I hate myself on days like this when it seems so clear it’s my fault — and yours.
The state is broke, the city is paying its bills with credit cards, the schools are a disaster, the traffic a nightmare, houses are worth half what they were, people are losing their jobs in record numbers and all we can talk about is poor Michael Jackson.
What the hell is wrong with us anyway — with me?
My pal Joe Scott notes two of three Americans find excessive the 24/7 coverage of the death of the pain-ridden and unhappy King of Pop even as they stare mindlessly at the boob tube coverage and send cable TV news ratings soaring off the charts.
Something is terribly wrong when we spend $20 billion building brand-new schools in LA like Santee High and the test results are just as bad as they were before and when the mayor’s highly-touted reform effort makes the dropout rate worse than it was.
Something is wrong when the governor and state legislature stare each other down after a five-year spree that saw spending increase six times faster than population growth and we’re paying our bills with IOUs that are trading for discounts on eBay.
Something is wrong when a city’s revenue soars by a third in four years and it winds up overspending by half again as much.
When good employers in the private sector dread having to cut the pay of staff and lay them off while the city gives bonuses and sweetened pensions out, something is wrong.
When dedicated and well-rewarded people think nothing paying nearly $50,000 to have 3,500 sandwiches brought in from Wrightwood in San Bernardino County for the cops guarding the Staples Center on Tuesday, something is wrong.
Everywhere you look it seems things are broken. Whose fault is it –theirs or ours?
I’ve gone to dozens of community meetings all over LA in the last 15 months, and there’s rarely more than 25 or 30 people trying to do something about what’s wrong. The exceptions are the Encino Neighborhood Council meeting last night where the community’s passions were aroused because the media frenzy outside the Jackson family home on Hayvenhurst disrupted their lives and their neighborhood.
It’s proof all politics is local but how often does that myopic view of the world ever expand into action on the root cause: A political system taken hostage by special interests.
Just one in six registered voters went to the polls in the last two city elections and it will be more like one in ten in the Council District 2 special election on Sept. 22 — an election the City Hall political machine hopes to steal with two heavily-financed candidates running against a dozen mostly unknown community activists.
Something is terribly wrong.
I’ve railed against their corruption for years and demonized them as villains but on introspective mornings like this I know they are just captives of a system run amok, no more or less at fault than me — or you.
I talk with civic and business leaders and they don’t sound any different than the leaders down at the grassroots involved in Neighborhood Councils and homeowner groups and service clubs.
They can all get 25 or 30 people together to talk about what’s wrong but when it comes to action, it’s not easy. People only care about what affects them directly, what impacts their businesses or their pocketbooks or their neighborhoods or the singular issue that inflames their passions.
I never said I knew the answers to any or all of what’s wrong; only that I held a deep faith that if we all looked up from the ground in front of us and saw how our problems are inter-connected, we could and would do something about them and find answers that were better, far better, than the ones we have.
I haven’t lost my faith. In fact, my time as an activist, as an ordinary citizen getting involved in the life of my community, has convinced me more than ever that we the people can make a difference.
Our economic, political and cultural crises are going to get worse in the coming months. That’s a certainty. More people will lose their jobs. Government agencies will be under even more financial pressure to cut basic services, eliminate critical educational programs, free dangerous criminals onto our streets.
And the future will be in the hands of all those little cells of 25 to 30 people who have been involved so long and know so much to reach out beyond themselves to their larger communities of interest and to come together into a force for real change.
That’s what democracy is all about and that’s what we have lost with our preoccupation with ourselves, our own advantages, our own little worlds.
This isn’t the America I learned about as a kid, the freest nation on the face of the earth where everyone had an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, where the people were the rulers and the government was the public’s servant.
From the bottom of my heart, I believe the moment is at hand for that America to come to life. It just depends on you and me.
That’s what I believe anyway, right or wrong.
Stop saying it was 3,200 cops at Staples because that figure is WRONG. The Chief has come out many times stating that over 1,800 were let go once they realized the thousands of people anticipated didn’t show up. Also, LAPD had many of the officers who were stationed all over the city on duty and not on overtime where there were massive crowds of people.You can blame the $50,000 lunch bill on the Mayor’s Emergency Prepardness Dept. general manager. If they can spend that much money and not think twice this is why our city is in trouble. Its the carefree mentality coming out of city hall that is also to blame. But it all stems from the top with no leadership whatsoever.
That 50 thou figure for food sure has given you and the rightwing radio hacks material for entire shows and threads. However if you read the detail you’d know that the food boxes were for the whole day, incl. 2 sandwiches and drinks, snacks like fruit and granola bars, nourishment for a full day for cops who can’t get to away to eat.
Comparing this to Subway is specious since Subway drinks in paper cups are unwieldy, they’re probably not packaged the same way, and anyone who’s even ordered Subway for an office lunch party knows you have to do it in advance — this was for 3500 cops with no advance notice allegedly. Maybe some cop had a friend in Wrightwood, but as long as the food was reasonably priced that would be fine with me — who knows, but lack of full information doesn’t stop everyone from going on about it. Begrudging them decent food seems petty since these men and women are out on the street all day for upto 12 hours without toilets or running water in the case of the Lakers or other events.
What I’m more wondering is why this many boxed meals if half the cops were sent home when it turned out they weren’t needed – because LAPD had done such a GOOD job getting people to stay home. Still it’s unfortunate that this griping has overshadowed the great job Bratton did – but then he’s one of those so-called “liberal elites” the idiot a.m. screamers like Kevin James, Jon and Ken (who offer unlimited PR space to Trutannich. Zine and Cooley etc.) urge their lemming listeners to hate.
It’s our fault, Ron. We ask to be micromanaged, and as a result, we are easily divided and conquered. Until we start setting boundaries, we can point out the waste, fraud, and abuse, but we can’t say we don’t deserve it.
Pugliese is in for CD2.
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/Candidates/declarat.pdf
After laboring long and hard for my community for about 20 years; after staring down the people who look at me like I am crazy to actually get involved with local politics, and then taking the time to explain to them that preserving democracy is kinda important to me and them; after encouraging countless community members to stay the course after countless meetings with bureaucrats who only hope that we will get lost in City Hall’s deliberate maze of arcane policies and procedures; after winning and losing some appeals and having my homeowners group actually suing the city (and winning); I can say that standing up for your community is worth the effort.
I have often felt that if our elected and appointed officials, along with the tenured city hall exmployees and union leaders, actually listened to their local experts, i.e., those in the community, there would be the means to start solving our serious problems.
That’s why there are now efforts underway to launch some ballot measures for Charter reform.
Ron, I appreciate your activism and all you do for the City.
However, the voters here are receiving some serious pain from the City and that pain quotient is only going to increase. Eventually, the pain will become intolerable, and people will be shocked out of their passivity. Hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later.
Voters could have voted for Phil Jennerjahn for Mayor. A Conservative who would have marched into City Hall and fired people. A candidate who was unafraid to launch a crackdown on illegal immigration. But, they didn’t do that.
I’m not angry and I don’t blame them. They didn’t know who I was.
I plan to correct that problem in the future.
This City needs to change to survive.
Perry and Alarcon, two TERRIBLE Council Members, ran UNOPPOSED in their elections in March. How could voters in their districts ever expect change to happen?
I intend to come to one of your SLAP meetings and discussing the possibility of a recall of Villaraigosa. Many people dismiss the idea, but I think it is possible…. probably even necessary.
I’m planning on setting up the website and promoting it for months to set up the base of volunteers. I think I can get 3000 people to commit to a few weekends of their lives to going out and getting signatures from their neighbors.
Democracy doesn’t work.
There really is only one way to steal democracy back from the elected and appointed powers that be: shut down political contributions and regulate lobbying. I may be misquoting, but Money is the mother’s milk of politics and we must first put the members of the government system on a strict strict diet. It will not be easy, but I believe it is truly the ONLY thing that will work. Then, and only then, do we have a shot on governance of the people, by the people and for the people.
Good local organizing is still happening. Look at all the people and letters and e-mails the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition turned out on the Autry Museum expansion issue. Council chambers was overflowing with people standing in the aisles at the hearing last week.
And when the people turn out, City Hall seems to be back on course. Autry had a huge number of high-priced lawyers, lobbyists, EIR consultants, and architects. They went down in flames in front of City Council when the people rose up and said it is unacceptable for Autry to already be receiving free use of City parkland worth about $28 million and then say it wants MORE from the City. It is time Autry paid fair market value for our land. We can use the money in the City’s budget.
George Mihlstein and Autry President John Gray looked like a train hit them after the hearing. Look at the slide show:
http://www.friendsofthesouthwestmuseum.com
We can muster public engagement but we have to be able to link the current event to the future of our children. People will get off the couch for their children and their legacy.
Ron, it ain’t over until it is over.
While a few naysayers commented, there are some good thoughts and promises of action in most of these comments, and I know that encourages you, and it encourages me as well. We do need to think seriously of recalling Villar because he is a disaster as a public servant. September 17
is an issue that will grow in the next months.
Ellen’s promise of Charter Reform issues appearing on the ballot is a positive. Teddy
Howell
Capitalism carries within it it’s own inevitable destruction. You are witnessing it. The mob has become fat, lazy and weak, and big government must keep spoon feeding them. If you take away the candy, the mob will revolt. The government is so huge, so bloated, and so inefficient, except for the special interest groups. that it has become a black hole, and it has reached critical mass where everything is being sucked into it. “When we hang the last capitalist, it will be with a rope that we bought from him.” — Lenin. Don’t look now, but the rope is missing, sold by some public worker union.
What kind of political nonsense is the 4:48 post!
Capitalism was the force du jour in the 1860′s to early 20th century, thus Lenin’s commentary has relevancy to THAT period.
The US has not been an unfettered free market since we discovered that monopolies were not a real good idea and that an unregulated US market was marked by extreme booms and busts every 10-15 years as seen during that period.
We changed to a social democracy about 100 years ago and you simply cannot unring the bell.
Unfunded public pension obligations borne by the citiznry aren’t a matter of political theory; it is simply a policy that has been long outlived its usefulness.
We have only just begun. You can’t give up. Just read up on all the movements that took years before they galvanized the populace. Why should you pay the price, that is an understandble question. Most leaders do.
Pugliese for CD2!!
I would like to point out to those so willing to have a recall for the Mayor – who are you going to put in his place? No one stood out as a candidate against him – that is why he did not even have to debate. So find someone that is worth running first before you spend the money on the recall.
Look what a great job we did recalling the Governor – the State is in a hole twice as big now as when Gray Davis was Governor. And that recall election cost the State a lot of money.
Maybe the rule should be – those with “charisma” or movie star experience need not apply.
Two words: Laura Chick.
Ron wrote: “The state is broke, the city is paying its bills with credit cards, the schools are a disaster, the traffic a nightmare, houses are worth half what they were, people are losing their jobs in record numbers and all we can talk about is poor Michael Jackson.”
We have seen this more and more in recent years. People spend two to four hours on the freeway, work a long day and try to deal with personal matters. What’s left? Certainly not much energy to take on the political machine. Those with the drive to do so, try. We get tiny little victories with a few larger ones to keep us going. We are a minority. The majority has become apathetic and have resigned themselves (or convinced themselves) that the only thing to look forward to is the next episode of Dancing With the Stars, the MJ extravaganzas or something like that. It’s an escape from the frustration of being helpless, encouraged by the media that is, almost, pure propaganda.