This week, a public forum was held for residents to get to know the candidates running for the Board of Library Trustees in the upcoming Town Election held on April 4th. During that forum, two of the candidates; Brian Curry and Michael Terry disclosed their opposition to sexually explicit materials having a place in the library.
After the forum, a LTE was submitted by Vanessa Alvarado which (predictably) chastised Curry and Terry over their views labeling them effectively as “homophobes”.
Shortly after Alvarado’s letter, (seemingly on cue), residents sharing Alvarado’s world view began what I call “the dog pile” tactic of aggressive, manufactured outrage, defaming anyone who might dare to diverge from their opinion.
You see, “The Dog Pile” is a tactic that a small group of people in this town frequently deploy in order to weaponize the citizens in this community against one another. Every week it seems, this same group of people relentlessly manufactures crisis after crisis, to keep the spell they have people under fresh, with a new reason to “dog pile” and a new person to “dog pile on”.
This week it just happens to be Brian Curry and Michael Terry over a book in the library. Next week it will be someone and something different.
My letter today is not in support of a particular candidate, it is in support of a Town that I used to love. It’s to throw the people in this town, whom I still believe in, a life preserver while they can still help themselves get out of the mess we continue to enable.
This Town is Under a Spell
The life our kids will have will be so much more complicated than the one we grew up in. The most important skill they will need in the future is critical thinking. In order for us to help foster critical thinking skills for them, we must hold ourselves to a standard that thinks critically and model these behaviors for our kids.
The world we live in isn’t one that welcomes critical thinking, it is a world that is perfectly fine telling you what to think:
- This is why you’ve allowed yourself to be manipulated into thinking this town is racist, that America is racist, that your neighbors are hateful, and your community isn’t accepting of people with alternative lifestyles.
- Its why you allowed a position to be funded paying someone over $100K a year, to sit in the Town Library “combating social justice issues”.
- Its why you remain silent while your kids are being asked to disclose whether they identify as a “boy” or a “girl” upon their entry into 6th grade at Coolidge Middle School
- Its why you are willing to defend the inclusion and placement of a book that depict graphic sex acts (among other things) in the Public Library, in an area where your 12 year old could access.
- Its why you’ve put up with the Staff at a Children’s Public Library who advertise Drag Queen Story Hour yet oppose background checks on the Drag Queens (or any other volunteer for that matter).
Part of being an adult and setting an example for your kids means having the ability to put your ego and politics aside, look at yourself in the mirror and consider the possibility that the things you’ve been led to believe simply aren’t true.
If you are one of those people, then please allow me to break down the entire scam for you in plain English.
Breaking the Spell:
The “Social Justice Movement” in America is not something which you should confuse with the Civil Rights Movement that Dr. Martin Luther King made famous. If anyone thinks that is racist, I don’t care, it’s the truth.
Civil Rights
Dr. King’s entire approach was built around what success looked like- people of different races, coming together as people, leaving the sins of those who came before them where they belong, in the past. Dr. King also understood that the most important element of sustainable race relations was for the children of subsequent generations, to grow up in a world that did not see in terms of black or white.
Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t killed because America wasn’t ready for unity. Dr. King was killed because what he was doing was going to work. He was the last great African American Leader who could tell you what “success” looked like and had a plan to get there.
Dr. King’s “Dream” was for his four children to grow up in a world where they were not judged by the color of their skin but instead were judged by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 5th, 1968, and here I am writing this Letter on March 31st, 2023; 55 years later.
- Turn on the TV.
- Take a spin on social media.
- Go to the movies.
- Look at ANY Town Meeting, Select Board Meeting, School Committee Meeting on YouTube.
- Read every weekly School Newsletter that’s ever been published.
- Look at the mission statement for the Social Justice Department we just created.
Let me know when you find someone in the Social Justice Movement talking about the content of anyone’s character. You won’t find any. In fact, you will not find a single program, social group, committee, or paid employee of the Town, State, Federal Government or NGO that will be able to tell you what “success” looks like.
If you’ve never stopped to wonder, why that is, then let me tell you. It’s because the purpose of these groups and the Social Justice movement is not to make things better as Dr. King’s was. They are designed to bring down a society from within and if that seems outlandish to you then maybe you should keep reading.
Social Justice
“Social Justice” is a term that was probably created by a focus group. Its marketing spin for what it really is, which is Ideological Subversion. Ideological Subversion is a real tactic that countries (including the United States) have used to overthrow foreign countries without having to deploy their army in order to do it.
The best explanation of what Ideological Subversion is, was given by Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB Agent who defected to America in the 80’s and went on TV to warn Americans of what was happening to their country.
Bezmenov outlined that ideological subversion entailed a series of steps and tactics which included infiltration, influence, propaganda, and direct action. His presentations are fascinating, and you can find one of his hour-long seminars by clicking on this link.
Yuri said that it took 15-25 years to achieve one generation of subversion because that’s how long it took to indoctrinate one generation of children into the skewed world view.
The act of subversion revolves around attacking 6 areas in a society where public opinion is shaped.
- Religion
- Educational Systems
- Social Life
- Politics
- Law Enforcement Systems
- Labor and Employer Relations
In the 80’s Yuri was warning us about the Soviet Union’s subversion of Western Society that was built around Marxism or Socialism,. That said, he was clear that these tactics were not limited to the Soviet Union. He said that was closer to a martial art tactic designed to allow a small person to defeat a much larger opponent because the entire method revolved around getting your enemy to defeat itself.
Subversion is led by Agents whose goal is to force their enemy to fight internal battles, simultaneously, on as many fronts as possible. To accomplish this, the Agent targets groups of people within a society who are (as Yuri puts it) “against the society”. This is the lone criteria that the Agent looks for, it doesn’t matter what the group is, what it stands for, or anything else.
Once the Agent has identified the groups to attack each of the 6 areas where public opinion is formed, they approach those groups and earn their trust by reinforcing their perceived beliefs. Once the Agent has successfully earned the trust of their targets, the next stage is to unify these disparate groups against their common enemy with the goal of bringing the society into a series of “crisis”.
The effect of these crisis’ is twofold:
- To Demoralize the People Within the Society: Basically, anyone who is part of the societal norm within each of the 6 focus areas (in Reading that would be Heterosexual, Caucasian, Christians for example).
The Agent’s constantly reinforces the moral superiority of the groups who are against the society using propaganda (media). Eventually, people who embrace the societal norm become so demoralized they give up, letting what they previously fought for to evolve into “a new normal”.
- To Create the Pretense for a “Solution” to the Crisis: The Agent of Subversion knows that once the people within a society have been demoralized to a certain degree, those people will become malleable to just about any solution, if they believe it will “make the problem go away”.
Therefore, the Agent introduces solutions which often will include “new positions” which will be staffed by people who are against the societal norms, training curriculum whose function will be to re-train the people in the society to accept a “new normal”, or both.
The final phase of ideological subversion is the process of “normalization”. Normalization refers to the period of time where the people in the society come to accept a custom or a dynamic that was previously in direct opposition to the societal norm.
This process continues indefinitely with each crisis and solution serving to reinforce everything that came before it. The longer the process continues, the more demoralized the people in the society get, the less they resist. Rinse, repeat.
Sound familiar?
The Difference Between Civil Rights and Social Justice
So, as you can see, there is a BIG difference between Civil Rights and Social Justice.
- The Civil Rights movement championed by Dr. King had a vision (peace and harmony), a plan on how to get there (peaceful protest and nonviolent civil disobedience only when necessary), and can describe what “success” looks like (adults and children alike, seeing one another as people instead of as a singular characteristic).
- The Social Justice movement is championed by subversive interests who hate Western Civilization, who seek out groups of (literally) any type, who take issue with societal norms, reinforce the beliefs of these groups, and set them loose against their common enemy- Society and anyone who lives within societal norms.
The Social Justice movement has no vision (beyond the destruction of the societal norm and complete submission of those who embrace those norms), it does have a plan (violent protests, cancel culture, propaganda, etc.). Lastly it cannot honestly describe what their “success” looks like because the “success” for Social Justice is the complete destruction of every societal norm across every area of society where opinion is shaped.
Social Justice = Ideological Subversion and We Are ALL Victims of It
Our Town has become a miserable place to live because we have allowed Agents of Ideological Subversion, supported from individuals from outside of our community, to infiltrate and weaponize our compassion so our own citizens fight each other as they attack every societal norm, in every area of our lives where public opinion is shaped.
Which is why Michael Terry and Brian Curry were defamed this week for speaking out against a book. Michael Terry and Brian Curry were standing up for every parent in this town who does not want their 12-year-old to walk into the “Teen Room” of the Reading Public Library, looking for a book about Dinosaurs, only to end up reading a book that teaches him how to give fellatio to another boy.
The Ideological Subversion of Our Schools, Library, Utilities and Town Government
At the start of this letter, I mentioned a LTE written by Vanessa Alvarado. If you are unfamiliar with recent local political history, you might not know who Vanessa Alvarado is so let me tell you who she is.
Vanessa Alvarado is one of the most intelligent, cunning people, I have ever witnessed at any level of government. Having observed her execute her vision for this town from afar, its impossible not to respect the skills she brings to the table.
Unfortunately for the people of Reading, her “vision” appears to be the complete obliteration of the societal norms that has made our town a desirable place to live for the past 300 years.
She also happens to be the Nexus Point of every radical initiative that has destabilized our community.
This is why the LTE that Vanessa wrote is not “just a letter” from a concerned parent. It’s also why the average person in Reading who doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on around here, needs to understand exactly how this all ties into the upcoming Election on April 4th.
The Attempted Subversion of our Police Department in 2020
As most of us remember, the summer of 2020 was complete chaos, as riots and civil unrest overtook the nation in the wake of the George Floyd incident. George Floyd’s death on May 25th, 2020, created a “crisis” over the “improper use of force” by Police. The underlying “crisis” was identified as systemic racism within our “Law Enforcement Systems”. As you will remember, the proposed “solution” at the time, was to “defund the police”.
Once crime rates predictably skyrocketed, and politicians were getting car jacked, the Police were promptly re-funded with a new solution taking its place: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training, coupled with increased scrutiny around any use of force.
What if I told you that Vanessa Alvarado (then Chair of Reading’s Select Board) along with now disgraced Former Select Board Member Andy Friedman were pushing the narrative which would come as a result of George Floyd’s death, THREE MONTHS before the George Floyd incident occurred? I
Weird right? Its almost like they had an advance copy of a script or something.
When the opportunity presented itself for the Select Board to appoint a new Chief of Police in 2020. The proposition of Vanessa being able to appoint a Police Chief who was sympathetic to groups who were “against the society” was too pivotal a position for her to risk not being in complete control of.
Fortunately, our Town’s Charter featured a little thing called “Checks and Balances” which precluded the Select Board from driving that search. That responsibility fell upon the Town Manager who, despite reporting directly to the Select Board, had a backbone and did not allow the process to be tampered with.
Once Vanessa understood that the Town Manager (with support from then Select Board Member John Halsey) was not going to allow her to circumvent the process, Vanessa (as SB Chair) brought the entire selection process to a grinding halt, leaving Reading’s (then) interim Police Chief (and the Reading Police Department) in a holding pattern.
All of this came to a head at the Select Board Meeting on February 10th in a room with every Reading Police Officer not on duty in attendance, Halsey confronted Vanessa on the issue. During this tense debate, Friedman decided to chime in and completely unravel Vanessa’s strategy- saying that the Police Department presence at the meeting was intimidating to him “because they have guns”.
Links to the relevant moments of that meeting can be found below:
(1) A Brief Explanation of the Issue
(2) Vanessa’s “Collegial” Response
(3) Andy Friedman Screws Everything Up
This meeting also marked the first time we would get a glimpse of the mentor/mentee relationship Vanessa was fostering with people she identified within our community as key operatives for her cause. As the Police Department walked out of the room in disgust over Friedman’s comments you can see two people remaining:
- Karen Herrick can be seen in front row (far left).
- Two rows behind Herrick, all the way to the right sat Sean Brandt.
The Fallout from the February 10th Fiasco
The organic outrage from the community given the treatment of the interim Police Chief (who was also in attendance on the 10th) pressured the Select Board to do the right thing. At their very next meeting they cha made the interim Chief of Police, the permanent Chief of Police.
Inconceivably, less than 30 days after the February 10th incident, John Halsey, the only Select Board Member who came to the aid of the Police Department (and the primary opposition to Vanessa’s agenda) lost his bid for re-election in stunning fashion- getting 42 LESS votes than Andy Friedman, the man who insulted the entire Police Department on life television.
If that does not make any sense to you, I understand.
However, any suggestion that the COVID-19 Early Voting at the Reading Public Library, whose staff who want your child to read “Gender Queer” front to back- could have, in any way, contributed to the shocking results, would be completely absurd.
With the benefit of hindsight, its now evident that both Brandt (School Committee) and Herrick (Select Board) were in attendance on February 10th to shadow Vanessa, as both Herrick and Brandt were newly elected in the March 3rd 2020 Town Election.
Brandt’s advocacy on the School Committee has been the primary point of entry for the Ideological Subversion of Reading’s “Educational Systems” (here is Brandt proclaiming his support of Critical Race Theory).
For Herrick however, the events that would transpire would end up taking her from an Apprentice to Vanessa Alvarado, to a Manchurian Candidate for Vanessa Alvarado.
As it turns out, Police-Gate motivated thousands of citizens in Reading to successfully petition for Vanessa Alvarado’s Recall from the Select Board. Despite several attempts by her to invalidate the petition for her recall, the process moved forward with a special recall election being scheduled for September of 2020.
The Puppet and the Puppeteer
With the looming threat of being recalled on the horizon, Vanessa had to find a way to continue implementing her agenda without having the political fallout of that implementation be associated with her. This is where Karen Herrick came in. Karen provided Vanessa with a willing proxy to continue the agenda that Vanessa wanted to implement.
Karen Herrick’s entire Select Board career is distinguished, not because she represented the interests of the Community, but rather because she represented the interests of Vanessa Alvarado. Interests that, when not provided to her in script format, appear to have been communicated in real time, via text message.
Please familiarize yourself with Karen Herrick’s text message alert tone:
Ding! (1), Ding! (2), Ding! (3), Ding! (4), Ding! (5), Ding! (6), Ding! (7), Ding! (8), Ding! (9), Ding! (10)
For those who might say that I am being unfair to Karen because these examples aren’t recent, in the interest of fairness, here is a clip from the last Select Board Meeting (hopefully of her Political Career) where the haptic sounds of Karen’s constant typing is so distracting that her fellow Select Board Member speaks up.
Click, Click, (Karen Typing Furiously), Click, Click
The best example I can provide of Karen reading talking points that were prepared for her occurred on February 21, 2021. As anyone can clearly see, Karen’s delivery of the message is completely unnatural. While it does not sound like her, the statement is written exactly how Vanessa speaks, complete with her tone and structured (leading) follow up questions.
That said, biggest “tell” in this video is Alvarado. Look at the 6 boxes on the right of the Zoom screen that shows each person while Herrick is speaking. There is one person in those boxes whose body language indicates that she not only knows what Herrick will say but is invested in her delivery.
The only thing missing was Vanessa mouthing the words as Herrick spoke.
Vanessa Alvarado Loses Re-Election, Transfers Power Back to Herself
In April of 2021, Vanessa Alvarado lost her bid for re-election to Chris Haley. At their first meeting post-election, the Select Board needed to appoint a new Chair. Despite Mark Dockser having served as chair of the Select Board during/post Recall, who do you think was voted Chair?
Karen Herrick (Vanessa Alvarado)!
Vanessa (Through Karen) Transfers Power Back to Herself
“Karen Herrick’s” first order of business as Chair of the Select Board was to get even with the Town Manager who derailed Vanessa’s (I mean her) attempt to hire the Police Chief of her choosing. Conveniently enough, she did so in the exact same way “Vanessa” delayed the hiring of the Police Chief in 2020.
She used the authority of the Chair to set the agenda for the Select Board.
The Select Board is prohibited from discussing any matters which are not on the agenda, and the only person who is able to set that agenda is the Chair of the Select Board. Karen never put Bob LeLacheur’s contract renewal on the agenda which gave Bob LeLacheur (a good man who stood up for Reading) no alternative but to quit.
Commandeering the Talent Search for the New Town Manager
With no Town Manager to block her anymore, “Karen” cited a non-existent precedent from 2012 that stated the Chair (“her”) and Vice Chair (Ann Landry) could commandeer the talent search for the new Town Manager. The meeting minutes which Karen cited from 2012 indicated that the Vice Chair and a Member at Large from the Select Board would conduct the search. So, she lied.
However, in a turn of good luck (for a change), it doesn’t seem like “Karen Herrick” got her preferred candidate, as the Select Board “unanimously” voted to hire our new Town Manager Fidel Maltez. I guess we can thank Ann Landry for that one.
This, however, did not preclude Karen taking credit for the $8M in public grants that Fidel (with support of others) was able to secure for our Town, shortly after his hiring.
So, After All of This, What Do We Have to Show for It?
To bring this back to the beginning, as Michael Terry and Brian Curry were being defamed on social media this week, I saw that someone said something to the effect of “we have bigger issues in this town than a book”. I could not agree more with that statement. So much so in fact that I invested an inordinate amount of time to put together this letter for a town that has given me a great deal.
Whether Vanessa Alvarado knows what she is doing to our town, or whether she is being manipulated herself is not important. When it comes down to it, Reading is the way that it is because people like Vanessa care more about what they want to change your world into, then you do to protect it.
Like I said before, I don’t have to agree with Vanessa on anything to respect what she brings to the table. I don’t need Vanessa Alvarado, Karen Herrick, Shawn Brandt, the Library Staff or anyone else to change how they feel based on how I feel. They just don’t get to make decisions for our community (or work in the library) if how they feel is in direct opposition to the values and societal norms that makes our society function.
It is my most sincere hope that everyone in this town, who approaches their perspectives and ideologies from a place of compassion, find it in themselves to understand three things:
- For the past several years, we have all been mentally and emotionally abused by a much larger, subversive system, that is designed to turn our greatest strengths into our fatal weaknesses.
- We cannot run a stable, prosperous society in the way Reading has been run for the past decade.
- We do not have the financial or social runway to ease out of this way of thinking if we want to (literally) save this town from becoming something it never was.
Whether you think Karen is a puppet or not, the buck stops at the Select Board, and she was its Chair. After three years, the only areas where Reading is top tier, are in the costs associated with living here:
- Cost of Living: Highest Cost of Living, Highest Median Household Income, Highest Average Cost of a Single-Family Home, Highest Average Monthly Rental Costs
- Utilities: Highest Water & Sewer Rates (Massachusetts), 11th Highest Average Monthly Electric Bill (Massachusetts)
- Public Safety: Moderate Crime Rates, Moderate Vandalism, High Substance Abuse Rates
- Elementary: Avg Percentage of Students Proficient in (Math: 62.8% / Reading: 66%)
- Middle Schools: Avg Percentage of Students Proficient in (Math: 66.5% / Reading: 70.5%)
- High School: Avg Percentage of Students Proficient in (Math: 75.0% / Reading: 71.0%)
- College Readiness Index: 39.1/100
The Reading Public Library has become Safe Haven for Subversive elements in our community and a Piggy Bank to fund the indoctrination of your kids.
If Karen Herrick is re-elected on April 4th you are re-electing Vanessa Alvarado to her second term as Shadow Select Board Chair.
Despite running uncontested on the School Committee, Erin Gaffen is sympathetic to subversive elements in her committee and in the community.
This is not a popularity contest, the stakes are about as high as they get and this April 4th , if you don’t take 5 minutes to protect the town you love and vote these people out (or write someone in), then I am here to tell you that you might not get another chance.
At least now, you can’t say you didn’t know.
Justin Perry
Whittier Road
