Late last night, I was reading articles that come into my email from a variety of sources. One email last night included the most recent Todd Gloria Newsletter. Todd Gloria is an out gay man who is the current City Councilman for District 3 in San Diego.
Under the paragraph labelled Champion of Labor.
"Last night, I was humbled to be named the John Torres Champion of Labor by the Municipal Employees Association for my support of workers. I am thankful to MEA members for what they do every day to make our City work. From the reforms they have accepted and sometimes championed to the efficiencies they suggest, our employees demonstrate an absolute and strong commitment to the City of San Diego and to our citizens. The pride they take in their jobs is obvious to those of us who pay attention, and my appreciation for them will not recede."
The paragraph caught my attention. It bothered me. It was initially communicating an award that Todd was receiving from the Municipal Employees Association. Yet, the quote that was printed spoke to possibly my greatest concern that is not being discussed in the debate and race of San Diego City Mayor. I began to consider the following:
1. Does the candidate I support recognize the efforts of city workers? Or does my candidate blame them en masse for the failure of leadership in the City Council and Mayors office over the last 30 years?
2. Does my mayoral candidate blame "the city" referencing city workers, or the budget problems, suggesting that city workers are always recalcitrant and an organized opposition, rather than the former city leaders of his own party, who may or may not have been in power over the last 30 years?
3. Does my candidate for mayor ever compliment City Workers efforts or simply and consistently make them the scapegoat of poor City Council stewardship over 20 years of fiscal mismanagement of which my mayoral candidate may have been an accomplice?
The reason I ask these questions is because I believe, after being identified with varying social groups over the last 40 years, that gross generalizations about a group or consistently blaming a group of individuals is cheap theater. This strategy often in the short term can create enough divisiveness to blind larger constituencies to the manipulation, but it is a cheap way to create visibility. Yet, in the long term it lacks creativity, ethical behavior, or the ability to create a consensus agenda for the future that is the most beneficial strategy for a vibrantly diverse community like San Diego. One of the most short sighted strategic blunders of this strategy of scapegoating is this blunder: You must always find a new group to blame. While using political party labels is possibly of acceptable strategic interest, targeting minority groups is in poor taste, to attack a class of worker, especially so in this 99% environment.
From what I have heard from Carl DeMaio, one of the two Mayoral candidates, the main reason for budgetary problems is the ineffectiveness of city workers to compete in the market place, the outrageously expensive pension plan that everyone was failing to address but him. I have heard Carl suggest that city workers were major opposition parties to budgetary reform and budget balancing efforts. I have attended a substantial number of meetings where Carl has spoken, from the Asian Business Association Government Affairs meetings to Community events in Hillcrest in Gloria's own district several years ago.
So, this quote from Todd Gloria puzzled me. I clearly am reading a completely different view from Todd Gloria. I was becoming conflicted. It raised the specter that either Carl DeMaio is lying or Todd Gloria is. Who would be the one I trusted?
(Point of fact, many of the suggestions Carl has made publicly about Pension reform for San Diego have already been implemented and have been long before Carl stopped mentioning the ideas, unless those ideas would face substantial State Court review. In fact, when reviewing Prop B, I noticed that the majority of Prop B were suggestions, not any real reform at all. And, now Prop B is, Surprise Surprise, going to face State Court review.)
So, I leave you with these facts. As a gay man, I have faced the targeted threats, policy attacks and coordinated hatred from political groups like the Oregon Citizens Alliance in the 1980s and 1990s. I have been discriminated against in the work place for the "wrong politics". Usually, and consistently, the strategy is used by a group of people feeling that their way of life is threatened. They find a leader that represents their fears of loss and better days behind them. And, that leader identifies the source of tha threat - some group or individual to blame. In my case, certain people or a group felt I, as a clear member of a recognized social group that was questionable, was in a place of weakness, unable to defend myself, or in a community group that was unable to defend itself, so the group hungering to maintain their historic position became a group effectively scapegoating. Truly this is simply another form of bullying which a group has to attack to consolidate or maintain their perceived power. So, as a gay man, when I recognize this type of political divisive strategies, I tend to become wary and at times protective of the scapegoat victims. To be clear, this is how I currently fear Carl DeMaio uses his leadership power.
So, I suggest you consider additional review questions, if you are going to vote in the San Diego Mayoral Race.
Question 1. Does a person miraculously changes their message as they move into a new title of leadership? After years of divisive politics, when you become the leader of all, do you create a new unity message everyone can accep?
Question 2. Do you want a mayor that recognize the efforts of the employees he manages or regularly castigates them instead?
Question 3. Do you prefer a mayor who would accept all the accolades for himself? Which mayoral candidate do you feel would share in the successes?
I am someone who is gay, and I appreciate placing qualified people in places of power and leadership. Yet, I have never simply provided a "free ride" to anyone because of their orientation. I refuse to discrimate against straight people just because they happen to be straight, especially if they have shown leadership for the protection of my special target related identification. Therefore, I voice concern when people consider supporting leadership that endorses divisiveness, targeted scape goating, and crass use of misinformation over someone who has a demonstrated history of working for community, unity, and shared responsibility for the future. Read articles from the last 10 years in our very own UT on our two competitive mayoral candidates. But, please do your own research. Don't trust either candidate to provide a balanced review.
After reading 10 years of UT articles covering Carl DeMaio and nearly 40 years of Bob Filner's leadership efforts, it is clear that leadership is never perfect, politics make strange bed fellows, and that consistent behavioral characteristics repeat themselves regularly. It is was with growing alarm that the UT regularly made a decade of references to Carl DeMaio's "loose use of the truth". Where I grew up that was a veiled reference to lying.
I passionately promote qualified LGBT visible leadership within communities all over the West Coast. I honor that people vote for who they want to lead. I have chosen who my candidate for mayor is. And, Todd Gloria, with his tiny article recognizing the hard work of city workers reminded me that we are all in this together. Blaming a group doesn't solve the crisis. And a leader who leads from the glare of pointing fingers rarely leads their followers to a bright and shiny new future.
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