We Don't Need A Mayor on Steroids

     Why did KJ run for mayor if he really wanted to be king? He hasn't done anything yet that really helps anyone who's not already rich, and already he wants more power. He's acting more like Bush - 'If the President does it it's not illegal' - than anything like Obama.

     He's already created a conflict of interest with his volunteer advisors, who work for local developers and their lawyers, sitting in on city meetings. Where is the city attorney? 

     Who's paying for all these clueless signature-gatherers, at $1.50 per signature? I don't think he's spending any of his money. In my youth, people like his deep-pocket pin-striped cronies were called "outside agitators." 

     Why are the signature-gatherers lying to people, telling them it's an initiative for a full-time mayor when that was passed back in 2002? Or misleading them by implying that the main purpose is to make the city manager our chief administrative officer? Where's the referee?

     And how did he manage to get away with these people gathering signatures out in front of Raley's, the same store that told me to get lost when I wanted to table there myself, the actual candidate, during the mayoral campaign last spring? I guess some people are just more equal than other people.

     I'm sure there are many other things to do with all this money that would be more useful to the community. Just Say No to the Steroid Mayor idea.

A Bad New Year's Resolution from the City Council

     Sometime soon, the council will hear a proposed ordinance revision which makes it illegal for the underclass to remove anything from your garbage and greenwaste containers, in addition to the recycling container which is already off-limits. Thankfully, residents are still allowed to retrieve items mistakenly thrown away and to allow extremely-low-income entrepreneurs to cherry-pick.

     This proposal is alleged to offer all kinds of vague benefits. Many terrible things that can happen will, it is implied, not happen because marginal people will be further restricted. But no data is presented about injuries, pests, identity theft or other crimes. 

      Have there really been any cases of identity theft by scavengers? If they are that sophisticated, why are they on the street? And fighting blight is like fighting terror; both are ideas and incapable of direct data. If the council wants to protect the public, how about cracking down on the many viciously loud motorcycles which blight our streets and assault our ears? Or we could ban leafblowers and create jobs.

       This ordinance should only be amended to make it illegal for anybody to throw away anything that's still useful. Reportedly, some neighborhoods are excellent hunting grounds for gathering perfectly edible food from garbage cans. Donation to Sacramento's hungry should be required for edible food.

     More durable goods, many still perfectly useful, can be found in the junk pick-up piles. This is an ideal opportunity for the city to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability, by making sure we minimize waste by using what we have and only landfilling things that are actually no longer useful to anyone. (Council items could be presented on much less paper than this one uses.) How many trips to Nevada could be reduced this way? Why don't we have an Urban Ore outlet here?

     This ordinance is as likely to solve the scavenging problem as for a rich man to enter heaven. Bandaids don't work for gaping wounds like PTSD, starvation and homelessness. The rationale for this proposal includes protecting scavengers from illness and injury, but until the city protects them from starvation and freezing I can't take their concern seriously. 

     If the city is serious about reducing crime, reducing hunger and hopelessness will be their first priority. Passing stupid ordinances will be off the list.

Confessions of a Conformist

     I realized the other day I too was misled into thinking that Bush was the evil decider who has led this nation so far astray. Like most people, I too suffer from leader-itis, even if it's a mild infection. So like most of us, I underestimated Cheney's political skills, ruthless ambition, and commitment to sneakiness. But Prof. Shirley Warshaw of Gettysburg University is on to him.

     A panelist in a discussion about presidential transitions recently shown on C-SPAN, she summarized her upcoming book "The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney," from Stanford University Press (www.sup.org). 

     Bush only wanted to lead on moral and faith-based issues, leaving everything else, like business, energy, environment, health care, civil rights, foreign policy, etc., to Cheney, who wasted no time during Bush's transition putting in place the foundation of eight years of totalitarianism in democratic clothing.

     "Warshaw convincingly concludes that the legacy the Bush administration will leave is a testament to why two presidents equal one massive failure," says Stanford on the website.

     Transparency can prevent such corruption, but only if no one is above the law. And there is still the underlying problem that few want to hear that their leader is evil, bad for them, or even just a slacker. Government of, by and for the people only works well when everyone is vigilant and vocal. Which is of course far easier when government is relocalized.

     So I hope KJ figures out soon that people actually do expect more of political leaders than they do of NBA basketball stars, even though viewing audiences are smaller. I don't have to buy tickets, but I do have to pay taxes.

     I think I deserve a refund from Cheney.

Confessions of a Cootie

     Being a cootie means the other kids either bully you (the boys) or ignore you (the girls). I was lucky; somehow my spirit was never broken, although I became very defensive.

     But just punishing bullies, even gang members, especially via our adversarial criminal 'justice' system, just teaches them that might makes right, and that bullying is okay for adults and the government. This is really dumb, unless you like shooting yourself in the foot. 

     Suspension solves nothing either. I would rather sit that bully down with the victim/s, and facilitate the cooties' explanation to them of what they are doing until they are embarrassed enough that they will never forget to think about how others feel.

     As a matter of fact, I would like to do that to our way-overdue-for-indictment President. He deserves to be tied up and be forced to listen to the anguish of the millions of lives his idiocies and our country have irrevocably destroyed. And continue to destroy, in Palestine.

     It is equally important for victims to remember that bullies are people too, and bullying them back is really unclear on the concept. As Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind." We can refuse to tolerate scapegoating without being mean or violent ourselves.

     Justice is not vengeance, which latter I have been told belongs to the Lord, or to karma.

Charity & Sustainability 2

     In the Bee's Christmas newspaper, EJ Dionne wrote about liberation from the tyranny of material possessions, by sharing rather than accumulating. A few pages later, I found an AP story, "What happens to all that unsold stuff?" It admits some of it might end up in the dump.

     I wish we could liberate our economy from the tyranny of the GDP, from the idea that the volume of monetary transactions is an accurate measure of economic health and well-being. 

     Until we understand that real economic health is based on meeting everyone's actual needs, rather than just churning through more purchases of more stuff, we won't be smart enough to avoid another financial meltdown. Or more ecological disasters such as coal ash floods, decapitated mountains, and freeway construction.

     Awhile back (65 years to be exact) Maslow developed his "Hierarchy of Needs" which can help us put material possessions in their place. Our material needs are, as I may have mentioned, clean air and water, healthy food, and warmth. 

     Additional material things are more or less essential for modern lifestyles, such as telephones, cars, and antibiotics. But they are not essentials for life. And they are less essential than more ordinary things like pots and pans, blankets, or shovels.

     Of course, a blanket will keep you just as warm if it new or used. But people who have mostly only ever had 'previously-owned' blankets feel more special when they get something that is new and just theirs, not someone else's adopted heirloom.

     I suspect our economy would be a lot healthier if every piece of stuff we have were as dear to us as our old velveteen rabbit.

Charity & Sustainability

     I'm sure some will find me Grinchy, but I have a problem with some of the requests in the Bee's Book of Dreams. WIND Youth Center wants more cooking utensils, but the picture shows unused equipment in the background, and hot dogs served on plastic plates in the foreground. Do they really need $$thousands to fill the gaps in their equipment? And no, I'm not interested in buying disposable diapers for someone who probably doesn't want cloth ones.

     Similarly, only new toys are acceptable donations for poor kids. But quality is more important than newness to any rational consumer. (Plus which, when I was a kid, one of our absolutely favorite toys was a packing barrel. We would take turns getting inside, rolling and being rolled.)

     Back in 1988 I helped start the local Greens because they were serious about integrating social AND ecological sustainability. (An example is my April post about "Soaring Food Costs.") So please don't settle for less. I certainly won't.

Inaugural Invocation & Hypocrisy

     The link (at right) to the video about President Moral Midget's International Medal of Peace (!!) awarded by Rick Warren adds another dimension to Obama's choice of Warren to give the invocation on January 20. 

     This discount version of Gore's Peace Prize comes from the P.E.A.C.E. coalition of over "400,000 churches in 162 countries." This stands for Promote reconciliation, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation. According to Warren, Bush deserves this award for his "outstanding contribution in attacking the 5 global Goliaths of spiritual emptiness, corruption, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases, and illiteracy."

     Listening to Bush talk about God, freedom, etc., I feel I am in looking-glass land. Whatever Bush may have actually done to help African AIDS victims is dwarfed by his criminal wars and all the death and destruction, past and future, that this unlawfully selected president bears responsibility for. What will he say to God? Will he get the karmic reflection of what he has inflicted?

     What does this choice say about Obama? I guess he wants to be a uniter, not a divider. But what is the moral way to unite with people who are apologists for terror? Choosing Warren is the next thing to pardoning Bush II for his international war crimes.

     As for us, we have another month to send a picture of the shoes we would like to throw at him to: President George 'Moral Midget' Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20006.