REMEMBERING THE PAST AND CONTEMPLATING THE FUTURE

CONTEMPLATING THE PAST - AND THE FUTURE

As I sat on my front porch on another perfect Southern California afternoon contemplating life and awaiting hoards of trick or treaters on this glorious Halloween day, I was having very mixed feelings.  

A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR A GREAT LIFE

I’ve had a wonderful life!  I grew up in a loving family with hardworking, honest,  parents who guided my sisters and me in preparation for life ahead.  I have many valued friends from those early years and still have contact with some of them.  They helped form the foundation of my life.

EXPERIENCE AND PROUD SERVICE

I’ve had a variety of work experiences, sprinkled in among my college days.  I worked as a shipping and receiving clerk, box boy and lifeguard.  I baked baseball bases, put sticks in popsicles, was a carpet layer’s helper,  pumped gas at a marina and learned something about life and myself in every assignment. I was a very good competitive water skier and a darn good teacher of that sport.  I taught hundreds of people to ski. Although I had no competitive swimming experience in my youth and had only seen one water polo game, I competed in both sports in college.  I proudly served my country during the Vietnam War era.  I flew helicopters for awhile - but didn’t see combat.  I’m grateful for that.  I learned a lot about myself as a leader during that time.

MY BEST CHOICE

I met my Sweet Susie, the love of my life, more than 58 years ago and have been married to her for 57 of those years - and counting.  That union made me part of HER wonderful family.  Her parents had a very different background than mine - they were World War II immigrants - but they had the same family values and it shows in their offspring.

A LITTLE LUCK AND A LOT OF HARD WORK

I’ve had a wonderful career - a couple of them, actually.  When I mustered out of the Army I lucked out and found a job with a terrific company that provided fantastic opportunities for advancement.  During my seven years with them I worked in six different cities in progressively more responsible jobs.  My Susie and I followed a gypsy life - we drove across the country for a promotion a week after we were married - and were living the American Dream, in which our hard work paid off.

THE FAST TRACK TO THE FROZEN EAST

When it became clear that the only place we could end up with that company was on the East Coast - two winters were enough - I left them and we moved home - south from the Bay Area back to Southern California where, once again, I was very fortunate to land a job with another wonderful company.  During my six years with that company I held several positions that provided me with exposure to sophisticated, cutting edge technology and gave me more depth in my career as a Human Resources professional. 

OOPS!

When the lack of a college degree became an artificial roadblock for further advancement I changed jobs - this time for a very short 6 weeks - to a position with a company that was NOT the kind of place I wished to work.  I began seeking another job on my second day.

RUNNIN’ AND GUNNIN’

Then I became the Employment Manager of a high-tech company that was, at that time, the fastest growing company in Southern California. That was lots of fun - fast paced in a very creative environment where the staff I managed developed new techniques so essential to quickly and efficiently filling those positions.  And, oh, yes - it was also financially rewarding.

A VALUED CONSULTANT

After a couple years I chose to strike out on my own and created a consulting practice, specializing in Executive Search and Team Building.  Among my client companies, in addition to a couple previous employers,  were small start-up organizations that needed help building a management team and guiding their organizations through their early days.  I never advertised for work - word of mouth as a result of my efforts was all it took.  I loved that job!  I was pretty good at it and made enough money to retire after 20 years.  

LIFE-MATE, SOUL-MATE AND PARTNER ALONG THE WAY

Through this all my dear wife stayed at my side, pulling more than her weight with every oar stroke as we navigated our life together and supporting me every step of the way.  She is the best thing that has happened to me in my life.

WRITING OPINIONS

After retiring I began paying attention to the world around me - particularly local issues.  I wrote the occasional letter to the editor to local newspapers, offering an opinion or observation on local happenings - usually political issues.  Over the years the Daily Pilot (our local “newspaper of record”) offered me the chance to write a regular column for them - 12 times.  Each time I politely declined - I didn’t want to write “on assignment”.  They continued to publish my contributions - sometimes  as many as 3 of my letters a week.  Similarly, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times published my contributions and also offered me regular space on their pages.

THE BLOG

Then, nearly 20 years ago, I decided I needed more space to express my views.  By that time I was attending almost every important city meeting and event, so I started my blog, A Bubbling Cauldron.  After 18 months and nearly 180 posts I changed hosts so I could include photos and comments.  Since then, after posting nearly 3,500 entries, I’ve throttled back on that effort in recent years, but the blog still receives upwards of 10,000 pageviews each month!  As of this date the blog has recorded 3.8 million pageviews on the current host site.  I had no way to measure traffic on the other site.  Over those years the blog was chosen as the best blog in Orange County - twice - and I was selected by the editors of the Daily Pilot as one of their "DP 103" people who positively influenced their communities - 9 years in a row.  I certainly appreciated that recognition and I’m grateful for the continuing interest in what I’ve written over all these years.

MY POINT - SOCIETAL DECAY

All this background is slowly dragging me to my point - the societal decay I see these days!  It deeply saddens me to watch as the level of political discourse has degenerated to something akin to a bar fight!  I guess I can attribute much of this to the evolution of Donald J. Trump as a political force in our country.  He has lowered the bar for statesmanship, conducting himself as a pre-pubescent teenager might in junior high school.  His example has encouraged many elected leaders to follow his lead, which hamstrings progress.  His mere presence has coarsened our society to the point where fans at college football games feel it’s appropriate to lob water bottles on the field when they disagree with decisions made by officials.  This decay was most recently exhibited by two “fans” at the New York Yankees/Los Angeles Dodgers World Series game at Yankee Stadium when they yanked a ball from the glove of Dodger Mookie Betts in an attempt, apparently, to help the batter achieve a home run.  One of those idiots - both of whom were ejected from the game -  proclaimed when asked during a post-game drinking binge at his favorite bar,  why he did it, he proudly said that he was just “providing some D” for the team.  

IGNORING THE RULES

In our broader society we see more evidence of the decay.  We see more and more people completely ignoring the rules of the road.  Speed limits are apparently viewed as mere suggestions and stop signs are consistently ignored, for example.  They just blow right on through them - a trait many of the children driving E-bikes now emulate.  

COARSENING OF DISCOURSE

No longer is it sufficient to simply disagree with someone and move on.  Today, thanks in great part to Trump,  his acolytes and the anonymity provided by social media sites, it is becoming more a standard practice to attempt to demean and belittle those with whom we disagree.  Civility is disappearing.  Courtesy is a dying art.

FEARING THE FUTURE

I join many Americans in fearing for the future of our country, regardless who wins the election next week.  While I agree with some of the policies he advocates, Donald Trump has clearly shown that he possesses neither the intellect nor character to be entrusted with the job of the most powerful man in the world.  Kamala Harris is completely unqualified for this job, so we voters are left with the choice of, according to outstanding Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, between ”empty and awful”.

WHAT’S NEXT?

So, what do we do?  Well, I did not cast a vote for President of the United States when I completed my ballot two weeks ago.  I did focus on the down-ballot measures and candidates and, although I no longer attend meetings, I do pay attention to local issues and do still comment occasionally when the spirit moves me.  I can do very little on national issues, but I know I can provide input to my neighbors on local issues and, sometimes, influence the outcome of important decisions made by our local elected leaders.  Although I no longer have the energy I did two decades ago, I will continue to be a voice in my community and let others judge the value of that voice.

RE-DISCOVERING CIVILITY

In the meantime, I think it’s very important for our society to re-discover civility.  We need to take a collective remedial course in civil conversation - something we could observe in the mainstream media in years gone bye.   Not so much today.  The examples set by Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley are long gone.  Our children - your children - need better boundaries and need to learn and to understand and follow the rules.  We ALL need to include a lot more “Please” and “Thank You” in our daily lives.  We need to do a lot more “listening”, not just hearing, the other side of arguments.  We need to be willing to make intelligent, well-reasoned choices and compromise for the better good when necessary. 

THE GREATEST GENERATION

My parents generation, the so-called “Greatest Generation”, had gone through years of sacrifice to make happy lives and keep our country safe, first during the Great Depression when they were teenagers and then through World War II when they sometimes worked two jobs for the duration of the war.  They learned to ‘make do” and to ‘do without”.  They developed frugality into an art form.  In those years our society pulled together for the common good.  Today we are so factionalized that we seem to be pulling against each other, shouting each other down instead of having a meaningful dialogue to resolve issues.  When our leaders behave like children, using denigration and name-calling as a staple of their dialogue, it diminishes us as a people.  We simply MUST change.  We MUST re-learn to work together to resolve the problems facing our society today.  As long as our elected leadership practices and encourages divisiveness our form of government is in peril.  We MUST demand better.

City Responds To Banning Ranch Payoff Criticism

PROVIDING "CLARITY".. ?
Today the City of Costa Mesa posted a page on the City web site, HERE, in an attempt to respond to the firestorm of criticism leveled at the City Council for their action last Tuesday night in which they ignored the comments of 35 residents and other interested parties and proceeded to accept the $4.4 million dollar "mitigation" fee from the developers of Banning Ranch.  You'll recall that a petulant and frustrated Mayor Eric Bever muttered his now-infamous bovine excrement comment half-way through the comment section of that issue Tuesday night.  I've presented that little segment for you here again.  Turn your volume all the way up and you'll hear him say, "I'm going home", then the other comment.

 HOW DO YOU FEEL, MR. MAYOR?

 OBLIGATED TO HEAR - AND LISTEN
No matter how crass, crude and disrespectful the mayor and other council members are to those folks who take the time to study the issues, interrupt their lives to attend the meetings and brave the chides from the dais to speak their mind, the council is obligated BY LAW to hear public comments on these issues.  If they don't like it - and clearly they do not - in the words of our potty-mouthed Mayor Bever, "Tough Luck!"

DID THEY REPRESENT YOU WELL?
Take a few minutes to read over their response and tell me if you're satisfied that Costa Mesa's interests were well-represented by them in this matter.  I know how I feel...

Smoother Sailing at Second Workshop

THAT'S BETTER!
Well, that's more like it! Last night's second workshop on the SR 55 Access Study, conducted by the OCTA and their consultants, LSA Associates, in the City Council chambers at City Hall, ran more smoothly than the first one on Monday. These workshops are designed to facilitate development of solutions to the growing volume of traffic through the Costa Mesa "downtown" area, which will soon strangle commerce and create major traffic issues on adjoining residential neighborhoods as frustrated drivers cut through seeking relief.

STRUCTURE IS BETTER
While the auditorium setting was a little less user friendly for the 70 or so attendees (roughly half of Monday's contingent) - it was more difficult to meander around and see the exhibits, for example - the meeting had a little more much-needed structure. Instead of permitting speakers to jump up and speak randomly, as was the case on Monday, a "speaker card" system was used to permit orderly presentation of questions and suggestions. The result was a much smoother flow of both questions and answers.

CIVILITY RETURNS
The tone of the meeting was more civil, too. In a refreshing display of candor, two speakers apologized to the moderators for their allegations Monday that traffic numbers they presented were bogus. Both speakers, among the most emotional on Monday, acknowledged that the consultant's numbers were accurate and the numbers they, the speakers, had been throwing around were way, way off the mark. And, last night there was no vitriolic criticism directed at the City Council.

EXCELLENT QUESTIONS/SUGGESTIONS
The array of questions from residents were thoughtful and relevant. For example, former Planning Commissioner and two-time city council candidate Bruce Garlich used part of his time at the microphone to suggest a modification to the apparently most popular choice - the so-called "cut and cover" option. He suggested that a "boring" alternative be investigated, citing the advantage of being less disruption to traffic and commerce in the Downtown area during construction. His suggestion was seconded by a subsequent speaker. It was good to see Bruce back in harness again, bringing his wisdom and insight to city affairs.

ONE MORE WORKSHOP SCHEDULED - IN NEWPORT BEACH
This workshop was the final presentation in Costa Mesa. There remains one more workshop scheduled - at the Sea Scout base in Newport Beach on April 10th, 5-7 p.m. After that meeting representatives of LSA, the OCTA and Cal Trans will assess all the options, use the comments presented to promulgate others and distill those down to 3-4, from which a course of action may be chosen. It is hoped that once those final choices are prepared the residents and other stakeholders involved in this process will have a chance to hear about them before the responsible government entities make their final selection.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?
Unclear is where the mountain of money necessary to fund any of the long-term options will come from. The current, funded and approved, plan to add one northbound lane on Newport Blvd. through the downtown area and one short southbound lane from 19th Street to Broadway will be constructed later this year. Other short-term solutions, such as signal synchronization, will be implemented in the relatively near future.

RELEVANT READING
For those of you interested in reading some relevant contemporary articles on this subject, you can follow these links. Byron de Arakal published two columns in the Daily Pilot the past two weeks. The first is entitled, "Don't count on 55 Relief". The second is, "55 outlook grim at OCTA forum". Between those two commentaries the Daily Pilot published an article entitled, "OCTA asks for 55 Freeway input". In addition, you can go to the OCTA website for more detail, including charts and descriptions of the several alternatives proposed at this time.

SOLUTIONS BEYOND THE HORIZON
Based on comments made by officials at the meeting last night, regardless which is selected, none of the longer-term solutions will begin for more than two decades. By then, most of the attendees will either be long-gone or will be residing is a care facility, concerned only about the traffic to and from the dining room.

NEW ACTIVISTS
In the meantime, the recently-energized cadre of citizen-activists promise to pay close attention to this issue and provide guidance to our elected officials - whether they want it or not. That's good news for all of us.

FILTERING THE RHETORIC

HITS THE FAN AGAIN
Once again the effluent hit the oscillating device while I was out of town for a few days last week! I refer to the debate being conducted on the pages of the Daily Pilot and it's blog on the subject of regulation, registration and censorship of comments presented on the blog.

NOT A NEW ISSUE
This is not a new subject. Ever since the management of the Daily Pilot decided to provide the opportunity to comment online on articles, editorials and commentaries there has been controversy. Much of it had to do with the anonymous posters - those who chose to hide behind the veil of anonymity to post comments. That anonymity has emboldened a few who corrupt the system by using multiple pen names to make it appear that their particular view is broadly held. Many of these same poseurs post criticisms of other folks who comment on the blog instead of offering constructive views on the subject at hand. Their obvious goal is to derail the debate of important issues by turning it into an attack on the debaters.

DAILY PILOT STAFF SIGNS IN
Many individuals have signed in on this issue, including several members of the Daily Pilot staff. On December 28, 2007 Managing Editor Brady Rhoades published a commentary decrying the kinds of online comments he was seeing, describing some as, "..despicable, delirious and downright deleterious to the ideal of constructive debate." You can read Rhoades entire commentary HERE. Publisher Tom Johnson took lots of flack for his commentary posted HERE. Columnist Byron de Arakal also received lots of grief from his most recent essay, HERE. Newport Beach resident, former council candidate and regular columnist Barbara Venezia - who gained fame stirring John Crean's sauces on their syndicated television show, At Home On The Range - chimed in with her own views, HERE. And, of course, yours truly had a letter to the editor published on this subject HERE.

RESTORE CIVILITY
In my view - and the view of many others - some changes are necessary to make the Daily Pilot blog a more civil environment in which to debate important issues. The violators of this civility pout and pontificate about loss of freedom of speech. The editors of the Daily Pilot presently require verifiable identification for any letter or commentary published on their print pages. My view is that they should not require less from those who try to post their views online.

LIMITED ANONYMITY
Now, that doesn't mean that every person who posts has to necessarily do so with their own name, as I do. No, there are certainly valid reasons for choosing anonymity - business reasons, for example. That doesn't mean I won't criticize them for using pen names, though. However, it's my opinion that the editors should know the identity of those who post on their blog and exercise the same editorial discretion they use to edit the print version. It's unlikely that most of the more virulent posters would be as irresponsible and vicious if they knew that their identity was known by the editors of the Pilot.

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR
It's my understanding that changes are on the way. Other local newspapers have initiated forms of registration on their blogs, so there is no reason for the Pilot to avoid it. I know the editors are concerned about stifling what they view as a valid "view of the people", but much of the offending stuff is akin to graffiti painted on an electronic wall. Just as we frown on someone shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, there are rules for every aspect of our lives. Participation in the electronic media will have them, too.

DON'T TRAMPLE CIVILITY IN DEBATES
I look forward to the changes that are in the wind for the Daily Pilot. Presently, it is our newspaper of record and our primary source for accurate, timely news of our area. The blog can be a wonderful tool through which our neighbors may be heard on important issues of the day. Civility should not be trampled in the process of voicing those views.

Civility, Where Art Thou?

Have you noticed just how acrimonious our City Council meetings have become lately? The end of the last one, of course, was fraught with tension and rancor because it involved Councilwoman Linda Dixon being forcibly unseated by majority vote of the council, which conferred upon our young jailer/mayor the right to arrange the seats in any manner he chooses. In fact, it's likely that the council policy the City Attorney was instructed to prepare will permit him, and future mayors, to arbitrarily shuffle the deck any time he or she chooses. Pretty silly stuff, if you ask me.

Silly as it might have been, though, it caused an amplification of the stress long visible to those of us paying attention to such things. Clearly, much of this city remains divided into two factions - those who agree with the mayor and his majority and those who prefer a more mature, moderate, reasonable, steady approach to governance.

Prior to vote being taken to bounce Dixon from her chair, former mayor Sandra Genis attempted to provide some history and education for the council. She read excerpts from The Federalist Papers, quotes from The Bible and even tried some good old common sense. None of that worked. Dixon read the email that apparently launched this whole thing - a message from Leece to the City Manager, Allan Roeder, requesting the seat swap. She then let the mayor know in no uncertain terms how disappointed she was to have not been given the courtesy of being included in the decision - or even consulted. His pitiful attempt at an apology was disingenuous at best.

This kind of rancor has spilled over into the communications tacked onto the end of articles, commentaries and editorials in the Daily Pilot, too. Ever since that fine newspaper provided the capability to post comments we've seen a deterioration of civility in many comment threads. Most usually start out with the first few commentors addressing the issue at hand. However, almost invariably, many of the subsequent comments are critical of earlier comments and commentors instead of simply voicing a divergent view of the subject. Most of the nastiest are posted by anonymous cowards using fictitious pen names, spouting rhetoric they would likely never use in civil conversation. I mentioned this phenomenon in an earlier post and it's getting worse. I admit to being sucked into this literary quicksand, but have never posted comments anonymously - which still doesn't make it right. When your integrity is challenged it's normal to strike back - like any shouting match. However, it seldom accomplishes anything except giving the combatants a sore throat to go along with their sore heads.

So, from this point forward I'm going to do my best to keep my comments on those venues at a higher level - maybe others will do the same, although I don't have much hope for a couple of them. If I back-slide I know there will be some of you out there to remind me.

Here on my blog, though, I'm going to continue to present my views as I choose. That will likely involve ridiculing some of our local officials frequently - because they deserve it. I will also continue to chide one particular blogger - because I disagree with his philosophy and his ego makes him such a great target. I suspect he feels the same about me. That's just the way it is.

As we turn the corner on the last week of March and head, appropriately, to April Fool's Day, I look forward to continuing to participate in an exchange of ideas and opinions with those of you who choose to join me. Every comment received here is much appreciated and will be published, unless it is submitted as "anonymous" or it doesn't pass the "cuss-o-meter" filter. Fortunately, there have been very few of those.

Thanks for playing in my sandbox.