My Letter to the Editor

No Excuses: Maintain Focus on the Next Generation

Burbank has been blessed with programs that develop the holistic health of many of our young people, forming a social safety net. From sports to job skills, counseling to tutoring, many of our bases are covered. They have become the model for the region and enable our city to produce healthy and well-prepared young people.

Our intricate safety net has come under attack. The School District, trying to identify cost savings, closed the Crisis Outreach Center, overloading administrators, teachers, classified employees and non-profits. Now the City’s Management is taking another whack by letting let go of many non-sports youth programs.

Next: Funding for the Youth Task Force, sustaining the most basic program; our school-based counseling. These programs, provided by the Family Service Agency of Burbank, are saving lives. Any action or request defunding this program is a clear indication of inability to represent the whole community’s interests. It is that simple.

Join me in sending a message of support for our young people and call the City Council at (818) 238-5750 or email CityCouncil@ci.burbank.ca.us. If we want these programs to stay alive we are going to need to be proactive.

The administration wrote themselves bonus checks in the amount of $1.1 million, which could fund all of these programs - for two years. I have a feeling that they know where money can be found.

Brown Drinks the Clinton Haterade...And then Apologizes...

This weekend Jerry Brown added some commentary to my previous story lashing out at Meg Whitman and BILL CLINTON. The commentary was so heated he had issue an apology.

According to CNN, Brown was seen at a Democratic event on Sunday saying:

"Meg Whitman, she stops at nothing. She's even got Bill Clinton lying about me. That's right. Did you see that, where he said I raised taxes? It's a lie. I mean Clinton's a nice guy, but whoever said he always told the truth?"

Whoa! Now he's bashing Bill Clinton.

After realizing the error of his ways Brown issued a statement apologizing today stating "Bill Clinton was an excellent president. It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I'm sorry,"

Look I'm all about a good fighting spirit from Jerry Brown, however I would rather see "Zen Buddhist Jerry" than "Friendly Fire Jerry". Come on guy get a grip and fight the right fight, we've been waiting for you to do it for a few months now. Instead, you're firing off at the home team. Oy vey!

Wam Bam Thank You Ma'am!

Meg Whitman has recently released a scathing commercial against Jerry Brown. To be honest, it is one of the most effective commercials I have seen from her campaign.

The commercial shows footage of televised debate between, then Governor, Bill Clinton and former Governor Jerry Brown during a 1992 presidential primary debate. Clinton is seen blasting Brown on raising taxes and squandering a budget surplus.

While these charges were, I'm sure, refuted at the time, the devastating impact of this commercial caused even the LA Times to come out with an article which refuted the claims made by Governor Clinton.

This was, politically, an incredibly well-placed shot. It was effective enough to knock the former Governor off his feet as he unveiled his first campaign-sponsored television spot. The move puts Brown on the defensive right out of the gate and reminds this very "pro-Clinton" state that even Bill doesn't like him. Remember, Clinton endorsed Gavin Newsom for Governor before he dropped out.

Brown's campaign has repeatedly called on the Whitman campaign to take the ad. off the air due to it's misleading nature. Whitman's camp, smart in knowing that they hit the sweet spot, has refused and continues to flood the airwaves with it.

This news is yet one more blow to the Brown campaign as a string of three polls, released this past week, show Whitman with an average of a 4-point lead in the polls among likely voters.

While I am happy to see Brown finally beginning to campaign it is clear that Whitman has been effective in generating support from the airwaves over the past few months. The question is will the former Governor be able to catch up...Cast your vote in the poll of the week.

Lost Causes

In prepping for the day ahead I was watching a clip from my favorite film of all time Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In the final scene, an exhausted Senator Smith uses the last of his strength to remind one of his colleagues that "Lost causes are sometimes the only ones worth fighting for."

Earlier this morning I encountered a woman who was homeless who had split her head open on a tree stump in one of our parks. Bleeding, she came to the closest open restaurant and begged them to call the paramedics. The workers, who spoke broken English, came and asked my friend if he could speak to the 911 operator. As we went to see the woman, who was at the drive through window, I realized that she was one of the speakers at last night's council meeting.

The woman at the meeting was quite distraught about the level of harassment she felt she was getting from local police and the lack of help she was getting from the community. According to her she had reached out for help and no one cared to even try. Seeing her speak and later her daughter, broke my heart. Her story was all over the place, but I could hear in her very emotionally-charged address some things that very well could have happened including things like police harassment.

So there she was crying, with blood dripping down the right side of her face and onto her shirt and next to her was her son, who looked about 15 and was extremely pale. With paramedics on the way she asked if one of us could buy her son something to eat as he had, according to her, not eaten in two days. So my friend did, and purchased him a hamburger. The paramedics arrived, cleaned the wound and took her and her son to the hospital for what I assume would be a few stitches.

Remembering the council meeting I had remembered that the woman came with her daughter, who was about my age, to address the council. So I spoke to my friend and we set out to find where the daughter was to attempt to give her the number of a community resource she could take advantage of. We found her wrapped in a blanket at the edge of the park with a shopping cart filled with, what I assume to be the family's last few items that they owned and I gave her the number. She initially wouldn't even respond to me. I told her where I had recognized her from and explained that there are a lot of people who do care and told her to call the number for some help. She reluctantly took the number and we left.

I can't tell you how much the entire situation pulled on my heart. I do not know the background of this woman and her family but what I do know is that the daughter, who was left alone, had a look on her face that I will never forget. She didn't have much but most of what she did have left was taken away in an ambulance minutes earlier. She was left there with a shopping cart filled with a few personal effects of the family and no direction for the day ahead. It was horrifying and with a sense of helplessness I got in my car and went home.

 As an individual who is involved in this community, it is all too often easy to sing the praises of all the programs we have for people who are in need. We, in this community, tend to be satisfied with the safety net we have created and tend to be dismissive of those who have fallen through it. The Mayberry mentality we all enjoy allows us to rationalize away the down-right horrifying reality of the volume of people who are and who will continue to fall through our safety nets. We should not and cannot be satisfied.

While I acknowledge that we will never be able to help every homeless family or feed every starving individual in our community, I do believe that we need to evaluate our safety net when it so clearly failed. At the council meeting the woman stated that she asked for help, she stated that she reached out to BTAC and that nothing could be done to help her. Sad part is, I believe her. I don't know why BTAC would have turned her away but I hear from more and more people who have requested aid with there water and power bill (which is a program run through BTAC) that they have been turned away. Maybe demand is high? I don't know.

These are obviously tough times but we who are blessed to be in leadership positions cannot afford to be dismissive of everyday residents who are now struggling to survive. In a matter of a few hours this woman's situation went from bad to worse. No one on the council or on staff cared enough to pick up a phone and give anyone of our local hotels a call. The nightmare of what happened and what will happen when child protective services gets involved, as a result of last night, was easily preventable.

In the end I just want to say this. We as leaders in this community and as good human beings have a responsibility to look out for members of our community. Let us not forget that we are empowered to listen and then act rather than act and then listen. And lastly, let us also not forget that every human being has an inherent value and so does their opinion. We have lost this in Burbank and while I may be an idealist I hope this is not a lost cause. But hey, as Mr. Smith said, "Lost causes are sometimes the only ones worth fighting for."

St. Mary's Vandalized

Last Tuesday, a 23-year old man vandalized a monument with a sledge hammer at St. Mary's Armenian Aposolic Church according to the Glendale News Press in an article published Thursday.  While, according to the article, Glendale police say it was not a hate crime one has to wonder why the individual chose that particular monument to deface. The monument, which was a gift to the church is, made of solid stone and the church estimates that $80,000 in damage was done.

This truly is sad to hear. While it is my sincere hope that this was not motivated by hate, I highly doubt that it wasn't. My thoughts go out to the members of the congregation in this time of frustration and loss. I hope that the monument is not only restored, but appreciated at a much greater level for what it truly commemorates. As Christians, let us not forget how to respond when such an event happens... Matthew 5:38-48.

Yup, they stole it...

Nice turnout for the weekend poll. The question was simple: Did the council steal the bacon? 73% of voters agree they did.

Either way the meeting is rolling ahead with the new format. I sincerely hope that the council takes this opportunity as seriously as the police commission would have. It took a lot of work by the commission to put this together and once again kudos to the commissioners for an independent town hall well attempted.

Poll of the Week Results: It's Meg and Fio!

A week ago I had a goal for the blog. I wanted to reach a new level of participation with the blog. Twenty-two people voted in one of the polls and the other had twenty-one votes. So in the better of the two polls we doubled last weeks turnout!

It is very interesting looking at the results. Both polls held resounding wins for both of the Republican candidates. While I seriously doubt that both Meg and Fio will win, I do have to say that the poll results indicate to me the level of excitement on both sides. Yes, this is a relatively young blog, but I'm sure there were plenty of Dems who saw the poll and chose not to vote. Conservatives have been and are motivated to vote in this election which is leading to some concern among Democrats.

Now for the results: Meg Whitman mops the floor with Jerry Brown with 71% and Carly makes her stand at 63%, beating Barbara Boxer.

Again, not a scientific poll but still fun. Read the story below and vote in the special weekend poll! Result story on Sunday night.