Thursday, November 02, 2006

Truscott attacks former Forest Hills Central teacher

I am publishing this because Frank Rosengren was one of the teachers at FHC that I truly liked. I actually switched my schedule around my senior year just to get into his class- he was that good; most everybody wanted to take his class. He was decent, he was honest, he was well-respected among the students and faculty alike.



In this article, Truscott basically calls him a liar and says he is a puppet for the MEA.



John Truscott has to be one of the most deplorable figures on the political scene in Michigan today. Here he proves that he doesn't know what the hell he is talking about. Frank Rosengren would never lie about something like this- the man had no agenda, unlike some others out there that I remember.



Attention all teachers- this is the kind of treatment you can expect from a DeVos administration. If you say something bad about Dick, you will be savaged.



A former Forest Hills Central High School football coach says a scene Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos vividly describes in a recent edition of the school newspaper never took place.



DeVos stands by the story, and his spokesman accused the coach of "revisionist history."



In an interview in The Forest Edge, DeVos talks about playing football at Forest Hills High School, which later became Forest Hills Central. He graduated in 1973.



DeVos recounts a conversation he had with then-head varsity football coach Frank Rosengren: "He and I took a walk right behind this building (the old gym). It was a warm day and I remember he told me, 'Dick, I am going to start you because you have leadership skills and the team responds to your leadership.' "



DeVos went on to say: "That was a great encouragement to me. Those words were very important to me. Someone I respected affirmed that skill as I was a young person, and I will remember it the rest of my life."



Rosengren, 69, is now retired and living in Elk Rapids. He said the conversation never took place. He never walked with DeVos behind the gym for the coach-athlete heart-to-heart, Rosengren said, and he's certain DeVos never started as a quarterback in a varsity football game.



"He used my name and it isn't true," said Rosengren, a Democrat. "There may be other people that played on that team that knew better. It just isn't right."



However, the father of Forest Hills' starting quarterback that year, Randy Lanning, said he vividly recalls DeVos starting one game, though not necessarily because of his leadership abilities.



The coach benched Lanning because he wasn't working hard enough in practice, said Lanning's father, Elmer Lanning.


So Dick was lying about why he started the game. Records show he was 1-9 in passing with 18 yards against EGR. FHC lost 26-6.



Watch as Johnny goes on the attack.


"It wouldn't surprise me if a Democrat was trying to create some revisionist history," said DeVos spokesman John Truscott. DeVos is a "decent, honorable person who's been subjected to some of the nastiest stuff I've seen in my career," Truscott added. "I'm sure the MEA (Michigan Education Association) bosses came down on this guy and told him to say this."



Rosengren admits he is no political fan of DeVos, who is running against Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.



"I'm a Democrat," said Rosengren. "I wasn't going to vote for Dick DeVos."



But he said he isn't taking direction from the teacher's union.



"I don't even know who the MEA bosses are," said Rosengren, who left the Forest Hills system in 1985 and eventually became a school principal. "I ended up being a school administrator in Michigan (and Wisconsin). I was on the other side of the bargaining table, for God's sake."



Rosengren said he remembered the young DeVos as a "good kid" and "polite," though clearly not a star on the field. "He didn't do those things, and the scene he describes never took place."


But you see, Frank, that doesn't matter. They will scream like babies when called out on their lies, and then they will attack you. Straight from the Rovian playbook.



Take it from me, someone who really hated FHC by the time I got out of there, Frank Rosengren is a decent and honest man. The class I took from him? Government. He had no bias, always presented both sides of the coin. Very, very good teacher.