Bill has Balls
By John
Davis
In the movie The Caine Mutiny,
actor Fred MacMurray spoke of intestinal fortitude. GUTS! That is what I think
our new Councilperson for CD 11 has. Bill scarred me at first at a 2004
Halloween party sponsored by conservation organizations banding together to save
the Ballona Bluffs.
Bill said to us that he revered a gigantic
redwood tree in Northern California to whom he had bonded. He said he took a bit
of sap and brought it home to nibble on occasionally. Having lived in Humbolt
County among the great trees I became immediately skeptical.
I thought, this is a democrat trying
to bullshit me. I am of no declared political party and I am facing a man who
claims to eat tree sap. But now I know it is true. Bill really is of a new
breed. Though he has affiliated himself with the Democratic Party it seems only
because he sees this as a way to change. At his election night party he claimed
to be a "Progressive Democrat". While the term progressive has been taken up by
many it can find its origins in the 1920s when women and laborers stood up and
let their voice rise to political gain. Our new Mayor is an outspoken
progressive too.
Together Bill and
Antonio will be powerful allies with progressives in Venice.
Bill no longer scares me. Up until the
night of the election I thought this guy is just selling me sap. He will be
another Democratic Party hack like Ruth Galanter who was elected upon a solemn
oath to save the Ballona Wetlands. Then turning her back on those who elected
her, she fed the wetlands into the stinking teeth of
bulldozers.
At nine on election night I
pondered to walk six blocks over to Bill’s party by the Dog Park. Since
there was no clear outcome to the election at that late hour and to see if my
skepticism over another Democrat was warranted I went to the party. Into the
breech, as I had never attended such a political event and expected to find only
strangers.
Entering the party I was
pleasantly surprised to be swarmed with friends at the door and throughout the
entire delightful party. My colleagues from the Sierra Club, the Ballona Land
Trust, and the Grassroots Venice Neighborhood Council were there. So I was sold.
And Bill spoke with the eloquence of great orators of the past.
He spoke truth to power while
recognizing the many people responsible for him entering City Hall. And this man
is unafraid. He stands against Playa Vista Phase 2 and for the preservation of
the historic Lincoln Place apartments in Venice. Bill, like Congressman Maxine
Waters would aspire to see the Ballona Bluffs preserved as a park and a place
for Native Americans who have been here for tens of thousands of years. Bill has
intestinal fortitude.
Posted: Wed - June 1, 2005 at 01:27 PM