knew they were spending more than was in the coffers, yet that did not stop them from voting themselves raises in salaries and pensions plus untold bonuses and perks like personal cars. When the extent of the deficit became public knowledge, these same lawmakers warned We the People to expect to endure tough and serious cuts. First hurt - who else? - the defenseless, that is the poor, elderly, sick, and handicapped, while those responsible for creating the deficit shortfall are getting off scot-free. Has even one of them displayed any remorse, guilt, or been willing to give up anything personal? They could propose to roll back their raises, but that won’t happen — they rationalize that the law is very clear that they must take their already-voted raises regardless of the state of the economy.
I say, “Bull-pucky! They made the laws, so they have the power to change the laws.” The recourse for We the People now is to use the initiative process while it is still available. Let’s pass a law stating that all salaries and pensions of state and county lawmakers must be voted upon by the people, and no more sneaky hidden perks which chip away at the peoples’ money.
With our dynamite daytime signal covering one-third of California, KSCO ownership will pledge to make available a substantial amount of free air time to any serious organized group of citizens with an aggressive leader willing to pursue this democratic process.
Kudos to our new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for being willing to take on an astonishing challenge (and it must be added, we sure could use more state and county leaders with the caliber of a Tom McClintock). And to those irresponsible lawmakers who should be voted out of office, to paraphrase a fitting quote, “Cheat us once, shame on you; cheat us again and again and again, shame on us.”
28
What a happy surprise it was to open the Sentinel this morning and read the following front page headline: “Unions Forego Salary Boosts.” This gesture could create a groundswell of good things to happen. Kudos to our Santa Cruz city police and firefighters who will give up a portion of their pay increases to help reduce the city’s deficit. Kudos also to City Manger Dick Wilson for making the suggestion to them. This move will save the city approximately $1 million over the next three years.
I do believe that all government cost of living increases should be suspended until our budget is in balance. However, now, if all Santa Cruz city leaders would willingly take cutbacks in their wages, the city deficit would get smaller, or maybe even disappear. Then, if the Santa Cruz County Supervisors would willingly take the cut in their high yearly salary of about $94,000 for approximately 35 meetings per year, plus a pension, and personal cars and perks, and if our CAO Susan Mauriello would willingly cut back on her close to $200,000 per year, plus pension, etc., our county deficit might even disappear.
Talk about a wonderful ripple effect. Remember, the fish always stinks from the head down, and if our state lawmakers would willingly take cuts in their salaries etc., our state deficit would also shrink or disappear.
Finally, that move might inspire our lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to give up their exclusive retirement fund of $14,000 per month per congressperson, and instead, join the more reasonable Social Security retirement system with the rest of us schleps. Just think, instead of a countrywide deficit, we would probably have a large surplus. So much good could come from this voluntary generosity. The poor, handicapped and mentally ill could have their desperately needed benefits restored to them. And, best of all, every willing participant would feel an indescribable warm glow of joy for making this joint goodness happen.
29
What I am about to tell you could easily be referring to our own beautiful Santa Cruz. It is a city that is in Los Angeles County, and it has 97% Hispanic population, more than half foreign-born, and 40% illegal. It has achieved quite a goal. It is now as lawless and chaotic as anyplace in Mexico. It is called Maywood, California. This is a warning to every city and town in America.
The Maywood City Council announced recently that after years of radical policies, corruption, and scandal, the city was broke and all city employees would be laid off and essential city services contracted out to neighboring cities or to L.A. County government.
How did this happen?
Maywood was the first California city with an elected all-Hispanic City Council, one of the first sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. The first city to pass a resolution calling for a boycott of Arizona after that State passed a law to enforce federal immigration laws, because the federal government chose to not enforce them. Instead the federal government is now suing Arizona for enforcing them. This is nuts!
Maywood was the first California city to order the police department not to require drivers to have licenses to drive. It is the first America city to call on Congress for amnesty to all illegals.
Council meetings were conducted in Spanish.
The City of Maywood started out quite differently. Back after World War 2, Maywood was a booming blue collar town with good jobs, a multi-ethnic suburb of L.A.
But, the early 1970s saw these industrial jobs in aerospace, auto and furniture manufacturing, and food processing evaporate under higher taxes, increased regulations, and cheaper land and cheaper labor elsewhere.
The multi-ethnic Maywood of the post war years was transformed in the 1980s and 1990s by wave after wave of Hispanic immigrants, many of them illegal.
Today, Maywood is broke. Its police department is dismantled along with all other city departments and personnel. Maywood is a warning of what happens when illegal immigrants resisting assimilation as Americans bring the corruption and radical politics of their home countries.
Kudos to Roger Hedgecock for alerting us via the weekly newspaper, Human Events.
I say clearly, the key issue in this typical U.S. dilemma is assimilation. Ideally, illegals should be sent back to where they came from, and those immigrants who come here legally must understand that English is our only dominant language. They must learn English, function in English, vote in English. No more catering to their native language needs, and voting ballots should only be in English.
And, those in charge of our federal government must close our borders or be impeached.
For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.
Part Two: United States of America
1
(February 29, 2004) Well isn’t there always something to fill us with angst? This time, it’s the gays confronting the traditionalists, and the issue is becoming more hairy, and the gays are behaving like anarchists. With the help of certain lawbreaking mayors and judges, and other jurisdictions who are getting into the act, many gays are celebrating their so-called marriages. Almost everyone agrees that same-sex partners will and should have same legal rights as a married couple, that is, a man and a woman. Now gays, unhappy with the wording “legal partnerships”, want their union to be called a “marriage”. Since forever, marriage has been between a man and a woman, and nothing more. When children come into a marriage, they have one mother and one father, and in no way ever can two fathers or two mothers be a marriage. So it looks like there is a stalemate.
There is, however, a reasonable solution. Remember Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, when Romeo said “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”? To satisfy everyone, unions between gays could be called a garriage, with a “g”. That would sound the closest to the word marriage without trivializing the institution of marriage. Just change one letter, an “m”
