A RACIST? WHO, ME? (AMENDED)

DECLINING CIVILITY

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent economic collapse and the civil unrest as a result of George Floyd’s death under the knee of the Minneapolis police officer, I’ve seen a significant change in civility in our society.

IT’S NOT JUST FACEBOOK

I won’t use the shift of tone on social media alone for this observation.  Every single night for the last couple months on the news - any news - we’ve seen the breakdown of civility all across the country, which is certainly exacerbated by the fear of the illness and compounded by so many folks being out of work and all the stress that alone brings.

FRACTURING OF OLD RELATIONSHIPS

What I have observed, however, is the willingness of some people to engage in nasty, vindictive, accusatory discussions with folks who express a differing opinion on some of the pithy social issues of the time.  I admit that I base this largely on my own personal experiences recently, but also of experiences shared - or that I have observed - as it affected others.  Sadly, some of those discussions have been between me and friends - not just Facebook friends, (I expect rancor from some on Facebook - it goes with the turf) but actual, honest-to-goodness long-time friends.  These real friends are those with whom we have never had these kinds of conversations in the past.  Our bond has been based on a shared life experience - growing up together and maintaining close relationships over the years.  Never in the past have we found the need to sit down and have a serious discussion about race relations in our country - it just never came up.  The discussions we shared revolved around the fun times in our lives, our siblings and parents and shared friendships with others.  We enjoyed hearing with great joy about the lives of their children and their accomplishments and families.  Never did I find the need to say to any of those friends, “I don’t know any black people, nor do I understand what their lives are like.”  It just never came up…. until now.

DEVALUING MY OPINIONS

I have come to realize lately that, as an old white guy, raised in a life nearly completely devoid of contact with black people, my opinions are being challenged by friends and others for what they apparently feel is my inadequate background and understanding of  racial diversity issues, thus negating my opinion.  Since almost all of those people do not really know all of my background their condemnation of my opinions are, at the very least, disappointing.  We ALL are entitled to opinions on issues, whether we have lived them or not.

A SHORT PRIMER

So, let’s talk about my limited background with black people.  Although I have known many Latino and Asian people in both my personal and professional life,  never knew a black person until I entered the United States Army late in 1963 - shortly after John F. Kennedy was murdered.  In Basic Training I had no “buddies” that were black, although there were a few in my training company.  In my first duty station, in the Army Pictorial Center in Long Island City, Queens, New York, one of my very best friends for the short 6 months I spent there was Hayes Manning, a black man from California.  He had a college degree.  His father went to Harvard and his mother attended Radcliffe.  His Aunt Joyce was married George Wein, the producer of the Newport Jazz Festival.  We used to jump on the subway and go to their home on Central Park West and just hang out.  We met legendary jazz musicians who wandered through.  That was the first place I ever smelled marijuana.  During that summer of 1964 there were riots in Harlem so Hayes and I, ignorently, decided to jump on the subway and go see what it was all about.  Huge mistake!  We stepped onto the city streets, recognized this was like a pre-lynch scene in an old “B” western movie and immediately left - both of us petrified from the experience.  He became a lifelong friend until his death in his early 50s.

FLIGHT SCHOOL

During my time at the Pictorial Center I applied for, and was accepted into, the fledgling Warrant Officer Rotary Wing Flight Training program - the  Army was gearing up for the need for more “bus drivers” in Vietnam - and spent the last few months of 1964 and early into 1965 attending an abbreviated Officer Candidate School and learning to fly helicopters in northern Texas.  I had no black friends during that time.  Although an eye ailment eliminated me from flight school, I was reassigned to the Advanced School at Fort Rucker (one of those bases the angry masses now scream about re-naming) and spent the remaining part of my enlistment at that location as a company clerk while my classmates completed their training.  87 men in my class (of the 142 who began) graduated in July of 1965 and all of them, including the 80 assigned to the legendary First Cavalry (Airmobile) Division at Fort Benning, GA (another of those bases the screamers would have us rename), were in Vietnam by September.  Six of those men did not make it through their first tour, having been killed in action in Vietnam.

THE WATTS RIOTS AND CHANGE

During my time at Fort Rucker the Watts Riots occurred back home in Los Angeles.  My very best friend in life was a rookie cop with the LAPD at that time and was involved in that chaos.  In fact, he was doubly involved because he was also in the Army National Guard and his unit was activated and assigned to riot control at the very location he had been working at with the LAPD.  Yes, I was interested.  And, I saw that societal event change things at Fort Rucker.  Before that event men of all races would mingle and enjoy each other’s company in our company Day Room - a place with television, pool tables and a library plus comfortable chairs - a kind of living room for our barracks.  When the Watts riots occurred I saw a polarization occur - blacks sat with blacks and whites sat with whites.  When the television showed blacks looting stores in LA, the blacks in the Day Room would stand and cheer.  When the National Guard fired  on them, the whites would cheer.  Nothing was the same on that post from that time forward in the summer of 1965.  In fact, three weeks before I mustered out in December, there was a cross burned on the lawn of a black sergeant, where he and his family lived in his on-post housing domicile.  Keep in mind that Fort Rucker is located in the armpit of the South, where the “N Word” was used in casual conversation by the civilian populace.  In Dothan - the biggest town near our post - there were drinking fountains marked for “coloreds” and black folks were required to buy tickets at the local theater on the outside of the ticket booth and take an outside stairway to the balcony - they could not sit with the white folks downstairs.  Yes, this was a tough time to be a black person in the South.

TENSION IN THE SOUTH

As my best friend from flight school and I drove from the Primary School outside Fort Worth, Texas to the Advanced School in Alabama we drove past Philadelphia, Mississippi, the location where, just a few months earlier, three civil rights workers were murdered.  Also on our route we crossed over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, the day before the big march.  We were clueless about that stuff, but did wonder why there were 200 State Police cars staged on the north side of that bridge.  We found out the next day after we arrived at Fort Rucker.

THE ’N-WORD”

Following my military service I worked for a national insurance company in progressively responsible assignments that took me to Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Hartford, Houston, Hartford and San Francisco over a period of seven years, until I resigned and we returned home to Southern California and bought the home we’ve lived in for more than 46 years.  During that time, and in subsequent jobs I’ve had, I had very limited experience working with black people.  I had no long-term relationships with any black people during that time.  The only significant experience I had with black people was during my time in Houston when we attempted to hire young black women - graduates with liberal arts degrees from all-black Texas Southern University - into entry-level clerical jobs to which they had applied.  We were unsuccessful.  These women showed up woefully unprepared for the jobs and it is likely that the societal chasm they found themselves in made it hard - impossible - to achieve success.  My first day at that office, where I held a senior management position, I heard the “N-Word” spoken in casual conversation by the woman who worked for me and did most of the applicant preliminary screening.  That was the last time the word was spoken in my presence.  Regardless, it was indicative of the systemically hostile environment that young black women were exposed to in that office.  I tried to overcome that terrible bias by working hard with supervisors and managers, but was unsuccessful in single-handedly buffing off a century of racial bias.

NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS

In my last assignment with the insurance company I worked in San Francisco and lived in Concord, in the east bay.  Our next door neighbors were a mixed race couple.  He was a black man and a Captain in the United States Navy.  We established a relationship that has lasted for nearly a half century.  Both parents are gone, but we still have a relationship with their kids.

RACIAL DIVERSITY WAS NEVER A CONSIDERATION

In subsequent jobs I had virtually zero exposure to black men and women.  The companies I worked with were mostly white, with some Asians and Latinos in the population.  I did not seek them out because of that lack of racial diversity - I just never considered it in my job searches.  Most of those assignments involved some part of the recruitment process.  We never specifically targeted any racial group when trying to fill positions, although occasionally we would hire black people.  When I struck out on my own early in the 1980s and created a consulting practice that specialized primarily in Executive Search, the issue of racial diversity never came up.  In no case did a client company charge me with finding a woman or man of color - nor did we sort any out that appeared as a result of that search.

NO RACIAL EMPHASIS ON THE BLOG

During the past couple of decades when I wrote this blog and wrote commentaries elsewhere, none involved specific issues of race.  During this time I got to know a couple black Costa Mesa officials.  Judge Karen Robinson was a terrific leader, our mayor for a time and is an effective judge.  Rick Francis was a really good Assistant City Manager and just a good guy.  But that’s about it.  My focus has not been about racial issues.  Is that good or bad?  It is what it is.  

NOTE: A couple days after I published this piece an old friend, who has followed this blog from the very beginning, reminded me that I did, indeed, address race.  He reminded me that in my frequent jousts with another blogger in town who has written extensively on racial issues - I called him a racist, but he defined himself as a "racialist" - I did take the issue on to refute some of his putrid prose.  He has shriveled into insignificance locally, but still fouls the ether with his drumbeat of intolerance.  Sorry for the misstatement - he is something most are happy to push back in to the corners of our memories.

A LACK OF DEPTH, BUT NO REMORSE

So, as I read back over this essay I realize that, although I’m a pretty smart fella, I DO NOT have a background with any depth of experience with black folks.  I DID see how blacks were treated in the deep south in the 1960s - a pretty awful experience for them.  I have had a solid relationship with a couple black friends, but none lately.  A friend asked me the other day if I had any black friends - my answer was NO - not counting the Concord neighbors mentioned above since we only hear from them once a year.  As I contemplated that fact I realized that I don’t have any particular remorse about not having any close black friends - I don’t have feelings about it one way or the other.  Does that make me a racist?  If you think so I’d like to hear about it.  Because I’m ambivalent on the issue, am I considered a racist?  Because I’m VERY angry about the behavior of the current crop of demonstrators, those who are threatening to burn down our society, do you think I’m a racist?  How is it wrong for me to want to protect those I love and their personal wealth?  I don’t get it.  Is it wrong for me to refuse to just step back and say to those rioters “Go ahead - take everything I’ve worked for just because somewhere in your history - four generations ago - there may be slavery in your ancestry.”?

I LEARNED, BUT NEED MORE

Recently I listened on the radio to an excellent discussion moderated by my friends, John Stephens and Tom Johnson, with four black men of a variety of backgrounds, but each with a local connection to my city, and came away with a much better understanding of their plight.  I have a better understanding of “systemic racism” and want to learn more.  I understand a little bit better about how things like red-lining and inequitable school funding have so adversely affected black men and women in this country and I want to learn more - to more fully understand the issue and what possible solutions there might be.  If you feel the urge to educate me on these issues, go ahead.  I’m a good listener and sometimes actually ask good questions.   Otherwise, please keep your caustic, holier-than-thou comments to yourself.  If you don’t like what I write, just don’t read it.  If you think you can offer constructive observations, go ahead.

…BUT, DON’T THINK YOU CAN JUST TAKE IT!

But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to have my state, California, decide to use my tax dollars to pay billions (trillions?) of dollars in reparations to every black man and woman in this state for alleged mistreatment of people of their race generations ago.  There is a move afoot to create a commission to study that very issue and I don’t like it one bit!  I didn’t do it and I don’t want to pay for it.  If that happens it will be the final straw.  It will mean to me that California - the state I love for her natural beauty and as the home to so many of our relatives - will become unlivable for a guy with conservative values.  I will just pack up and move elsewhere - look out, Texas!  

IS CHANGE NECESSARY?  PROBABLY…

Do I want to see that systemic racism eliminated?  Of course!  Do I want to hand the fruits of my lifetime of labor over to someone who just wants it because he thinks he’s entitled to it?  Nope - not gonna happen!  If a mob shows up on my porch demanding possession of my home and all I own, I will do all within my power to resist that criminal act.  When I say all, I mean ALL!  

LIKE IT OR NOT, THERE IT IS.

So, that’s a couple thousand words about how I feel on this issue.  I don’t really care if you like it or not - it is what it is. You cannot comment here - comments are disabled.  If you want to rant about it you must go to my Facebook page HERE.  Or, you can communicate with me privately. It’s your choice.  

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, MY FRIENDS

In any event, I wish you all well and hope you are having a wonderful Independence Day holiday.  How’s that for irony - Independence Day in the middle of a catastrophic pandemic, economic collapse and social unrest not seen in this country for more than 40 years?  Oh, well…

What's This Day All About, Anyhow?

ENJOYING YOUR HOLIDAY?
Today many of you will enjoy a day off of work, celebrating the end of another long holiday weekend.  Many of you will have only a vague idea of just why you get to take this day off, so let me help you.

WHO WAS THIS MAN?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a seminal figure in the civil rights movement during the 1960s in our country.  A simple Google search will provide you with all the information you need about this man.  Here's a short video clip that may be helpful for you.
 
WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR ME
During the mid 1960s I was a young guy growing up in California, barely aware of civil rights.  I've written about this before in August of 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, HERE.  Read it (again) if you wish.  Here's a short version of that speech.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD
My experience in the United States Army exposed me, up close and personal, to many of the civil rights issues of the day.  Again, I wrote about them earlier.  The south at the time I lived in Alabama is not something most of you can comprehend.  My friend and I drove across the Edmund Pettus Bridge the day before the first march, when state troopers beat, hosed down and turned dogs on the peaceful marchers.

 RIOTS
I watched as parts of Los Angeles burned during the Watts riots of 1965 while I was still in the army.  We had a cross burned on the lawn of a black sergeant on post in November of 1965, just days before I left the Army.  In those days, in that part of the country, there were still separate restrooms and drinking fountains for blacks.  In Dothan, Alabama - the closest town to my Army post - blacks were required to purchase movie tickets "outside" and take an outside staircase to the balcony.

 JFK ASSASSINATED
I was drafted three weeks after John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas.  I saw parts of cities erupt in violence following Dr. King's assassination in 1968.  This was not a good time in our country.

TRUMP SCARES ME
Today, as we celebrate Dr. King's life, I contemplate the inauguration of our new President on Friday and, based on his utterances over the past couple years, am terrified about how Donald J. Trump's presidency may affect this country.  So, I thought it was appropriate to remind us all of Dr. King's messages...

PROPHETIC SPEECH
On March 3, 1968 Dr. King made his prophetic "I've been to the mountaintop" speech.  Here's a short version of that speech.  The very next day he was murdered.
 
BOBBY KENNEDY.... TOO
That night Senator Robert Kennedy delivered a speech to a crowd in Indianapolis from the back of a flatbed truck telling them that Dr. King had been murdered.  Here's a short video clip of his speech.  Two months later he, too, was gunned down.

KING'S WORK IS FAR FROM OVER
I write to you today, a holiday which is dedicated to Dr. King's life, to remind you that his work is far, far from over.  When you do your Google search of him you will find dozens of quotes attributed to him.  Of all of them, this one rings loudest to me.  I'll leave you with it as you contemplate Dr. King and what this holiday means.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Brief, But Contentious, Council Meeting

STARTED HIGH, AND THEN....
The Costa Mesa City Council met for one of the shortest meetings in recent memory Tuesday night, but that doesn't mean it was without its dramatic moments.

KNOTS OF LOVE
It began on a high note when Mayor Steve Mensinger, perhaps the weakest reader we've had up there in some time, presented his latest Mayor's Award to Christine Fabiani, the driving force behind Knots Of Love, the organization which knits and distributes hats to thousands of people each year suffering from debilitating diseases like cancer.  According to Ms. Fabiani, they create over 4,000 knit caps per month and have distributed over 260,000 so far through more than 560 care centers and doctor's offices around the country.  Shown here are city staffers, each in a hat.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
Ten people spoke during Public Comments:

Ralph Taboada, Chairman of the Bikeways and Walkability Committee and the Pension Oversight Committee, spoke to the council about re-adjusting their budget priorities to, in his words, ratchet-back spending on things like sports fields.  He also expressed concern about the temperatures on the artificial turf fields that are in the planning stages for the Jack Hammett Sports Complex.  He also expressed extreme disappointment when no council quorum showed up for the recent Library Study Session.

Gay Royer expressed concern about what she referred to as the "Victoria Freeway" - the stretch of westside roadway on which traffic consistently runs too fast.  She was concerned about the need for a signal at Wilson and Pomona and the entrances to Victoria that may be closed to walk/bike through traffic.

Reggie Mundakis observed that the Fair Board will meet Thursday to discuss the Arlington Drive Bioswale and there still had been no public outreach.

Beth Refakes reminded us for the last time about the candy drive for the children of the 1/5 Marines at Camp Pendleton.  Individually wrapped candy may be placed in the foot locker in the City Hall Lobby the rest of this week before the Military Affairs Team delivers it to Camp Pendleton next week.

An anonymous speaker expressed concern about the item on the agenda regarding appeals that was pulled earlier in the day.  She opined that the money should be refunded and the new policy - whatever that might be - should include provisions for refunds.

Cindy Black, observing about the presentation to the folks from Knots Of Love, told us of two products that, theoretically, help an ill person retain their hair.

Dr. Nina Reich spoke on the recently passed CRONE act, which requires more transparency in public contracting for cities which use the COIN process.  She spoke of the protest planned Thursday evening in front of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn to remind the public of the need for affordable housing.  She spoke of meeting with CEO Tom Hatch regarding the removal of bus shelters.

Chuck Perry praised the council for all the "wonderful" housing that is being built throughout the city.  He complained about a traffic backup at the In N Out Burger store on Harbor Blvd and encouraged the council to go full speed ahead on roadwork.  He also told us, responding to an earlier speaker's concern about hot artificial turf, that when it gets too hot at Estancia's stadium field they just turn on the sprinklers.  Hmmm... artificial turf and sprinkler... what's wrong with that picture?

Wendy Leece said she was thankful for the 1st Amendment to the constitution which guarantees free speech and also for the Freedom of Information Act, through which she acquired information on Fire Safety.  She wondered about the status of the 17-point plan approved more than two years ago.  She also demanded an apology from Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer for his "slanderous" comments from the dais about her at the last council meeting.  (She received none).

Former employee Steve White - who was arrested for stealing $5.00 worth of campaign signs, lost his job, was taken to trial and found not guilty -  stepped up again and asked the council for some help sorting out the events of 91101 in a long, disjointed comment.

COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS
Righeimer tried to explain that the budget process is deliberative and the council allocates the funds as they see fit.  He then spoke about several new developments that he thought were just great.

MENSINGER
Mensinger told us that 8 people joined him in his most recent waddle around town, including one person who bought a place at Superior Point, the development at the corner of Superior and 17th Street, who he quoted as saying, "I sometimes wonder why people criticize where I live and why we can't criticize where they live".  I thought that was peculiar, but then Mensinger went on to say himself, not quoting anyone else, "I think we all need to understand we may not like what we see, but that may be something that somebody else wants to live in and I think we ought to respect that because it is somebody's home."  Those words would come back to haunt him in a minute or two.  He asked Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz to check on the traffic light at Wilson and Pomona.  He also asked Hatch to have Police Chief Rob Sharpnack to talk about some specific crime mapping at the next council meeting.  He observed that, "as the mayor pro tem says, the city is 'who you attract'".  Anyhow, he went on to describe the vagrants hiding in the bushes along the Joann Street bike trail and defecating on the sidewalk..

FOLEY
Katrina Foley went next and began by hoisting Mensinger on his own petard by quoting his comment exactly and asked HIM to remember his own words when we talk about housing where HE might not like to live, but it is somebody else's home - like motels, for example.  I smiled.

SPEED BUMPS AND HOLES IN THE WALL
She asked Munoz about the St. Claire Street Speed Bumps and expressed concern, too, about the Victoria Street openings that will soon be closed.  She expressed concern about the "noticing" process, since it seemed that many residents who have children that use those openings in the walls along Victoria Street received NO notice.  Munoz will be sure noticing occurs throughout the entire affected neighborhood and, at Foley's request, will copy the principal of Victoria Elementary school and Dr. Kirk Bauermeister at the NMUSD, too.  She also asked about the Arlington Drive Bioswale and was told that there will be a presentation made to the Fair Board on Thursday at their meeting that begins at 9:00 a.m.

REPORTS
She also requested of Hatch a report As Soon As Possible on job/housing balancing in the city.  She also expressed concern about the issue raised by Leece concerning the implementation of the 17 point Fire Department plan and asked for a report on that, too.

UH, OH!
Then she asked for ALL communications between Mayor Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Righeimer and the staff with ANY developers regarding affordable housing.  She said we talk about it a lot, but it seems to just be all talk.

GENIS
Sandra Genis congratulated the folks in Halecrest for another successful chili cook-off, which she described as a great community event.  She also congratulated those responsible for the Scarecrow Festival last weekend at Fairview Park.  She spoke about a couple of the items on the Consent Calendar, Item 4, the cattail removal, wanting to be sure all appropriate agencies would be involved to avoid any intergovernmental conflicts/complications; and the #6, the Harbor Blvd. medians, and expressed a strong desire for community outreach.  She expressed a view that, regarding the Arlington Drive Bioswale, the Fairgrounds Equestrian groups felt un-involved.

STUDY SESSION GAFFE
She apologized to all for the mess up with the Library Study Session, and expressed the opinion that the funding mechanisms should not be considered in a vacuum, and cited the General Plan process as an example of "hodge-podge".  She expressed concern for the "ongoing sustainability of our community".  She also expressed concern for the significant loss of affordable housing, at which Righeimer attempted to challenge her definition of affordable housing, twice.

MONAHAN, THE PROMOTER
Gary Monahan used his time to 1) promote the weekend "harvest festival" at his church, St. Joachims; 2) promote a fundraiser at his own restaurant for Newport Harbor High School Dance; 3) to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and 4) to make a feeble attempt to get Mensinger to wear a Notre Dame visor because they whipped USC last weekend.  Mensinger weaseled out of it.

HATCH - NO REPORT
CEO Tom Hatch had no report.  I found myself wondering how that is possible, since there were many items previously mentioned that he could, and probably should, have responded to.  Then again, he has been criticized in the past by the council majority for talking too much during meetings.  One more casualty in the free speech wars...

CONSENT CALENDAR
Four items were pulled for separate discussion - #4, #5, #6 and #7.
Because we were still just before 7:00 p.m., Public Hearings, by council rules, may not begin until that time.  So, Consent Calendar item #4 was discussed.  This is the item about removing cattails from Fairview Park.  A lengthy discussion took place involving what appears to be an increase in mosquitoes as a result of the ponds at the north end of the park.  Genis expressed concern not only for West Nile Virus, but for Yellow Fever, too.  That got our attention.  Munoz told us that proper maintanence had been missed last year in the tiny window available because of the nesting season.  He assured us that this year this process would do the trick to help avoid standing water where mosquitoes breed.  One speaker, Mary Hanna (sp?) complained that she can no longer sit in their back yard because of flying critters - she thinks mosquitoes, but no-see-ums were also mentioned.

THE SEGERSTROM SURPRISE
At 7:20 the first Public Hearing commenced - the extension of the development agreement for the Segerstrom Town Center project for another 20 years, to 2035.  Most in the auditorium expected this one to move forward with no problems, but that was before Righeimer got his claws into this process.  Apparently the staff has been working with the Segerstrom folks for a couple years on this request.  The economic downturn delayed any progress on this project for several years, but now they are finally getting back to it, but it won't be a quick project, just as all their other projects have taken time to fully flesh-out and build.  Apparently Righeimer has met with the Segerstroms and told them that he wasn't interested in stretching this process out 20 years - he wanted 10 years in which they could show 30% completion of the project, then an automatic 5 year extension if necessary!

STAFF SURPRISED, TOO

When Justin McCusker, the Segerstrom representative, came up to speak he concurred with the change.  I don't know what was in his head, but I'm thinking this was NOT what he wanted.  Foley then flat-out asked him if he would prefer the 20 year time frame to complete a proper project, and he said yes.  Righeimer pushed back with his 10/5 scheme.  Foley asked the staff when they first heard of this change and was told "just now"!  Righeimer used as his excuse that he didn't want other developers to come ask for 20 years to complete a project - that he wanted the Segerstroms treated just like everyone else.  Well, the Segerstroms ARE NOT like everyone else!  Through their vision and execution of outstanding projects - South Coast Plaza, the Performing Arts Center, for example - not only have they put Costa Mesa on the map in a very positive way, but the sales tax dollars generated by South Coast Plaza keep this city alive.

MY WAY, OR ELSE!
Righeimer made a motion for his 10/5 scheme.  Foley made a substitute motion for the original staff recommendation, which was voted down, 2-3, with Foley and Genis voting for it.  When the vote was then taken on the original motion it passed, 5-0, with neigher Foley nor Genis wanting to quash the project.  It was obvious this was just Righeimer flexing his muscles - to show everyone in the room that he was the boss.  It made me want to puke!

RIGHT-OF-WAY VACATION
Public Hearing #2, the vacation of right-of-way at 752 West 19th Street, began at 7:32 p.m.  Two speakers, Teresa Drain and Ralph Taboada, expressed concern that giving up this chunk of land on the corner might eliminate a spot useful for the bikeabililty crowd.  Taboada asked that it be put off for a few months, until the Bikeway and Walkability Committee had completed their work, since this was on a logical bikeway.

UNUSABLE
Robert Gibson, who described himself as an "investor in the project" - we presume he meant the one adjacent to the right-of-way in question - cited the unusability of that cite for bike purposes because nearby properties encroached on what might have been bikeways.  The item passed on a 3-2 vote, with Genis and Foley voting no.

PULLED CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS
The trailed Consent Calendar items were then considered.  Righeimer had pulled #5 to have a correction made on a map that was part of the package.  It passed, 5-0.

PREMATURE CONCERNS
Item #6, the Harbor Blvd Medians between Wilson and 19th Street revolved around concerns that the left turn restrictions that would be imposed on the traffic might drive small mom-and-pop businesses out of town.  Munoz told the council that we were "light years away" from major decisions on this issue and that significant public outreach will happen as part of the process.  Genis asked that the work include a new traffic study.  The item passed, 5-0.

EMINENT DOMAIN CONCERNS
Item #7, involving applications for comprehensive transportation funding, was challenged by residents Jay Humphrey and Cindy Black because they were concerned about the taking of private lands via eminent domain.  Nobody really answered that question and the vote passed, 4-1, with Foley voting no.

EARLY OUT
And the meeting ended at 7:55 p.m.!  Yea!

RIGHEIMER IN COMMAND

To use a Righeimerism, my "take away" from this short meeting was that Righeimer continues to dominate the discussion of important issues and seems not to care at all what the women who form the minority on the council think - about anything.  He knows he's got the votes in his pocket, so he can spring something like that new Segerstrom scheme on them at the last moment without worrying about having to "sell it" - it's already bought and paid for.

CURRY, QUOTING JFK AND OTHERS
Earlier in the day Tuesday an acquaintance reminded me of a column then-Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry wrote for the Orange County Register on November 14, 2013 in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which you can read in its entirety HERE.

THE BEST IS HIS LAST ONE...
In that column Curry quoted passages from Kennedy's book, Profiles In Courage.  Kennedy quoted great Americans like John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster, to name but two and cited the common theme - the need to compromise.  I'll let you read the column yourself, but it ends with the following passage by Curry:  "...it is good for us to remember President Kennedy's words and the examples of great senators who served the higher purpose of America rather than their own narrow political agendas.  Compromise is not a dirty word; it is the required element of functioning government."

NO COMPROMISE IN COSTA MESA
Having watched this City Council, led by Jim Righeimer, in action for more than five years, it is clear that compromise is an alien concept in our city these days, which is why we have in our city a non-functioning government, where special interests and ignorant, arrogant, self-serving vindictiveness is the order of the day.  From the 200 layoff notices and Huy Pham; through two (2) failed bogus charter schemes; to suing the men and women of the CMPD; to the disastrous 60th Anniversary debacle; to the loss of more than 50 seasoned, senior police officers and on and on and on.  How very sad for us all.

A Half-Century Old Remembrance

CAREFREE AND CLUELESS

Fifty years ago today I was a carefree young man who had recently received his induction notice to report for duty in the United States Army the middle of December.  It was at the early stages of what would become known as the Viet Nam War - a non-declared military action that eventually took more than 58,000 American lives and caused a rift in this country that lasted for a decade.  However, at that time not many people would have anticipated how it ended up.  Life was good for me.

A PERFECT MORNING - SHATTERED
The morning of November 22, 1963 I was cruising toward Santa Monica in my 1957 Chevrolet convertible, top down, on the way to measure a home for carpet for my father's business - a job I'd held off-and-on between semesters in college and, at that time, prior to joining the Army.  It was a typical Southern California day - perfect, except I couldn't find any music on my radio.  Finally I just stopped pushing buttons and twisting the dial and listened to the palaver that was coming from my dashboard.

THE UNTHINKABLE...
Then I heard the message - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas.  Soon I realized the traffic around me had gradually begun to slow to well-within the legal limits as people heard the news and began to contemplate what it meant.

A DIFFICULT MOMENT
Eventually I made my way to the tidy neighborhood in Santa Monica and knocked on the door of the home where I was supposed to measure several rooms.  An elderly gentleman - probably about my age now - slowly opened the door.  He, and his wife standing with him, had tears in their eyes and I could hear the television commentator in the living room behind them speculating about the events in Dallas that morning with a strained note of urgency in his voice.

GRACE DURING GRIEF
I offered to reschedule our appointment, recognizing just how distraught they were, but they graciously declined and showed me the rooms to be measured.  For the next half-hour or so I went about my job and they sat, holding hands on the couch in the living room, quietly sobbing as the anxious, confused reports continued to spill out of the old black and white television set.

THE FINAL, TRAGIC NEWS
Finally, just before I finished my work, news came that the president had, indeed, died from an assassin's bullet a few minutes earlier.  I wrapped up my duties, wiping tears from my eyes, and offered my condolences to my customers before I left.

A BLUR...
I don't recall much about my drive back across the Los Angeles basin to my home.  My other appointments had been canceled for the day, so I just went home.  I do recall wondering what this tragedy meant, for our country and for me, personally.  Was it just the beginning of an attack on our country? There was much prattle on the radio and television about that possibility at the time.

APPREHENSION
I wondered what this event would mean to my enlistment in the Army a few weeks hence.  I didn't pay much attention to politics then, but I found myself wondering what kind of president Lyndon Johnson would make, and what kind of a Commander-in-Chief he would be.  I later found out.

THE BEGINNING...
I suspect memories of that day and subsequent events will creep into my mind from time to time today, just as they have ever since that day fifty years ago.  Most of us who were alive and beyond the age of ten years old at the time still recall it vividly.  Kennedy's murder, and the subsequent assassinations of his brother, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.,  left scars on this country that are still visible today.

TENSE AND INTENSE TIMES 
Remember, this was a time in our country when we were still tense about the Cuban Missle Crisis a year earlier.  Just a few months later three young voting rights activists were murdered in Mississippi and a few days before I was discharged from the Army two years hence, a cross was burned on the lawn of a black sergeant at Fort Rucker, Alabama - my final duty post deep in the armpit of the South.  These were not good times in our country.

AMERICA CHANGED FOREVER

John F. Kennedy's assassination was the beginning of events that changed American society forever, with the advent of the drug culture, riots in large cities across the country and that damnable, divisive Viet Nam War.  Four students were killed by skittish National Guardsmen at Kent State University during an anti-war demonstration in 1970.  I still contemplate the 10% of the men of my helicopter flight school class who didn't return from Viet Nam.  Many members of my generation carry still-festering wounds from that time in their lives.

VIEW THIS CLIP IF YOU WISH
Here's a short, grainy not-quite-six-minute video clip of Walter Cronkite, often described as "the most trusted man in television", delivering the news of Kennedy's death.  It was a sad day for this country...

The Dream... Unfulfilled

"I HAVE A DREAM..."

Today is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. before an estimated quarter million people.  According to most observers, this was the seminal moment of the modern civil rights movement in this country.  Because I lived through, and much too near, some of the events that marked that time in this country's history, I'd like to share some of that history with you.  Bear with me... it's a long story.

A TYPICAL WHITE KID
When Dr. King gave that speech I was a 22-year-old southern California kid who had just dropped out of college for the second time to earn money so I could continue later.  I was a fairly typical middle class white kid, who did middle class white kid stuff.  I had girlfriends, did water-oriented sports - spent time at the beach,  swimming, water polo and water skiing - and had gone to schools which had not a single black person in them.  In fact, it wasn't until I went in the Army that I actually met a black person.  It wasn't something I worried about - I just never gave it a thought.

BARELY AWARE OF THE SPEECH
Dr. King's speech was near the end of the summer of 1963 and I remember being vaguely aware of it.  I was busy working, dating, water skiing and having a good old time.  Then I got my draft notice.

CALLED TO DUTY
It was the beginning of the ramp-up of the Viet Nam War and my lottery number came up.  I recall taking my draft physical exam, but not being particularly worried about joining the Army.  The thought never crossed my mind to somehow evade the draft.  It was a duty I felt obligated to fulfill.  Then John F. Kennedy was killed just three weeks before I was scheduled to be inducted.

BURNED IN MY MEMORY
I still recall that day like it was yesterday.  I was measuring homes for carpet and was on my way to Santa Monica for my next assignment and couldn't find any music on my car radio.  The wind was blowing over my buzz-cut head - as a swimmer, I hadn't had hair longer than about an eighth of an inch for a couple years - as I drove my '57 Chevy convertible to the next job with the top down.  It was a perfect southern California day.  Finally, I just quit pushing buttons on my old AM radio and listened to the news and heard of Kennedy's assassination.  Not quite sure what I should be doing, I continued to the home, rang the bell and an elderly gentleman answered with tears in his eyes.  On the black and white television I could see news reports of the event.  I offered to reschedule, but he and his wife invited me in and I spent the next half hour crawling around their home, measuring the rooms,  listening to the news in the background and hearing both of them sobbing quietly.  I'll never forget that day.

THE ARMY
The middle of December I was inducted into the Army and I finally had my first up-close-and personal experiences with black men, although it didn't really register that they were black - we were all in the same boat, dealing with the stress that was basic training at Fort Ord.  I do recall our drill instructor - a very fit black sergeant who relished chiding us as he did one-armed push-ups.  The objective was to break us down physically and mentally, then rebuild us to become soldiers.  They generally succeeded.

THE BIG APPLE
After basic training I was sent, along with three classmates, to New York City, where my typing speed on a frigid, damp winter morning at Fort Ord had qualified me to be a clerk at the Army Pictorial Center - formerly the Paramount Studios - in Queens.  It was an unusual post.  The main facility was the studio and our barracks building was just across the street.  For the next several months I was a soldier in New York City, trying to deal with life in the big city on $99.00 a month, gross.  It was an experience unlike anything before in my life -  and it was then that I made my very first black friend.

FAST FRIENDSHIP
Hayes Manning and I were two of four guys who shared a "bay" - a cranny with two sets of bunk beds and a chair and table in that large barracks building.  We didn't choose each other - we were thrown together - but we developed a friendship in our few months together that lasted the rest of his lifetime - he died a couple years ago.

MY FRIEND
Hayes was an educated man from San Francisco - a bit of a snob with a very interesting life.  His father went to Harvard and his mother attended Radcliffe.  His aunt Joyce was married to jazz promoter George Wein- the man behind the Newport Jazz Festival, who has been described as "the most important non-player in jazz history."  I only mention this because Hayes and I would occasionally take the subway to Aunt Joyce's house on Central Park West and just hang out - an island of respite from our military lives.  In almost every case jazz musicians of world renown would also be there, hanging out and playing their music.  It was a surreal time for me, with Uncle George and I the only white men in the building most of the time.  Folks like Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, for example, were regulars.  These were the black people in my life at that  time.

A BIG DECISION
Several months later I applied and was accepted to the Warrant Officer Flight school to learn to fly helicopters.  The Viet Nam War was escalating and the Army needed pilots - bus drivers to shuttle soldiers around the battlefields.  I didn't want to waste my time in the Army sitting on my fanny, typing orders all day - that seems very ironic now, considering how I spend most of my days.  So, in October of 1964 off I went to the primary flight school just outside Fort Worth, Texas.

MISSISSIPPI BURNING
In the meantime, deep in the south, three young civil rights workers were kidnapped and killed just outside Philadelphia, Mississippi.  You'll understand why I mention this shortly.

FLIGHT SCHOOL
I went to rotary wing flight school and excelled.  I was the second man in my class of 142 to pass my solo check ride after 5 hours of instruction. I would have been the first, but I blew my first check ride.  That's another story.  Unfortunately, after three months of flying, an eye problem grounded me just as my class was moving on the the Advanced School at Fort Rucker, Alabama - deep, deep in the armpit of the south.  I transferred with my class, but never flew a helicopter again. 

DRIVING THROUGH THE SOUTH
On the way from the primary school I drove myself and my best friend in flight school across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and on into Alabama.  We crossed Mississippi a few miles from Philadelphia at a time when racial tension was extreme.  In fact, as we drove through Montgomery, Alabama before turning south to Fort Rucker - which was near the Alabama, Florida, Georgia borders - we crossed the Pettus Bridge, the day before the first so-called Freedom March.  Having been sequestered in flight school for a few months, we didn't know a thing about it, although we did see a couple hundred state trooper cars at the barracks on the north side of the bridge.  At the time, although I didn't know it, my friend had a loaded .357 Magnum pistol under his seat in the car.  If we, two white guys in a car with California plates, had been stopped and that gun found we'd have been lucky to go to jail.  I recall thinking at the time that you could cut the tension with a knife - it was very much like pre-lynch scenes in "B" movies of the 1940's.  It was a strange time.

MY CLASS
So, off we went to Fort Rucker where my friend and my other classmates finished their training and graduated in July - 87 of the 142 made it.  Of those men, 80 went to the First Cavalry Division (Air mobile) at Fort Benning, Georgia, five went directly to Viet Nam and two went to Korea, then were assigned on temporary duty to Viet Nam.  The entire First Cav. Division went en masse to Viet Nam in September, so my entire class was there within a few months of graduation.  Six of them didn't make it through their first tour.

SURREAL WORLD
I, on the other hand, remained at Fort Rucker while the Army tested me for the eye problem.  They never figured it out, so I served the remainder of my enlistment there in the bowels of bigotry.  This was a part of the country that really hadn't yet joined the 20th Century.  In those days folks in Alabama worshiped University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, Governor George Wallace and God, in that order.  In Dothan - the closest town of any size to the post - blacks still had separate restrooms and drinking fountains and were required to buy tickets to the movies on the opposite side of the ticket window and were forced to sit in the balcony.  Three weeks before I left active duty a cross was burned on the lawn of a black sergeant ON POST!

MURDER THE NORM
During the 1960's the KKK still dominated much of the social and political life in the American South.  Children were being murdered as black churches were burned with them inside.  Black men were lynched with regularity.

WATTS RIOTS
Some of you will remember that the summer of 1965 was the time of the Watts Riots.  I recall sitting in the day room in our company area watching television before the riots - blacks and whites co-mingled and having a good old time.  However, when the riots began everything changed.  Blacks would sit on one side of the day room and cheer as the television showed black looters dragging televisions and other stuff out of stores.  The whites sat on the other side of the day room and cheered when the National Guard opened fire.  It was never the same again.

TROUBLED TIMES
I got out of the Army near the end of 1965, just as Viet Nam was boiling over, got a job, got married, and with my lovely and patient wife, moved around the country for my employer for several years before settling here in Costa Mesa 40 years ago.  We lived in Houston in the late 1960s when it was the murder capitol of the country - mostly blacks killing blacks - and many of our native Texan friends still uttered the "N-Word" in casual conversation. 

EVENTS...
During those years, as we moved around the country and later,  Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated, Ronald Reagan was shot, Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, Bill Clinton set a new low bar for personal behavior in office, a father and son named Bush served as President, we managed to embroil ourselves in yet another unpopular war in a far away place and this country elected a black man as President - twice.

DREAM UNFULFILLED
And yet, a half-century later, Dr. King's dream remains unfulfilled.  Black unemployment is double - in some areas triple - the average and many of our black-dominated cities are in deep trouble.  Detroit is the best/worst example of that.

SCHOOLS FAILING, PRISONS PACKED
Most large metropolitan schools are fully integrated - and many are failing.  Prisons are filled to overflowing, and the biggest demographic in those prisons is black young men.  According to recent statistics, non-Hispanic blacks - which represent just under 14% of the population - account for  more than 39% of the prison population.  1 in 11 black men are in prison!  Let that sink in a little.  Over 9% of black men in this country are in prison!

LAGGING BEHIND
By every measure of success blacks lag significantly behind whites in this country - education, economic prosperity - you name it.  I sit here, in a community where the black population is tiny and even smaller in the community with which we share a common border to the south.  We are in an area where we just don't have much to do with black Americans, so we don't think about them very much. 

WHY?
So, today, on this anniversary - a date that most black Americans will celebrate and many white Americans will not - I wonder why more progress has not been made in the half-century since Dr. King uttered those words, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."   

NEVER AGAIN

I lived in the South in the 1960's. I know from first hand experience what Dr. King was talking about.  I don't want to see anything resembling that terrible time to occur in this country again.  Take a couple minutes and read the full text of Dr. King's speech, HERE.  If you wish to view it, you can do so by clicking HERE.  Whether you celebrate this day or not - whether you admired the man, or not - the message Dr. Martin Luther King delivered fifty years ago today should be remembered by all of us, for the message of hope it delivered and for the reminder that we still have a long, long way to go on that path.

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