For those who came from every corner of L.A. to City Hall on Monday, something good and positive happened at the Saving L.A. Project's rally.
There was a feeling of belonging, of being among people like yourself who care deeply about the community they are part of, of being among people who have worked long and hard to make their dreams come true and kept alive their spirit in the face of official resistance and the apathy of so many.
For a couple of hours, they felt hope that they were there at the birth of a movement that finally would bring to life the real spirit of the city -- the spirit of the freest place on earth, a place where dreams really can come true.
These aren't people who dream of wealth or glamor or stardom or the pleasure of libidinal excesses. Theirs are more mundane dreams: Good schools, safe streets, healthy neighborhoods, a good life for themselves and others.
There were in all 200 or so people there, 135 signed up to be part of this people's coalition. Most of the rest already were involved.
There was a feeling of belonging, of being among people like yourself who care deeply about the community they are part of, of being among people who have worked long and hard to make their dreams come true and kept alive their spirit in the face of official resistance and the apathy of so many.
For a couple of hours, they felt hope that they were there at the birth of a movement that finally would bring to life the real spirit of the city -- the spirit of the freest place on earth, a place where dreams really can come true.
These aren't people who dream of wealth or glamor or stardom or the pleasure of libidinal excesses. Theirs are more mundane dreams: Good schools, safe streets, healthy neighborhoods, a good life for themselves and others.
There were in all 200 or so people there, 135 signed up to be part of this people's coalition. Most of the rest already were involved.
Some in the press counted, or miscounted, the crowd as half that size
and covered its eyes so as not to see the intangible, the invisible,
the good feeling that was felt by people of different neighborhoods,
classes and races hanging out a while and getting to know each other a
little better.
I don't blame them for I practiced their craft for 44 years and knew all too well that you can never give credence to what people actually feel. You must always stick to the way it looked on the outside to someone armored against such a notion. This is corporate journalism and human beings cannot be credited with a soul when the corporate culture itself has none.
So the press hides behind its skepticism but
the accounts that were published were fair
enough and leave open the question of whether one person can become 200
and then so many as to stage a popular uprising that can make a
difference.
Time will tell. This was only the first small step down a long road and difficult road.
a small first step on the road to making L.A. a great city.
A wise veteran of the struggle for a better city put it simply and clearly: "Revolutions take time, persistence and a lot of hard work."
That is the challenge. We are taking the next step on Saturday afternoon Aug. 2 at a town hall meeting to everyone at a central location to be determined in the next day or two.
I don't know whether we can rise above the specific issues that trouble us or the specific agendas that we believe are important and put them in perspective as part of the larger idea of what this city is or could be. But it's worth the effort to me to push forward and see if we can bring to life the spirit of L.A.
The mayor's man at the rally, Matt Szabo,
put
the predictable political spin on the event, noting schools and crime
were among the topics that most concerned people at the rally.
"It's good to see so many people supporting the centerpiece of the mayor's agenda."
Think about that, think of the consciousness of someone who with a straight face can declare that the issues that have so troubled the populace for so long are the mayor's agenda -- not the people's agenda.
To get elected, the mayor made taking over the LAUSD his priority. He failed at that and the schools are no better than they were, still stifled by bureaucrats, still fighting against every effort to liberate the creativity of teachers in the classroom, still resisting parents and the community taking ownership of their local schools.
The mayor can boast he had something to do with the continuing drop in crime -- with the exception of murder -- but what is it exactly that he has done.
Chief Bratton who has brought order out of the chaos within the department was hired by the previous mayor and gangs still terrorize vast parts of the city. All City Hall can offer is yet another tax increase without a credible plan to deal with gangs.
Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done to take back L.A. but I do believe that it's only a matter of time, persistence and hard work.
I don't blame them for I practiced their craft for 44 years and knew all too well that you can never give credence to what people actually feel. You must always stick to the way it looked on the outside to someone armored against such a notion. This is corporate journalism and human beings cannot be credited with a soul when the corporate culture itself has none.
So the press hides behind its skepticism but
the accounts that were published were fair
enough and leave open the question of whether one person can become 200
and then so many as to stage a popular uprising that can make a
difference.Time will tell. This was only the first small step down a long road and difficult road.
a small first step on the road to making L.A. a great city.
A wise veteran of the struggle for a better city put it simply and clearly: "Revolutions take time, persistence and a lot of hard work."
That is the challenge. We are taking the next step on Saturday afternoon Aug. 2 at a town hall meeting to everyone at a central location to be determined in the next day or two.
I don't know whether we can rise above the specific issues that trouble us or the specific agendas that we believe are important and put them in perspective as part of the larger idea of what this city is or could be. But it's worth the effort to me to push forward and see if we can bring to life the spirit of L.A.
The mayor's man at the rally, Matt Szabo,
put
the predictable political spin on the event, noting schools and crime
were among the topics that most concerned people at the rally."It's good to see so many people supporting the centerpiece of the mayor's agenda."
Think about that, think of the consciousness of someone who with a straight face can declare that the issues that have so troubled the populace for so long are the mayor's agenda -- not the people's agenda.
To get elected, the mayor made taking over the LAUSD his priority. He failed at that and the schools are no better than they were, still stifled by bureaucrats, still fighting against every effort to liberate the creativity of teachers in the classroom, still resisting parents and the community taking ownership of their local schools.
The mayor can boast he had something to do with the continuing drop in crime -- with the exception of murder -- but what is it exactly that he has done.
Chief Bratton who has brought order out of the chaos within the department was hired by the previous mayor and gangs still terrorize vast parts of the city. All City Hall can offer is yet another tax increase without a credible plan to deal with gangs.
Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done to take back L.A. but I do believe that it's only a matter of time, persistence and hard work.
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.
Again they failed LAUSD's head-counting class, or counting is in the mind's eye of the counter.
Did anyone raise the issues of L.A. being a 3rd world sanctuary city, or gangs, or illegal alien gang member, or Special Order 40, or Jamiel's Law, which languishes in committee where it's been sentenced to death?
I meant to add that if there were people there who want an end to Sanctuary City and Special Order 40, both papers utterly ignored the issues.
Graduate students looking for a master's thesis in political science or journalism take note: two incredibly important stories collided yesterday in LA and their implications will dramatically help shape the city in the next decade and beyond. About 150 grass roots activists showed up for Ron Kaye's rally on the steps of City Hall. Directly across the street, the Los Angeles Times was firing an equal number of journalists.
If you don't think these two events are connected, you haven't been paying attention.
The Times, one of the city's most influential institutions, is being wracked by a financial crisis that will change the newspaper forever. If some people in Chicago - Chicago for God's sake! - get their way, you won't even recognize it in a year.
If you are among the privileged classes who's depended on the paper to cover your ass, forget it. That's over.
Meanwhile, the former editor from the city's "other newspaper," which makes the Times' financial situation seem robust, uses the Internet to organize a grass roots rally of activists fed up with City Hall. For a city of four million, the blogging critics instantly pointed out, the turnout was small.
But it would be a mistake to measure its importance by counting heads. You've got to read the hieroglyphs:
-- Why would three members of mayor's staff show up to monitor the event, with the press secretary for the chief executive of the nation's second largest city making the inane statement that the group and the mayor were on the same side? Can't he read?
--Why would Laura Chick, a City Hall denizen for nearly two decades want to speak?
--Why would Dennis Zine, who was ridiculed in Ron Kaye's blog less than two weeks ago, show up with a silly shield and position himself as sympathetic with a crowd that most council members privately consider little more than annoying rabble?
-- Why would reporters from throughout the city cover a meeting of 150 people in a city of 4 million?
-- And why would anonymous comments on a variety of blogs clearly indicate an organized campaign to discredit Ron Kaye?
Answer these questions in a well written thesis (spelling counts) and you'll not only get an A, but you'll go a long way in understandig how this shifting dynamic might just change the face of LA politics.
Anonymous 7:40
Excellent post!
Zine has a super high "ridicule" threshhold. I send him scathing emails, and although some of his responses are curt, he never fails to read them and respond.
He also has a huge ego; bigger than the Pacific. He's unfazeable, unstoppable and doesn't seem to hold grudges.
These aren't people who dream of wealth or glamor or stardom or the pleasure of libidinal excesses. Theirs are more mundane dreams: Good schools, safe streets, healthy neighborhoods, a good life for themselves and others.
Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist, but I believe that if we are committed enough and creative enough we can have good schools, safe streets AND libidinal excesses. Please don't fence in my idealism!
Libidinal excess = also a centerpiece of the mayor's agenda.
Matt Szabo approves...
Also consider that nowhere near 150 people will ever attend any official city-government meeting. for a city-government-related event, 150 is a lot.
i move we all leave l.a. - an exodus -- she doesn't deserve any of us - the city has become a rotting, congested wasteland sated with criminals and do nothing pols -
Great job, Ron!
I wish I could have come. I had to fly to Baltimore for a hearing. (I'm writing this from the Baltimore-Washington airport, waiting to return to L.A.)
For so many people to show up in the MIDDLE of a WORK DAY, especially given the time of year and temperature, is a big deal.
We, the people, need to realize that WE have the power, not the career politicians and the special interests that back them. Sure, they can raise millions of dollars. But on election night, they don't count dollars, they count votes.
P.S. Count me in for August 2.
It doesn't surprise anyone Ron that people will try and criticize you. The politicans have their spinners out there. Matt Szabo is the biggest idiot in the city. You had more people at your rally then I've seen at hundreds of council members meetings. You will see a hell of a lot more of us on August 2nd because its a Saturday and we don't work.