By CHARLES ANDREWS
ANGER, OR FORGIVENESS?
How about both. But there must be accountability – no justice, no peace – before we can stop the bleeding and proceed towards a future that works for everyone.
Two weeks ago, I shanghaied the top part of my live performance recommendations column, NOTEWORTHY, to lament that only 8 million showed up for the No Kings protest. This is next to nothing to ask. Get off your couch and go outdoors for a couple of hours on a Saturday. The brave souls of Minneapolis did it day after day, often in below-zero weather, under threats of deportation or even death. The many thousands of victims of ICE kidnappings would give anything, I’m sure, to escape their prisons and be able to show up. Not to mention all the traumatized-for-life children, and not to mention those who have died in ICE-y hands. Outrage after outrage. The world is watching, and we may never regain our standing and goodwill.
Consider those brave freedom-hungry souls in Iran, who took to the streets in massive numbers, knowing the Revolutionary Guard had orders to mow them down. Tens of thousands died, in a nation only ¼ the population of ours. Yet only 2.3% of the U.S. is disturbed enough by the horrifying, quite illegal things being done by our government, in our name? As I wrote, “There is plenty each of us can do now. We have no more time. It will only get worse and harder to resist. Paul Revere has made his ride. We have been warned.” And that was before Trump started an unnecessary, illegal, brutal war of choice in the Middle East. Could it get any worse? Well, he has the nuclear codes, and generals he appointed who might not say no, sir, you should not launch those missiles and destroy our planet.
“This is the moment. History is watching. Do the right thing.” – Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), a rare courageous, straight-shooting member of Congress who last Wednesday morning called for the immediate removal of dangerous Don, either through impeachment, or the 25th Amendment – highly unlikely there, I think, because it depends on the courage of Republicans, and they have demonstrated so little courage, integrity or moral conviction. My home state of New Mexico has shown extraordinary leadership and innovation the last couple of years. Must be the Hatch chile. New York’s Mayor Mamdani got a lot of attention recently for instituting free universal child care, but New Mexico became the first state to do that nearly six months ago. Former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is running for governor – she’s the first Native American to serve in a cabinet post, and as a member of Laguna Pueblo, can trace her family back 35 generations. Take that, Pilgrims! Sure hope ICE doesn’t try to deport her.
I called in that column for raising an unarmed citizen army of 10M to march on the White House and arrest the doddering draft dodger. But things move ever more quickly. With the unpopularity of Trump’s war and its effect at the gas pump, his “Secretary of War” and dozens of military commanders gleefully preaching the coming Apocalypse in the Middle East, the slowly leaking Epstein files, Melania’s bizarre behavior, picturing himself as the Messiah, his attacks on the Pope (no sane politician would ever attack the Pope, the Dalai Lama, or Dolly Parton), and now more talk about the automatic registration for the draft (18-26) coming in December… his own tribe may hand him over. But we should be prepared: stand back, and stand by!
But let’s talk about SANTA MONICA.
We may not have the weight of the world resting on our elected leaders’ decisions, no threat to wipe an entire nation of 90,000,000 and a millennia-old culture off the map (and who can’t notice Trump’s unrecognized irony in doing this on Easter weekend, which celebrates the Prince of Peace?). And his invoking and mocking the name of Allah in the same tweet. He was never fit to be President, but now his creeping senility is making the whole world unsafe. We can’t rely on the Venezuelans, or Canadians, or even Putin, to sweep into DC and take him away. It’s up to us. But we have a homegrown terrorist group, the Republican Party. If they had simply insisted on enforcing our laws and Constitution, and had not given the bully baby everything he asked for, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
No Santa Monica politician can wipe our city off the map. But the Santa Monica that is cherished by most of our residents, and beloved by so many visitors from around the world, is slowly disappearing. The land is still here, but it is being covered by big, tall, ugly buildings we don’t need, blocking out sunlight and sea breezes, built up where valued old, historic, beautiful structures used to be. Did we vote for this? No, but we voted for politicians anointed by the political machine that cares not a whit for what the residents want, only for those hungry for political power here or for higher office, and the huge profits to be made by developers. Do we need all this overdevelopment? Are we lacking housing and office space? No, we are looking at thousands of existing vacancies. What we are experiencing is an affordability crisis, and we can’t solve that by building thousands more market-rate structures that do not lower rents and home and office prices, but in fact usually raise the prices of the existing inventory. We are being sold a bill of goods, have been for years. It is time to call a halt. We need a CITY COUNCIL that works for us, not outside interests or self-serving philosophies. We have an election coming up in the fall, with three seats up for grabs. It looks like former mayor and incumbent Council member Lana Negrete will run again, and she is the only one of the seven worth keeping. She is doing a great job for us and the city we love. It also looks like incumbent and current mayor Caroline Torosis will run again, and she must be replaced. She seems to care more about her political future than our city’s, and has exhibited a willingness to play politics and be less than transparent.
What do we need in new Council members? Experience on commissions and endorsements from organizations have only brought us to where we are. It is a steep learning curve to figure out how everything here works, and everyone must go through that. We need candidates who are transparent and honest and will do what they say they will when campaigning. We must examine someone’s beliefs and track record, not their empty promises, and we must examine where their funding is coming from, because that’s who they will consider their constituency.
I am hopeful. We can do this. We can change our destructive direction and restore much of what makes this a great city. We just need a few good men and women.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
