Laura Novak
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Politicans, Camps and Kids

10/27/2011

 
Out of date, but not untimely because San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is having to address the OWS camps spreading across SF right now. In fact, I understand that they are planning to set up house in front of City Hall. At the same time, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is coming under heavy artillery fire for her handling of the horrible tear gas incident in front of Oakland City Hall Tuesday night.

I drove past the camp just the other day with my son while en route home from  his sax lesson on International Boulevard. The camp was dense. Very dense. The chaos that ensued at 4am must have been horrific. That said, Quan is now fumbling quite a bit in her  handling of the situation. Does this surprise me? No, not really.

Back when Quan was doing small, private parties to garner support from and take the pulse of perspective voters, I attended one at the invitation of someone who had a private connection to Quan. It was more or less a SWOT analysis for the candidate and I was fairly sure she could not wage a strong enough campaign against power house and uber politician, Don Perata, whom I interviewed many times back when I was a street reporter.

But what  remember most about that evening was how evasive Quan was in her handling of questions. This was a room with no more than 10 people in it. I pressed her pretty hard on a financial matter. But with a strand of hair hanging straight in her eye, Quan kept batting away my question. Forget the hair, she didn't want to answer me. So, I didn't vote for her.

It will be interesting to see how the spin machine plays for the next few days if not weeks.

I have enormous respect for what our police do. And I also know that children were in that camp. Quan must have known that too.

P.S. Two of the kids on the sofa in this video went to my son's school. And recently did a presentation there about their YouTube work. We also spent time talking with Hammer at a party recently. And I sat next to Willie Brown on a flight across country not that long ago. What can I say? I am six degrees of separation from this video.
Conscious at last!
10/27/2011 04:11:00 am

When someone runs for a political office, I always ask myself:

"Why does THIS person want to be elected to THAT office... really...?

Laura Novak
10/27/2011 05:22:02 am

I agree. And when I hear that they are in Washington lobbying for more money for their city, I wonder, "Really? Don't they have lobby-ests for that?"

It calls up for me Palin's early days as Mayor. Obviously, there was more to it than merely getting money for the town. I just can't imagine Jean Quan has higher aspirations.

And for now, she's got enough on her hands!

FrostyAK
10/27/2011 05:34:39 am

We can only hope that the Occupy protests can begin the unraveling of political and corporate corruption in this country.

There are 2 politicians in this country I trust to do what is best for the people - Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. There are a few others who are on our side at least some of the time... The rest, not so much; like $P, they are out to make a killing for themselves and their buddies.

This is no longer the country I grew up in. Hopefully the Occupy protests can begin to bring back that country.

Laura Novak link
10/27/2011 05:47:15 am

I agree Frosty. Not the country I grew up in either.

Just got a gander at the Congressional schedule for 2012. It's not pretty. They have more time off than my cat.

freddy el desfibradddor
10/27/2011 07:08:42 am

I was disappointed in Arnie.

Laura Novak
10/27/2011 07:19:05 am

Of course, Freddy. Weren't we ALL disappointed in Arnie? I mean, who actually voted for the man? I voted against the recall for heaven's sake. Did the outcome of his 8 years surprise anyone?

M&C
10/27/2011 08:34:51 am

As a born and raised Oaklander I was horrified to see OPD's actions against OWS protesters and truly dismayed at watching Quan defend their actions during an interview. This is not the tolerent city in which I grew up in and currently live. I miss Jerry Brown as Mayor.

Laura Novak
10/27/2011 09:48:31 am

I miss seeing him at the health club when he parked in the red zone and left his car there!

But seriously. I know. Quan is in the hot seat now. I'll bet the emails are flying and everyone is in CYA mode.

Ottoline
10/27/2011 10:20:10 am

Wow, you got Marissa Mayer in the video. Amazing. My son goes on BART v close to Last night's demo site: 30-min delay this AM, probably unrelated, but you know how that makes the Mom hairs on your neck prickle right up. Did you see the Maddow piece on the 1934 Bonus Army? I'd never heard of it, but so apt for this time.

Maddow video is at bottom of post: http://tinyurl.com/3jz9ywd

Marzapan
10/27/2011 11:53:55 am

Quan's response to this has been incredibly weak. She didn't know everything? How in the world could a mayor NOT KNOW about such a large scale operation?

Great to see you on this story, Laura.

mistah charley, ph.d. link
10/27/2011 09:11:53 pm

In a number of places where I read comments on the web, people are remarking that they have never heard of the Bonus Army before. This ignorance is not accidental - the history taught in school intentionally omits events of this nature - they contradict the two biggest lies we are taught by our schooling, and our mass media - that the U.S. government always acts for benevolent purposes in the world, and that in America there are no classes, no class interests, no class struggle. For more info about what really happened, and keeps happening, and will keep happening unless the sleeper wakes (metaphorically speaking), see the work of the late, great historian Howard Zinn (who was sneered at by National Puppet Radio when they broadcast his obit).

Ottoline
10/28/2011 12:50:50 am

Thank you for introducing me to Zinn, mistah charley. Wiki has a good intro to him, it seems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn

I had never heard of HIM, either. I'm going to look for the bad NPR obit.

I don't think we need to be surprised that our govt (like most other govts) has its own best interests at heart. As a transplanted European, I have always been amazed at the rejection of the realities of class differences here in the U.S. As an assimilated American, I have come to like that in many ways. But deceasing one's ignorance of history seems always to bring them back up.

Laura Novak
10/28/2011 01:38:23 am

Thanks for that Mistah Charley. We all know of the Berrigan brothers' names, but Zinn never stuck in my consciousness. HIs was a life well lived, full of fire and principle. And to die swimming in Santa Monica was a gift to be sure.

And Ottoline: We think of class division in England, and perhaps it IS more stratified. Yet it so clearly exists here. I am amazed when anyone suggests otherwise.

Ottoline
10/28/2011 03:03:11 am

Not just England, re class awareness. The term "boxification" fits all Europe well. In contrast to your occupation/education pretty much defining your class here on an up/down scale (with most of us claiming middle class while believing we are upper-middle class, just like in Lake Wobegon ["all the children are above average"]), in Europe one almost instantly and fairly correctly surmises your class, national origin, religion, educational level, and whether you have any money. Just from a few words, your shoes, your clothes. The big difference is that location has so much to do with it there -- nationality and the subdivisions of that, which flow into many of the other characteristics. For example, in my country of origin, being a farmer is viewed with contempt by the city folks in a way that seemed both unwarranted and mean-spirited when I witnessed it in the 1990s -- even though the excellent manners and values of the 1930s were still alive in my farmer relatives but not in my city relatives, who seemed way more emotionally brutalized by the 50 years of Soviet occupation (although the country folks were physically far more brutalized).

mistah charley, ph.d. link
10/28/2011 03:13:12 am

An excellent and relatively brief (12 pages) article by and about Zinn is

http://www.coldtype.net/Assets.10/Pdfs/0210.Zinn.pdf



By the way, if you know of the author/awareness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn - he is Howard's son-in-law

Ottoline
10/28/2011 04:19:03 am

One thing I love about America is that we all (unless we are abjectly poor or obscenely rich) claim to be middle class, which I think is as empowering as it is inaccurate. I think it is this that allows us to readily claim we are part of the 99%, in solidarity with a huge swath of people. Because we all see ourselves as fairly equal, and as working people, which is what I love.

In Europe, if you view yourself a little too positively in terms of any of the boxification criteria, the person you are talking to will let you know it, right away, without needing to say much, if anything.

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