Both candidates for Mayor of San Diego are viewed as fighters, but only one has repeatedly and habitually demonstrated a genuine concern for the people he is elected to serve.
Carl DeMaio and Bob Filner have both been described as “snarly.” Maybe they are but Bob has got a lot of snarling to do to match Carl.
I mean Bob pretty much, from what I’ve seen personally, as a friend of his over the years, only snarls at the likes of the promoters of injustices in our society like the fat cats in high positions and places who spend their lives conniving how to deny us “regular” folks a nice slice of the American Pie, not caring whether we live or die.
But Carl seems to snarl at those who don’t see the world as he does, known for treating his council peers like a spoiled child patting and palming his ears and chanting: “Nah-nah-nah-nah…” – all caught up in a little enterprise called “Cleaning Up City Hall,” going about it like the shower scene in Psycho, the epitome of snarliness.
I don’t understand his appeal as I’m just not inspired by a leader who highsteps like a drum major at halftime at a Tuskegee/Morehouse football game 0n behalf of narrow mindedness, rallying angry people with attitudes like “I have a lousy retirement plan so why should city workers have a decent one,” playing on such depressing sentiments by offering hard working people 401(k)’s – while millions of citizens of the USA have retired with such pay days and now live about as comfortable as a man with no flexibility trying to sleep while doing the splits. That’s pretty doggone snarly, if you ask me.
All because a handful of scheming city workers, like sharks floating around in murky waters, while nobody was looking, bit a huge chunk out of the system’s rearend.
Bob would simply see that something like this never happens again.
One man grandstands, hailing himself as some kind of super business man and the other extends a helping hand, having actively worked towards creating a better world for more years than Carl has been alive.
Bob marched, but it wasn’t a jig; it was as a Freedom Rider who was jailed in Mississippi so that the rights of folks like me would be equal to the rights of all Americans. I don’t know what he said back then when he talked but I know that he backed it up by walking the walk – in mean streets, if there ever were any.
His activism in behalf of everyone who seeks a life of dignity is way more promising to me than what Carl has to offer with his union busting agenda considering that “We the People” are the unions. How does a voter having a “final say on any future pension benefit increases” or “requiring competitive bidding and outsourcing of some city functions to cut costs and create jobs” contribute to us being the best we can be? He has his followers quivering in their anger at life, in general, and their fears for the economy, specifically, and striking out at their fellow citizens, our city employees, like grim reapers on steroids.
But Bob’s endeavors over time have molded him into a true representative of everyday people. I walked neighborhoods and knocked on doors with him during his campaign for the San Diego City Schools Board of Education back in the late 70’s and saw how he took time to talk to people, heart to heart, how he listened with undivided attention. That impression is indelible in my mind.
And isn’t it through listening that leaders find ways to tend to people’s needs – all people’s needs? How can we make the changes in our system needed to respect the diversity represented in our communities if all of us aren’t listened to? Carl has too many answers to all our problems to listen. He’s got a “90-page-step-by-step plan.” One man, just a-stepping and a-bragging about how he’s going to forgo his pension as though that’s a hardship to a millionaire. Hey, come on, that’s like a seven footer vowing not to dunk against a midget. No big deal. And what an insult to someone who would starve without a pension.
I like my mayors to be real. Respectful of how all people feel. I’ve seen Bob give and give to this community, on the Board of Education, on the City Council and in one of the most ethnically diverse congressional districts in the country. He’s a man for all the people. That’s my kind of snarly.
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/americanprogressaction/3904277577/
Editor’s Note: Ernie’s piece today could not be more timely, as Mr. Filner appeared last night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to talk about the VA and what he wants to do to improve the circumstances of vets who need access to care and are having trouble getting it. Throughout the interview, Filner comes across as a man who genuinely cares about the people he serves, and on a personal note, I’m not sure you can say the same about Carl DeMaio. Here’s the segment:
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Ernie McCray
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Excellent piece, Ernie. couldn’t agree more about the distinctions between Filner and the other guy. What DeMaio does is whine, condescend, and sneer, when people or things don’t fit his worldview. Most importantly, if you pay attention to the details of his “answers to all our problems,” you will note that he often gets his facts wrong. Ignorance? Intentional?
The sickest part of our politics, locally and nationally, is misinformation. DeMaio adds to that. Politicians, their spokespeople, and people in the media toss out lies and half-truths, and those falsehoods echo and reverberate. People seem just as ignorant of the facts now, despite access to mass media (Internet, 24/7 cable news), as they did in the the 18th and 19th centuries, when political candidates made wildly untrue claims using broadsides pasted on public walls.
Filner does not have a track record of distorting the truth, lying outright, or making absurd claims. DeMaio does. If voters cannot inform themselves of anything else about these two candidates, that should be enough to know.
Beautiful. You should have written the piece.
Wow; a retired librarian needs a 200k per year pension in order to retire with dignity? This article is full of red herrings and straw man attacks! Hilarious!
By the way, my private sector retirement plan is fantastic. I just don’t like thieves who purposefully spike their salary in the last few years of employment, and then claim that they simply wanted a reasonable retirement plan so that they can live out their senior years with “dignity”. Anyway, thanks for the honest reporting about what progressives really want. I think that it is fantastic that the voters of San Diego finally have two choices that are actually significantly different. We can finally have a real debate at the issues. May the best man win!
Hey, I didn’t like the spiking either. That needs to never happen again. I believe in dealing with problems specifically and directly but not going after everybody. This election will say volumes about who we are as a city and what we want. I’m sure hoping the best man wins (smile).
Why do city employees retire with pension at 55 yrs while private sector employees retire at 67?answer: taxpayers were sleeping but are now awake. “feeling” for others is a great virtue for social workers not for government leaders. I like Carl for mayor.