She does a good job, we must admit. Headphones in place, rap music introduced the program. Blaska convulsed as if he were being electrocuted. Ali, on the other side of the broadcast table, smiled.

That’s one of the things she says she likes about me, my sense of humor. (Do I amuse you?) Before we went on the air, Ali asked if I was “carrying.” Our standard answer is that I might be but this time we answered no. Curious, that she should ask.

The station did experience a shooting in August 2018 during a late-night rap music program. The funky, cinder-block radio station is painted with early 1970s street art. At the entrance is one of those ubiquitous “No Firearms” signs, as if a piece of aluminum was a talisman imbued with super protective powers — shaming any gunman into returning his piece to the trunk of his vehicle.

Monger them grievances, sister!

Ali’s interview started off badly. “You describe yourself as … anti-immigration.”

“I’m anti-illegal immigration,” Blaska corrected. But you get her imputation: he hates black and brown people.

Ali Muldrow stayed in attack mode: “Why do you generally distrust women when they complain of sexual assault?”

Blaska tried to explain the concept of due process, Michael Avenetti’s disproved confabulations against Brett Kavanaugh, Jussie Smollett and other hoaxes, without noticeable success.

How come you didn’t write about the Central Park Five? she demanded. Because I didn’t, one supposes.

A caller asked if Blaska espouses small government why he opposes Abortion. As a thought exercise, Blaska asked if a baby 8½ months in gestation could be considered a human being rather than merely the “tissue and fluids” of Ms. Muldrow’s locution. As she did several times during the hour, Ali moved the goal posts: “I do not think a woman who miscarries should be punished.” Miscarriage? (!)

A caste of thousands

Ms. Muldrow kept throwing long. “Being a conservative means supporting … traditional ideas of genders and social caste systems,” she announced. (“Social caste systems”! Madison parents, identity politics rules your school board!)

Blaska parried: “Your friend Ananda Mirilli … accused me of creating the system she is trying to undo. … [But] the system we have is so great that people are trying to get in illegally … because they know you can succeed in America if you work. I’m afraid we’re telling kids … it’s the teachers fault, it is the system’s fault, you are a victim therefore you cannot be expected to be accountable for your actions.”

Rather than address the substance, Ms. Muldrow announced that she had just been triggered, the default mode of social justice warriors everywhere.

“I want to correct you,” Ms. Muldrow lectured. “Ananda’s name is pronounced “Ah-NAHN-duh.”

Blaska speaks Wisconsin, apparently, which defaults to a flat-A pronunciation.  Wisconsin pronounces Aunt, for example, as “Ant” instead of “AWEnt.” My bad. Apparently, I had just disrespected a Latina immigrant from Brazil by mispronouncing her name. Blaska blames his Midwestern parents, who apparently have been de-listed from the Greatest Generation.

B-Flat or be square

Blaska had committed a micro-aggression and Ali must scold him: “You also called her ‘my friend’ and that is a flattening of our relationship. Ah-NAHN-duh is a fellow school board member, elected the same time I was.”

“You’re not friends?” Blaska sputtered. (Ali and Ah-NAHN-duh did campaign as a team, with both their names and likenesses on the same signage.)

Muldrow: “I think it just flattens a multi-dimensional relationship.”

Blaska apologized. “The last thing I want is to flatten a multi-dimensional relationship.” 

What do YOU think?