When to be five-time mayor of Santa Cruz Mike Rotkin says, “Down in flames” (1995), you goddamn well better believe “Down in flames.”
9-1-22: See you later. The Santa Cruz Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is a joke. The Santa Cruz Democratic Party Central Committee is a joke. They are complicit in the normalization of political corruption, complete with elaborate cover-ups like it never happened. Ad hominem attacks bore me. Evasions are one-liners to giggle at. Shame may yet subdue fear of outcome. All local analogies do not trivialize.
In local application of values recognition and response to abuse of power activism I witnessed, time and again, fear and denial. Lots of “They’re all like that” usually followed by a fear-laugh, memorable political opportunist and hack loyalist avoidances such as “No jurisdiction”, “My plate is full”, “I don’t know enough about it”, “HE’S DEAD,” and in classic last word finale style, “DON’T YOU THINK I READ THE FUCKING THING?”
A chance encounter with former County Clerk Richard Bedal in 2016 and longtime local politician Fred Keeley in 2019 renewed and rejolted my interest. What we learn from history is how to revise history. Content and documentation will remain archived here indefinitely.
Bob Lamonica comes on at 5:53 in. LIsten for then-Supervisor Greg Caput’s comments immediately after, shouting about, “No proof.”
The content and documentation provided deals with local application of values abuse of power. To seriously write about it, editorial or reporting, means naming names. It means raising accountability. It means examining opportunism in real-life go along to get along, look the other way, local political leadership undeniable participatory actualities. It means provoking the question, “Must loyalty take precedence over truth?”
The lasting effect on my perspective towards most of the establishment political power locally, whose social, economic and environmental efforts will never remove their priority accountability failure of recognition and response to abuse of power, was consequential. I make no claims to perfection. I consider acknowledgement, accountability and remorse to be the high marks of virtue, including for imperfect me.