I’D RATHER TALK MUSIC THAN POLITICS ANY DAY
Bob Marley wrote, “When the music hits you, you feel no pain.” So let’s keep that truth ever in our hearts, because the politics can literally kill you. Yes, even in the US of A. Just as sure as there was ice in Santa Monica in July.
Everything is topsy turvy, out of whack, unreal, insane. That’s what happens when you put a spoiled toddler in charge of everything, and there are no adults/Republicans to restrain him. Everything can get kicked over and broken, just because. And what happens when you elect developer shills to your City Council? Have you driven down Lincoln lately? Tried to take a peaceful walk without hearing the tortured screaming of meth demons?
But it’s not the City Council’s fault, right? Not all their fault, anyway. I’ll grant that. There are large forces and factors at work that we can’t control. But dang, we could have a Council that at least tries, tries to push back, to snipe at those forces on behalf of our residents, to delay the bad process, instead of bending over backwards to push in the wrong direction.
I clearly remember, years ago, when some edict came out of Sacramento that would adversely affect many Santa Monica residents, and while some city councils in some California cities brainstormed to resist and derail, our Council member Terry O’Day, during the first Council meeting afterwards, gleefully proclaimed, “Well, we’re just going to have to change our zoning, aren’t we?”
THAT’S WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON NOW
But our politicians have become slicker, and they don’t say it out loud. They just brainstorm behind the scenes, with their fellow travelers, and not for our good but the good of their political financiers or the elitist philosophies they love so dearly. Which usually takes some paternalistic form of thinking that assures them, I got elected, people believe in what I believe, and they are not informed nor very clear thinking, so I must decide for them, no matter how much they howl. Father/Mother knows best.
We all see in our nation what unrestrained power can so quickly destroy and recast practices of decades or centuries. The formerly unthinkable become fact if people don’t push back. We have also seen that when they do, the would-be autocrats retreat like frightened rats, realizing the numbers are so overwhelmingly against them. The same is true in Santa Monica.
It is so very difficult to fight against an entrenched political machine and mountains of money, but we do have residents who are making great sacrifices to do just that, some for many years with little help or encouragement, just a love for their city and a strong distaste for political corruption and steamrolling of the best interests of residents. And now some energetic newcomers are stepping forward, and their numbers, I swear, are growing. I am very hopeful.
But Charles, our current Council is pretty young, and some of them have not been here that long. Exactly on the latter, and obviously age is not a determinant of good intent or bad, but young AND progressive, really progressive, not the phoney baloneys who hide their true corporate natures behind that mostly meaningless label.
When faced with a complex, confusing issue, ask yourself, ask them – who is benefiting?
We have right now some very complex, ultimately very harmful issues. Since I don’t completely understand them myself, I can sympathize that many of you don’t have a clue, and won’t until that 20-story condo complex goes up in your neighborhood, or perhaps you are forced out of your home of many decades. That’s intentional, the long-term plan, achieved in small steps.
What to do? If you are not already reading the brilliant “SMa.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow)” columns in The Mirror every Friday, please start now. You too can Get Smart. For example, Heather Thomason wrote back in January – “Why Go Beyond?” explaining, in much milder rhetoric than I would have used, how our City Council was proposing regulations beyond the onerous ones from up north that they should have been fighting, not enhancing.
Just last Friday, former Council member Phil Brock gave an assessment of our homeless population situation that was much more realistic than what you heard at our recent State of the City speech by current Mayor Caroline Torosis. Even though she got a lot of applause, much of it cajoled and begged from a sadly uninformed audience. Who will also vote in the fall. Just start now and go back online through all these valuable columns by SMa.r.t., and you will be such a better-informed voter. And please share that knowledge with friends and neighbors.
Since I started this with music up top, look for this week’s column by Jack Hillbrand about Bob Dylan’s coffeehouse, boxing ring and synagogue, on 18th Street. We have to know about our history before we can preserve it.
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
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