The not-quite 900 residents of Jackman, Maine wanted Tom Kawczynski to go away “immediately,” so they just spent almost $35 per person to make it happen. The firing was a rapid response: four days earlier, a Bangor Daily News exposé outed him as the racist and Islamophobic leader of a tiny faction of white separatists, known as New Albion.
The Jackman Select Board voted unanimously on Tuesday morning to fire the town manager, whose support of racial segregation and condemnation of Islam put the town in what most locals saw as an unflattering light.
Town attorney Warren Shay said that the local government does not challenge Kawczynski’s right to hold controversial views. The town paid him $30,000 to “settle the matter and get it done today,” Shay said.
Nearly five percent of Jackman’s nearly all-white population were there when the firing was announced, and they weren’t afraid to celebrate.
The roughly 45 Jackman residents who crowded into their town hall early Tuesday greeted Kawczynski’s ouster as welcome news. One woman let out a small cheer.
“Jackman is great again,” said James Waycott, 43, who recently became a full-time town resident after having long spent summers there.
It’s worth noting here that Trump beat Clinton here, with more than a 3 to 1 margin; Kawczynski also worked on the Trump campaign in New Hampshire before beating out 13 would-be town managers back in June. Though a background check was conducted, Shay claims that “some people just fly under the radar.” He insists that future job applicants will have their social media behavior scrutinized.
The people of Jackman remain baffled by the scandal, adamant that Kawczynski’s beliefs are not representative of the town culture at all.
Residents maintain the community had no knowledge of Kawczynski's pro-white views or New Albion prior to last week.
"His views were of nothing of this community. If he thought he was going to come here and change all that with his New Albion religion, cult or whatever it is, it's not going to happen," said Meg Welch, Manager of both the Northland and Jackman Hotels. "But Jackman will stand strong and we will continue on being the great community that we are."
Meanwhile, Tommy the Bigot Boy is desperate to extend his ten minutes of fame and make even more money off of his bigotry. First, he started a GoFundMe, which managed to raise at least 98 whole dollars before it was taken down.
Immediately after he was fired, Kawczynski gathered local journalists and other people with smartphones and staged a press conference that would be comical if he wasn’t such a hate-spewing, fame-hungry whiner. After defending his actions, grousing about the ruination of his life, he teases his next chapter, and makes it clear that he wants to take the spotlight off of Jackman, and plant it firmly on himself.
Some lowlights, to spare you some time:
During the course of this process, I have literally had thousands of Americans reach out to me and say, “Please, Tom, don’t back down. Stand up for us, and the idea that white civil rights is an issue we need to address.
I lost a job today, but I gained a cause.
The fight is not Jackman’s, it is mine.
I will fight for the majority. You have not had a voice up until now. I will speak for you.
I will not accept any “fake news” narrative of what I believe.
According to CNN, Kawczynski’s since announced on the New Albion website that he’s most likely leaving Jackman. He declined to be interviewed unless it was on live television...so expect to see him on Fox News sooner than later.