"Your Neighbor" Surfaces

Let's see now, the election is less than a month behind us and a fellow who very much resembles my theoretical character "Your Neighbor" has slithered out from under his rock again, which is no surprise to me at all. After staying under cover for the past couple months to avoid being even more of a lightning rod for controversy, he's back with a vengeance.

Your Neighbor finally appeared at a City Council meeting again last Tuesday night after a self-imposed exile during much of the campaign. I fully expect him to, once again, become a fixture before every council and commission meeting, like gnat buzzing around your head. Once again he will provide "direction" to the council majority and berate them when they don't toe the line. Ever since the election he's been crowing on his blog about the "mandate", and reminding the victors that they need to follow his lead or they will suffer the same fate as the chronically inept Chris Steel a few years ago. This guy took credit for getting Steel elected and, when Steel turned his back on him, took credit for getting him un-elected.

Two weeks ago he published an entry on his blog that is straight out of his repertoire from any one of the far right wing web sites for which he writes. This is noteworthy because he's avoided posting anything quite so incendiary on his local blog in recent years. What this tells me is that he's become very emboldened by the recent election of his chosen pair, Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece. He recognizes that the majority on the council now - the two mentioned above combined with Mayor Pro Tempore Eric Bever - provides him with more than willing tools to move forward with his plans to move Latinos out of Costa Mesa. It looks to me like he has interpreted the "mandate" that Mansoor and Leece came away with following the election as an affirmation of his twisted philosophy. Accordingly, he's jumped right back on his soap box and has begun spewing his hatred again.

I've written about this many times in the past. Much of what I attributed to a "grand plan" for the expulsion of Latinos from Costa Mesa has come true. One major element that was rejected a couple years ago was the attempt by Mansoor and his pals to close the Orange Coast College Swap Meet. This weekend event is a venue of low end commerce and social interaction by many Latinos in our community. I fully expect there to be another attempt to shut the swap meet down using fabricated reasons early in 2007.

At a time when we should be counting our blessings for all the wonderful things we have in our little slice of paradise, Your Neighbor continues to rant and rave his garbage (to use one of Mayor Mansoor's favorite words) about the dilution of the human species, particularly insofar as the United States is concerned, by what he refers to as "blending" - the result of which is "Tan Everyman". It sickens me when I realize that, after a half century of progress in race relations in this country, Costa Mesa has become a bastion of intolerance - a place where a majority of voters were swept into the morass by the lies and deceit told by Mansoor and Leece and have now placed the future of this city in the hands of a few easily-manipulated, misguided souls. Costa Mesa will continue to be known throughout this country and the world as a place where a philosophy of intolerance controls the agenda of those in charge.

To those of you who voted Mansoor and Leece, I suspect you'll be seeing the fruits of your labor very shortly. When that happens, you'll be reminded of that old saying, "Be careful what you ask for!"

In the meantime, I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving holiday and that a triptophan stupor allowed you to forget the recent events in our city. It worked for me.