The impetuous fool in me came out a while back and I declared publicly I was going to engage in an act of civil disobedience and carry a bag of garbage down to City Hall on Bastille Day and deposit it as an act of civil disobedience.
Foolish I might be but I'm a man of my word and on Monday I'll bring a bag of garbage and leave it on the steps of City Hall as a symbol of protest, an expression of my anger over soaring trash and other fees and the declining quality of life in the city I love.
I've learned since I made that declaration that we don't need acts of civil disobedience to change L.A. from a city rotting in the failure of its leadership to a city rising on the energy of its people.
The outpouring of support from hundreds of dedicated people from all over the city who have worked so hard for so long to make our community better has helped me to see the light.
We have the numbers. We have the knowledge and the skill. We have the leaders in community groups of one type or another to take power from the special interests without acts of defiance.
Nothing but greed holds the power structure together and it will crumble in the face of a united community. Our elected officials are held hostage by the unions, developers and contractors who flatter their delusion of self-importance with the money that keeps them in office.
From the Eastside to the Westside, from San Pedro to the Valley, I've heard over and over similar stories of frustration with our city government and our elected officials, and with their neighbors hiding behind indifference and ignorance.
The issues may be different in different neighborhoods, in different communities of interest, but the experience is the same. We get the runaround while special interests are buying access and favors.
It's time to put aside the differences and find the common ground that brings us together as people, as residents of L.A., as people who want a great city with great schools and great neighborhoods.
The power structure has used these differences -- race, class, needs, values -- to keep us separated and weak, begging for crumbs from the table of power while the insiders feast on the city's wealth.
We need to change the system. We need to seize power and make our government accountable to us, to do what we want.
There's only one way for this happen. It's through a community coalition that is united in support of each other, united in demanding openness, honesty, accountability and respect for the people of the city.
This is America and the basic civil rights of the ordinary men and women of L.A. have been trampled upon for too long. We have a right to own our schools, our neighborhoods and our city.
On Monday -- Bastille Day when the French Revolution began more than 200 years ago -- people from every part of L.A. are coming to City Hall at noon to Take Back Los Angeles -- Demand A Great City.
We don't need garbage to symbolize our frustration. We need each other.
We'll listen to each other's stories of the failure of city government to serve us and the failure of the schools to serve our children. We'll talk about overdevelopment and bad development, traffic congestion and poor public transit and we will open the dialogue on how to solve these and so many other problems now and in the long run.
We need to learn from each other. We need to understand each other. And we need to come up with solutions that achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.
We know there are no easy answers. But through an honest and open public conversation we can do a lot better than what we've been doing.
Whether there are 30 of us or 300 come to City Hall on Monday, this will be the start of something big, something great. It's not going to come from high from the people in power. It's going to have to come from the grassroots, from you.
This rally is only the first step. We will follow up quickly with a town hall meeting to organize our coalition of the people. And we will build on that and grow more confident with each success and see those on the sidelines step forward into the public arena.
That's my dream anyway, fool that I might be. But I know now that there are others who share that dream and are willing to help make it come true.
Foolish I might be but I'm a man of my word and on Monday I'll bring a bag of garbage and leave it on the steps of City Hall as a symbol of protest, an expression of my anger over soaring trash and other fees and the declining quality of life in the city I love.
I've learned since I made that declaration that we don't need acts of civil disobedience to change L.A. from a city rotting in the failure of its leadership to a city rising on the energy of its people.
The outpouring of support from hundreds of dedicated people from all over the city who have worked so hard for so long to make our community better has helped me to see the light.
We have the numbers. We have the knowledge and the skill. We have the leaders in community groups of one type or another to take power from the special interests without acts of defiance.
Nothing but greed holds the power structure together and it will crumble in the face of a united community. Our elected officials are held hostage by the unions, developers and contractors who flatter their delusion of self-importance with the money that keeps them in office.
From the Eastside to the Westside, from San Pedro to the Valley, I've heard over and over similar stories of frustration with our city government and our elected officials, and with their neighbors hiding behind indifference and ignorance.
The issues may be different in different neighborhoods, in different communities of interest, but the experience is the same. We get the runaround while special interests are buying access and favors.
It's time to put aside the differences and find the common ground that brings us together as people, as residents of L.A., as people who want a great city with great schools and great neighborhoods.
The power structure has used these differences -- race, class, needs, values -- to keep us separated and weak, begging for crumbs from the table of power while the insiders feast on the city's wealth.
We need to change the system. We need to seize power and make our government accountable to us, to do what we want.
There's only one way for this happen. It's through a community coalition that is united in support of each other, united in demanding openness, honesty, accountability and respect for the people of the city.
This is America and the basic civil rights of the ordinary men and women of L.A. have been trampled upon for too long. We have a right to own our schools, our neighborhoods and our city.
On Monday -- Bastille Day when the French Revolution began more than 200 years ago -- people from every part of L.A. are coming to City Hall at noon to Take Back Los Angeles -- Demand A Great City.
We don't need garbage to symbolize our frustration. We need each other.
We'll listen to each other's stories of the failure of city government to serve us and the failure of the schools to serve our children. We'll talk about overdevelopment and bad development, traffic congestion and poor public transit and we will open the dialogue on how to solve these and so many other problems now and in the long run.
We need to learn from each other. We need to understand each other. And we need to come up with solutions that achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.
We know there are no easy answers. But through an honest and open public conversation we can do a lot better than what we've been doing.
Whether there are 30 of us or 300 come to City Hall on Monday, this will be the start of something big, something great. It's not going to come from high from the people in power. It's going to have to come from the grassroots, from you.
This rally is only the first step. We will follow up quickly with a town hall meeting to organize our coalition of the people. And we will build on that and grow more confident with each success and see those on the sidelines step forward into the public arena.
That's my dream anyway, fool that I might be. But I know now that there are others who share that dream and are willing to help make it come true.
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 National Enquirer.
Ron, I am fwding your morning editorial to my list - it is a Declaration of Independence after 232 years since our first declaration against tyranny.
The French Revolution helped us with ours and then held Bastille Day for their own. I remember the story of Madam LaFarge and her knitting.
As for those who would USE US FOR THEIR OWN NEEDS
like power, greed, graft, etc., I find that their defense is that these are just folk lore.
Funny how "folk lore alias truth" hits the nail squarely on its head. Just like the Old Testament! Human nature does not change. I plan to be at City Hall on Monday. Theodora Howell
Wishing you TONS of luck, Ron--sadly, about half the city will not even be able to understand the rally or what it's about, because they don't speak English. How the hell did this place go so far downhill so fast?
It's always about the first step. This Bastille Day is an opportunity for people from throughout the city to meet, get acquainted, compare stories. Although our zip codes run the gamut we are all Angelenos. And we want a city that better serves us. A city that is accountable to us.
Please get this to Ron Kaye (Needs to go out in spanish, too)
With the voting public becoming more and more spanish, to not communicate this type of effort with them, is being shortsighted/ Remember the faces in the crowd when you, Ron Kaye, MC'd for the Mayor at Valley College,on education change.
It was made up of more then 50% spanish.
In a message dated 7/11/2008 10:45:24 AM Pacific Standard Time, gsilver4@earthlink.net writes:
July 1, 2008
Dear Fellow Community Activists:
At noon Monday, July 14, Bastille Day, we, the people who care about the future of Los Angeles, are coming together on the South Lawn of City Hall to protest the failure of our elected officials respect the needs of our communities and treat us with respect.
This is actually much more than a protest. It is the launching of our concerned citizens coalition that is intended to bring neighborhood councils, service clubs, residents groups, business groups, churches and activists of all types together. Our plan is to form a third force in L.A. politics that will have a unified seat at the table of power with the unions and the developers-contractors-lobbyists.
We all have different neighborhood issues and we might not always agree on everything our city, as a whole, needs. But, we can support each other in our individual goals. We can spark public conversation that will lead to faster progress in solving our problems in order to help create a greater L.A.
The operating name of the group is the "Saving L.A. Project" or S.L.A.P. and the theme protest is "Take Back Los Angeles -- Demand A Great City." I've been writing extensively about local politics, and the July 14 rally, ever since I retired two months ago as Editor of the Daily News. I have since met with dozens of community groups and I have learned a lot that has better informed my own views about what's wrong with the way City Hall operates, and more importantly, how we fix it.
Thank you Gerald for the broadcast letter to other activists. I have not seen this City in this kind of shape since Tom Bradley's last term as Mayor.