ZAVALETA AND GARZA SHUN BLOGGER JERRY MCHALE

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Like many other times before, local blogger Jerry McHale thought he could just saunter over to the table where Texas Southmost College board of trustees president Adela Garza and board member Dr. Tony Zavaleta were sitting at and join them at the popular Cobbleheads Bar and Grill on Central Boulevard.

But the two TSC board members – after enduring nearly a month of insult and denigration from McHale who has called them inept and corrupt for not responding to his unsubstantiated crusade against the college's welding program in the Technology, Education and Commerce Center – had simply had enough.

Witnesses report that When McHale tried to crash the party and invite himself to the table where they were sitting, Zavaleta in no uncertain terms told him he was not welcome and told him to leave them alone. Incredulous that his old buddy Dr. Z would refuse his company at the table, McHale tried to laugh it off until he realized that Zavaleta meant it and then slunk off.

Sure enough, in innocuous posts that followed, the blogger spun out his version of his unceremonious rejection and posted that "Tony and Adelita Refuse to Met With the McHale Report" and that "Tony's Explosive Outburst Leaves Adelita Speechless" and that his fictitious Baker Boys investigators "Confirm Tony Z Incident at Cobbleheads," characterizing it as a breaking story that "Tony Z Suffers Meltdown!!! Embarrasses TSC."

And from far-off Iowa, tag-team geriatric blogger Jim Barton came to his defense, saying his sources (who else but McHale?) alleged that the trustees were hiding from public scrutiny and alleging this blog had been paid to publish the post. 

Really? Who's your source and present the proof Jim. In J school they taught us that the truth is it's own defense. But you missed that class, oh, you didn’t get to go to J school at all. Sorry. Other bloggers without El Rrun-Rrun's readership have tried the same tactic. Can't teach an old dog new tricks, but please try to be creative.

Did Zavaleta "embarrass TSC?

Well, no. 

According to eyewitnesses to the incident - and there were - there was no "meltdown" on Zavaleta's part, and Garza didn't really have to add anything to the exchange because it was plain that he wasn't welcome or wanted at their table. 

As McHale's campaign against their efforts to provide workforce training to local residents revved up, both Garza and Zavaleta have refrained from engaging with McHale and having their comments twisted and spun to fit his narrative by amplifying allegations of other blogs that their workforce certification is "worthless," that they are "inept" and TSC President Jesus Rodriguez is "crooked." McHale, in fact, created this "crisis." 

Can you blame them for not wanting him around? 

In post after post McHale and others have used anonymous "sources" to hurl their allegations against the college, its president, and the board to discredit its workforce development efforts. "We have heard," "We are told," "People say," "We have been told," a former TSC student," "A former PanAm student," etc., 

The anti-TSC campaign gained momentum after two adjunct workforce instructors – brothers Anthony and Jason Medina – tried and failed to get a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Brownsville Independent School District to provide welding training as STX Metal Trades LLC at its Career and Technical Education Department, an MOU that would replace the TSC-BISD MOU that has existed for two  years or more. The BISD would have none of it and didn’t even place the item on it's board's agenda. That triggered the anti-TSC campaign.

Even though the college and its defenders have pointed out the flaws in the bloggers' interpretation of the workforce development and its certification process in the reports and allegations posted on his blog, McHale has only revved up the campaign using faceless, anonymous "sources" and non-attributable "facts" veiled as truths. And – unable to get the board members to take the bait – he has resorted to calling them out for not engaging him for his posts.

Expect the blogger to cast himself as a martyr for his "art" and "journalism" and the two board members painted as vile philistines indifferent to culture and the arts, or who have no understanding of them. It will be a hard sell because Zavaleta – for one – has a library of academic and research books to his credit. 

That someone would try to discredit TSC's workforce developing efforts – even after they teamed up with Texas A & M's regent – and Brownsville native – Mike Hernandez to bring the RGV Advanced Manufacturing Hub which sponsors the training free of charge to TSC students – because, as McHale told Garza, he was "bored," was a bit much. 

Zavaleta and Garza merely had no need to engage in fruitless banter for "art's" sake with a retired high-school ESL teacher with little knowledge of the workforce curriculum or certification process who has been tirelessly attempting to sabotage their up-to-now successful efforts to provide workforce training to local residents and discredit the community college.

To paraphrase Bob Dylan's Billy the Kid: "Jerry don't it make you feel so lowdown, to be shunned by these folks who were your friends."