When I was in elementary school back in the 1950s, a couple of times a year there would be a fire drill. If the students and teachers did not evacuate the building quickly enough, we did it all over again. It was a big deal.
The thing I remember most about fire drills is that a fire alarm was never, ever to be pulled as a joke or a prank. Making a false fire alarm was such a despicable and reprehensible act, according to our teachers, that the consequences resulted in a fate worse than death. You never saw your parents or siblings again. You were shipped off to devil’s island or incurred such a draconian punishment that it instilled such fear in our young minds that this was something you would never, ever do.
Today’s psychologist would likely say that the teachers of that era caused irreparable harm to the tender psyche of their students. But the bottom line is that to this day, I never see a fire alarm without thinking of those warnings.
Which brings me to the subject of New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman. The forty-seven-year-old Democrat, who happens to be Black, took office on January 3, 2021, winning in a landslide victory with 84% of the vote in New York’s heavily Democratic 16th Congressional District.
Late Saturday evening, as the fate of the legislation to keep the government funded hung in the balance, Bowman was photographed by government security cameras pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon Office Building, where he has his congressional office.
Bowman’s chief of staff has offered an apology and stated that the congressman did not realize that the alarm would trigger a building alarm as he was on his way to make a vote on the crucial issue — he thought the alarm would just open a door. A full-scale congressional investigation will now proceed to determine the truth of the allegations against the congressman, but the preliminary evidence gleaned from security cameras is clear — he’s seen pulling the fire alarm.
Ironically, prior to running for Congress, Bowman was an educator, earning a masters and Ph.D. in education. He previously served as a crises management teacher — whatever that is — and a school principal. But he must have missed the classes where they talked about fire alarms, which further proves the point that book smarts don’t equate with common sense.
Democrats have had a field day talking about the bizarre conduct of some of the Republican members of Congress, such as Lauren Boebert who was recently escorted out of a Denver movie theater after creating a disturbance based on allegations of inappropriate contact with her male companion, not to mention the bizarre antics of Republican congresspersons such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and George Santos.
But Dems will have to wear that jacket for Bowman. While he’s clearly entitled to a full hearing, his defense doesn’t seem very credible. Would anyone really confuse a fire alarm with a door opening mechanism? If I were the congressman, I would not sign a long-term lease for my Washington accommodations and hope that I could go back to teaching, although I’m not sure that I would want someone that stupid to teach my child. Bowman has earned the right to be a one-time congressman and proves the point that stupidity has no political, racial or gender restraints. Democrats can be just as stupid as Republicans and Independents.
If you are so stupid that you don’t know the difference between a door opener and a fire alarm and that there are security cameras all over government buildings, it seems to me that you have flunked the basic IQ test for a person serving in congress. But on the other hand, the level of intelligence for members of congress has sunk so low in the last decade or so, nothing seems to surprise me anymore.
Pack your bags, Congressman Bowman, and head back to New York, and by the way don’t pass any fire alarms on your way out.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she is a former member of the Board of the Ohio History Connection, and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, and is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
2 Responses to “POINT OF ORDER: Stupidity Is Non-Partisan by C. Ellen Connally”
Mel Maurer
Another A-hole wanting to ne a hero. We don’t have a congress – just a circus.
fred sim
This is about Boman and a fire alarm being as screwed up as MAGA members of congress gee lady watch PBS or read a newspaper. In short you are so wrong.