Ottawa County has been infiltrated with progressive activists working to implement principles of reverse racism. The transformation of Ottawa County began in 2004 with County Administrator Al VanderBerg’s involvement with the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance and the Summit on Race and Inclusion Advisory Council.
Since 2014, Ottawa County has joined the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), became a core GARE member, created the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) [we prefer the acronym DIE], and funded the DEI Office through the county budget. In 2015, Ottawa County was selected as one of two pilot locations in the United States to participate in the Transforming White Privilege Project. Ottawa County was targeted for this transformation because of its colors; red and white. It has one of the highest percentages of republican voters in the nation and the majority of the citizens are Caucasian.
Now, several years down the road, the Ottawa County DEI office has tentacles reaching all over the county. The overwhelming majority of current county commissioners support its mission. In addition to implementing diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives, the commissioners have advanced mask and vaccine tyranny. On the county website, the commissioners have provided resources for youth to connect them with pro-abortion providers. This information is given to students during health class. Please read this article from Ottawa Impact as it will explain the history and details of this targeting and transformation.
If you have been following this website, you have undoubtedly begun to understand that people holding key positions within GHAPS are executing a plan to indoctrinate our children. They have been using elements of Marxism….critical theory…. including, race, gender and sexual orientation-based diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) and social justice programs. This programming slowly breaks down the common bonds within our communities and, if unchecked, devolves into the kind of dysfunction you see in cities like Portland and San Francisco.
There are many parallels to the structure that has been created to facilitate this transformation within GHAPS and within the county.
Grand Haven Area Public Schools is run by a school board. We have a superintendent who runs the school. The superintendent employs an assistant superintendent, a technology director and a curriculum director, as wells as a multitude of teachers and staff. Committees are created to accomplish certain goals established by the board. In GHAPS, several members of the school board and executive staff have adopted the belief that diversity, inclusion and equity programs are beneficial to our students. They have created a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Committee, established numerous clubs, and implemented teacher training days that push this mindset. GHAPS has a fully developed indoctrination plan and has placed allies in key positions to have a maximum impact on indoctrinating students.
Led by the county administrator, Ottawa County is comprised of a board of 11 commissioners. The county administrator employs a large staff that is spread across departments such as public health, parks, and elections. Much like the GHAPS DEIB committee, the Calling All Colors student group and teacher Professional Development training, the county government has created its own DEI office, a Cultural Intelligence Committee (CIC), and hosts an annual Diversity Forum.
In 2019 the Ottawa County Commissioners established the DEI Office. According to the Ottawa County website, “The DEI Office will lead the development of an equity plan for the county….. A key initiative will be identifying implicit bias in internal policies, procedures, practices, and in external service delivery. In addition, the county intends to extend assistance to local units of government that desire to tackle similar objectives.”
The DEI Office has even created a video that explains how they are working to create a web of allies that will work to indoctrinate all Ottawa County Citizens.
Ottawa County Commissioner Former Chair Roger Bergman, stands behind his commitment to DIE. Here is Roger reading the County Diversity Statement followed by a letter from the County Commissioners.
Please jump to the 4:34 minute mark to hear Commissioner Roger Bergman read the Ottawa County Diversity Statement during the Anti-Racism Task Force town hall hosted by the Momentum Center.
Bergman’s segment inadvertently highlights one of the common misconceptions of DEI: the implication that equity and equality mean the same thing. A portion of his statement refers to “equal access to opportunities and resources”. What Mr. Bergman probably doesn’t understand is that the goal of Equity in a DEI context is to force equal outcomes. In other words, under a Social Justice lens, true equity implies that an individual may need to experience or receive something different (not equal) in order to maintain fairness and access.
Much like professional development training for teachers, since 2019 the Ottawa County DEI Office has hosted an annual “Diversity Forum” where they cover topics such as the Racial Wealth Gap, Inclusion in Hiring, and Leading with Racial Equity.
In 2021, the keynote speaker was Darnell Blackburn who can be seen giving this TedTalk entitled “Screw the Golden Rule.”
Does Darnell Blackburn truly understand the Golden Rule? It seems this video does nothing more than create self-doubt and confusion…. And it discredits a philosophy many respectable people use as a guiding principle.
In 2019, Dr. Mira Krishnan, a biological man who identifies as a woman, gave a presentation for Ottawa County entitled Celebrating Gender and Sexually Diverse Residents. You can see Dr. Mira Krishnan in this News 13 On Your Side segment, “Beyond the cover with West Michigan Woman.”
The segment honors Dr. Mira Krishnan for accomplishments, and highlights Dr. Mira Krishnan for being featured on the cover of “Woman” magazine. The segment does not reveal the fact that Dr. Mira Krishnan is a man receiving an honor reserved for a woman.
Dr. Mira Krishnan was also part of a panel speaking about Intersectional Feminisms and Masculinisms from Collaborative Programming. This 1.5 hour video consists of sea of words that mixes in terms like social justice and intersectionality. To be honest, it’s difficult to understand the overall point of the discussion. The entire video is really summed up by panelist Carrie Castaneda-Sound at the 1:06:37 when she says, “when your research is being demoted to being not as legitimate.”
Here is one example of a quote from Dr. Mira Krishnan starting at 1:03:25. “It’s important to promote the exposure of lots of different kinds of models of masculinity and femininity that intersect with different race and ethnic backgrounds and experience……the family is this microcosm of society and it isn’t also, and we know that family structures and relationship structures are evolving and changing in society as well, but children are exposed to the interpersonal, the internal, the systemic and structural kinds of factors of their understanding of gender from a very young age and so I think that there is a really rich opportunity, I work with very young children and so many children I work with don’t have a defined or articulated sense of gender because they are toddlers, and so you know, making sure that they are exposed to a really rich diversity of experiences and I hope that that allows them to build more cross cultural empathy, right, because maybe the person, maybe I am Chinese American boy, but the person whose idea of masculinity makes the most sense to me is Hispanic, or is black, so I understand that they are like me and they can be guide posts to me in terms of my masculinity.”
The point of linking in this video is really not for you to waste your time watching, but to get a sense of the experts Ottawa County is spending our tax dollars on hiring to train the county workforce. When I hear this, I think, “This person shouldn’t be around children let alone touted as an expert for guiding our county.”
The DEI Office has been involved in training local leaders and municipal governments to adopt similar DIE programs. According to the November-December 2018 issue of The Review article Ottawa County Tackles Diversity Issues, written by Ottawa County Administrator Al VanderBerg, the “Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will work with county departments and local units of government to develop equity plans and eliminate implicit bias in policies, procedures, practices and service provision.”
The City of Grand Haven has been in lockstep with these initiatives as they have enacted changes that relax liquor regulations while simultaneously reducing the number of summer police officers patrolling our streets. Meanwhile they have created DIE initiatives that implement the principles of reverse racism such as the City of Grand Haven Title VI Non-Discrimination Plan.
Here are a few social media posts from Doug Zylstra… just one of the commissioners voting for DIE initiatives.
And Social Justice for All is a book written for Christians and Christian children that teaches Marxist philosophy. It focuses on groups of people that have suffered tragedies such as hunger, poverty and war to evoke emotion. Then it encourages readers to become activists and fight for justice. Here’s a quote from the Amazon description. “Throughout each chapter, children speak their own thoughts about injustice and what they think God is calling them to do.”
Isn’t it ironic? Inadvertently displaying the epitome of reverse racism, those who are perceived to have the most power by the DIE (older, white, Christian men) are the same people who created this department.