Frank Sinatra - The House I Live In (That’s America To Me).mp3 Two weeks later, on April “Free at last!” – Those are “I want to write from my “We’ll never know what that “So let’s tell the truth as The next day I asked these “Is love of “We need to stop talking “I don’t know how anybody “If we the people of On Day Three, the question My answer: “They know we are dumb “And they want to keep us On Day Four, the headline asked: “What is I didn’t try to answer, only offering this song, “The House
A lot has happened in the months that followed. The economy That energy is what LA Clean Sweep (lacleansweep.com) is In a word, democracy. Through months of discussion and haggling by hundreds of We all live in this house, our city, our state, our nation, It should be clear to anyone paying the least attention that It takes more than 10,000 cops to make a great city. It Labor Day ought to be a celebration of all working people, In my lifetime, organized unions have fallen from a third of Balance of power is what is missing in our society so the What about the vast majority whose interests and values are We need to build a new house that has room for all of us. We are a house divided against itself today and the Major changes in
answers which may explain why I stumbled into being a newspaperman and never
could find a way out, at least until I was sent out to pasture 2 ½ years ago.
16, 2008, I started my new life as a blogger, speaking my mind in my own voice
under my own name for the first time in my life.
the first words on my blog 1,083 entries ago.
heart and I want others to … engage in a public conversation about who we are
and what we could become if we pull together and work together for the common
good.
is or how to achieve it unless we talk about our experiences, our values, our
needs and our aspirations. I believe with all my heart that that kind of public
conversation will cut through the fog of political, media and
corporate double talk and lead us to the common ground where we can start
solving the problems of our community and make life better for us all …
we see it and learn from each other. Let the games begin.”
questions and offered my own answers:
of freedom wrong in some way? Are those ideas obsolete? I think not, I think
the liberal mind hears something that’s loaded and politically repulsive when
conservatives speak that way, obscuring the fact that it’s unthinkable not
to love the soul of this country or hold freedom for all precious …
Democrat language and Republican language. We need to stop speaking
conservative and liberal language. We need to give each other the benefit of
the doubt a little and start speaking the common language that brings us
together to work for making things better for ourselves and others.
can look at a world torn apart by hatred, at the looming environmental
catastrophe, and the breakdown of the health care system and all the other
tensions of the world and not think it’s time, if it’s not already too late, to
start fixing what we have broken …
fixing what’s broken here, if we can’t find a way to respect our differences in
all our diversity of race, creed and religion, who can?”
du jour was this: “How dumb does City Hall think all us little people are? And
why do they want to keep us dumb?”
because we let them stay in office instead of putting them in jail or at least
throwing them out on the streets where they can cadge with the rest of the
bums.
dumb so they can keep on living high without actually doing anything to
make life better for the people …”
I Live In,” as sung by Frank Sinatra in a popular movie short at the end of
World War II.
collapsed, City Hall fell into chaos and confusion as the bills piled up and
revenue shrank and the discontent of the people began to jell in hundreds of
cells of activist energy.
trying to mobilize into a force powerful enough to break the stranglehold on
power held by the few, to create a city in which democracy flourishes, where
everyone has a seat at the table of power.
people, I’m not sure there is an agreement on anything else except some basic
principles of good government: Open, honest, fiscally responsible, basic
services to the public, making our neighborhoods healthier and creating a
positive economic climate.
and we all need to feel an ownership stake, a sense of belonging, of being part
of something greater than ourselves.
the people who hold public office and the people who wield power in LA will not
change unless they are forced to by calamitous circumstances or a grassroots
uprising of the people.
takes libraries and parks and a lot more. Most of all, it takes the faith of
the people.
of all who want to work and aspire to a better life and are willing to acquire the
skills and are willing to tackle the jobs that need to be done.
the workforce to little more the 12 percent, much of that in the public sector,
not the private. Unions are as important in creating balance against the excesses of employers as
community organizations are to the excesses of government.
voices that are heard are those with the most money and the most clout.
not served?
Surely, we will quarrel but as equals we will find a common ground and move
forward together in the clumsy and inefficient way that democracy allows.
consequences are dire unless you believe that a society can exist for long with
rich and poor and few in the middle.
in
in LA are needed and I, for one, don’t see that happening unless we the people find a way to come together and begin the process of restoring our fundamental
ideals as the vision that motivates are actions.
Ron, I agree that unions can be an integral part of the balance of power. I am a member of SEIU and I think that even the unions need to get their internal house in order. The members need to get back control of their union, which they don’t currently have. The union staff has successfully divided the membership by keeping key information away from the members and only giving the impression that they’re fighting for the members. In short, we suffer from the same affliction that the cities of Bell and Los Angeles, suffer from; ubiquitous apathy and lack of involvement. How bad do things have to get before people get angry enough to do something effective about their leadership?
Right On Ron.!!!!! I agree the dialogue can’t be Democrat or Republican anymore because City Hall has screwed residents across the board. Angelenos need to set an example just like the City of Bell and start an uprise. Bell is now starting their recall campaign. They spoke out and will be reimbursed for over paid property taxes, sewage taxes etc. Every time I read the paper there is more corruption here in LA. The LAX concession contracts outline the corruption of Bitter Bernie ties, Janice Hahn, Alarcon and Tony Cardenas. They are so damn arrogant they continue to try and get away with crap. The Mayor is out touting his Summer Night Lights Program when the Wall Street Journal has a different take. Antonio’s own advisory guy isn’t afraid to say the truth” “There is absolutely nothing in the criminological literature that has anything to do with lights and no-lights activity,” said Malcolm Klein, chair of the mayor’s Evaluation Advisory Committee for the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program, who has been researching gangs and criminology for more than 40 years. “Until I see some data, I’m a total cynic.”
I applaud commenter number one.
I think the leadership is all about personal power and not the sustainability, protection and, dare I say, accountability of its membership (including its leadership).
Case in point 1: the ERIP pay pension back. It was made very clear that paying back needed to happen well before the fifteen years its leadership pushed the members to fight for. While four years might have been a tough pill to swallow, a happy medium should have been discussed. One needs to ask just whose victory was that.
Case in point 2: I have seen retaliation from management towards some hard working employees that don’t play the good ol’ boy game in my dept (they actually care and work hard). Rather than stewards batting for these employees (certainly not during contract negotiations), they just pretend to while looking the other way.
Unfortunately, the leadership becomes a reflection of the whole and it’s hard for me to separate the two, especially when so many members seem brainwashed, much to the potential demise of their future employment.
It’s becoming so bad that, soon, one might have to form a union as protection from his/her union.
Just as obese people are at the root of their own health problems, Los Angeles is a victim of its obesity in land area.
Unlike the City of Bell, which is very small and more of a cohesive community, L.A. is a sprawling metropolis of vast diversity, which is touted as “good,” but really isn’t.
We have pockets of wealth, pockets of poverty, pockets of gang infestations and the rest of us are caught in the middle and just trying to survive.
The task of uniting us into a cohesive group whose interest is changing the city from a dysfunctional, bloat, corrupt megalopolis into one group that’s working for the interests and well-being of all is daunting, indeed.
Just as LAUSD is too big for its own good and should be broken up into six smaller districts, so should L.A. be broken into smaller cities, beginning with Valley Secession. Fat chance of that in our lifetimes. We’ve been there, tried to do that, but failed.
City Hall has nothing but disdain for our collection of “over the hill” communities except when it comes to taking our money that literally supports the “greater” city.
L.A. Clean Sweep is a fabulous start to cutting the bloat of L.A. and reducing it down to a workable size — district by district — by offering candidates from the community who truly have the entire community’s interests at heart.