I know now I will not be alone in a Bastille Day protest at City Hall.
So many others have stepped forward and said they too are fed up with the arrogance and failure of our city government that I know there will be a decent crowd at high noon on the 14th of July.
The question is whether there will be enough decent people to become an army that storms the bastille and shakes the foundation of L.A.'s corrupt political culture.
Saving L.A. -- that's the mission. Celebrating L.A. the place and demanding that it becomes a city, a real city where we all come together around a vision of something greater than ourselves, a great city.
We are at the tipping point. Too much greed. Too much poverty. Too many problems left unsolved. Bad schools, over-development, traffic congestion, neighborhoods held hostage by gangs, official indifference to the values of the people, fragmented and weak communities -- L.A. teeters on the brink.
It doesn't have to be that way. We can have great schools and great neighborhoods, great streets and great parks, great busineses and great jobs. We can be greener and safer.We can be happier.
But we will never achieve that when all the leadership gives us is choices between paying twice for garbage collection or fewer cops, between power outages and water shortages and higher rates, between something bad and something worse.
City Hall has more than enough money to solve the city's problems. But too much is given away in sweetheart contracts and giveaways to developers and contractors for no purpose other than to maintain the system of failure. Too much is spent in ways that don't matter and too little on ways that would make our lives better and our communities more livable.
We need to spend our money smarter to create the kind of choices people want and the city needs. We need to raise the standards and create the kind of a city where we can choose to walk or ride a bike or take a bus or drive when we leave our homes to go to work or play. We need to able to choose between a good public school or a good charter school. We need good choices, not choices between the lesser of two evils.
The leadership of this city is incapable of real change. It will take the people. It will take you to step forward and get the revolution started by joining the Saving L.A. Protest and make it a S.L.A.P. in the face of our elected officials, a wakeup call that the rules are changing, that the people are taking over.
I'm just a voice in the crowd. But people are stepping forward who have spent years working in the trenches to make their neighborhoods better, who know how to organize and make this happen. It will take more people to pull this off, to volunteer and turn this into something big and the start of something bigger.
So let me know if you're coming, if you want to help figure out how we make this protest a celebration of the spirit of L.A.'s people and their hopes for the future. We don't need to get mad to get even. We can come together and party and if there's enough of us there, they'll get the message.
This city belongs to you and me. So let's take our gripes and grievances down to City Hall and leave them there as a petition for redress. Every neighborhood, every group has their own set of issues, their own values. We don't need to agree on anything except our right to a government that serves us, not special interests, and our respect for each other's right to be empowered to affect public policy.
This S.L.A.P. in City Hall's face can be the beginning, the dawning of a new L.A. Come join the party!
So many others have stepped forward and said they too are fed up with the arrogance and failure of our city government that I know there will be a decent crowd at high noon on the 14th of July.
The question is whether there will be enough decent people to become an army that storms the bastille and shakes the foundation of L.A.'s corrupt political culture.
Saving L.A. -- that's the mission. Celebrating L.A. the place and demanding that it becomes a city, a real city where we all come together around a vision of something greater than ourselves, a great city.
We are at the tipping point. Too much greed. Too much poverty. Too many problems left unsolved. Bad schools, over-development, traffic congestion, neighborhoods held hostage by gangs, official indifference to the values of the people, fragmented and weak communities -- L.A. teeters on the brink.
It doesn't have to be that way. We can have great schools and great neighborhoods, great streets and great parks, great busineses and great jobs. We can be greener and safer.We can be happier.
But we will never achieve that when all the leadership gives us is choices between paying twice for garbage collection or fewer cops, between power outages and water shortages and higher rates, between something bad and something worse.
City Hall has more than enough money to solve the city's problems. But too much is given away in sweetheart contracts and giveaways to developers and contractors for no purpose other than to maintain the system of failure. Too much is spent in ways that don't matter and too little on ways that would make our lives better and our communities more livable.
We need to spend our money smarter to create the kind of choices people want and the city needs. We need to raise the standards and create the kind of a city where we can choose to walk or ride a bike or take a bus or drive when we leave our homes to go to work or play. We need to able to choose between a good public school or a good charter school. We need good choices, not choices between the lesser of two evils.
The leadership of this city is incapable of real change. It will take the people. It will take you to step forward and get the revolution started by joining the Saving L.A. Protest and make it a S.L.A.P. in the face of our elected officials, a wakeup call that the rules are changing, that the people are taking over.
I'm just a voice in the crowd. But people are stepping forward who have spent years working in the trenches to make their neighborhoods better, who know how to organize and make this happen. It will take more people to pull this off, to volunteer and turn this into something big and the start of something bigger.
So let me know if you're coming, if you want to help figure out how we make this protest a celebration of the spirit of L.A.'s people and their hopes for the future. We don't need to get mad to get even. We can come together and party and if there's enough of us there, they'll get the message.
This city belongs to you and me. So let's take our gripes and grievances down to City Hall and leave them there as a petition for redress. Every neighborhood, every group has their own set of issues, their own values. We don't need to agree on anything except our right to a government that serves us, not special interests, and our respect for each other's right to be empowered to affect public policy.
This S.L.A.P. in City Hall's face can be the beginning, the dawning of a new L.A. Come join the party!
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
Bravo. Ron! Of course I will be there. And I sent your message out to two lists encouraging attendance.
Thank you for your courage and for caring about this city. You have been consistent in your efforts to try to rid our city of the corruptions
that plague it now worse than ever.
(signed)
A citizen volunteer for good government.
Ron said:
"City Hall has more than enough money to solve the city's problems. But too much is given away in sweetheart contracts and giveaways to developers and contractors for no purpose other than to maintain the system of failure. Too much is spent in ways that don't matter and too little on ways that would make our lives better and our communities more livable."
That is a profound, true statement that sums up how obscene it is that L.A. has become a Third World country.
I'm not sure I'll come to the Bastille Day event -- I'm now leaning towards it -- but I agree 100% that we, the taxpaying people of Southern California, need to take control of City Hall.
Given that most of us need to be at work during the middle of weekdays, let me suggest that we take advantage of the internet to assemble ourselves into a functioning political force. Towards that end, let me invite any of you reading this to sign up for my e-mail newsletter. I'm running for Mayor of L.A. in the March 2009 election, and will be holding rallies around town, including one in the Valley on Saturday, June 28, 2008.
We have to fight back against the special interests that are looting our tax dollars, and against the career politicians they prop up with campaign money.
My website is http://WalterMooreForMayor.com. If you want to fight back, check it out.
Just as a new born is slapped on the butt to breath life into him, S.L.A.P. will be slapped into life on July 14th.
And just like that new born, once slapped into life, Ron's S.L.A.P. brainchild will take the same love, nurturing and dedication to its healthy successful life as a human child.
To be successful, this isn't a one-slap deal where a bunch of people march downtown with plastic trash bags and hand-painted signs, have a good time, grab a communal cup of coffee and go back to their busy, busy lives.
For those who are serious about this, it's a commitment, a commitment for the long haul until S.L.A.P. is a fully grown adult.
Not everyone will be able to attend on July 14th or go to neighborhood council meetings, but just about everyone has a computer.
Everyone can email friends and send them links to this site. We can comment in the Daily News and L.A. Times when they publish stories and letters to the editor where the City's ills are exposed and discussed.
We don't even need stamps and a trip to the mailbox to send letters to the editor; we can do it from the comfort of our homes, offices, libraries, cyber-cafes or our laps.
We’re not as helpless as we feel we are when it comes to fighting City Hall, but it will take an army of us to make our voices heard. We have email and the power of a word-of-mouth campaign; all we have to do is start using it.
Some of us may make new friends in the process and a few of us may even be inspired to run for office and get the "ins" out.
Whatever we do -- big or small -- this must be a community effort where we do what we can and enlist all the people we can in the army of S.L.A.P.pers who will tell the denizens of City Hall:
WE MAD AS HELL, AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!
It's our CITY. We can take it back!
Here's to breathing new life into an dying, old city.
Here's to a new life, the Infant S.L.A.P.
L'chiam! To life!
Ron,
Great work!
We're looking forward to being a part of "the SLAP heard throughout the City!"
See you on the Streets!
Woody
Heard you on McIntyre this morning. Sounds like you're picking up steam.