Colonel Eric Swenson led the Army Corps of Engineers’ mission to clean the debris of homes and businesses after the Palisades Fire. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass thanked him for his work.
By HANK WRIGHT
Running for office and holding office are opposites. Exact opposites. Council member, mayor, county supervisor, assembly member, state senator, governor. It does not matter which. One is speeches and doors and selling. Asking. The other is solving. Working. The campaign asks people to choose. The office demands action.
This year showed us the truth. After the fires came in January, they all came too. They made their speeches. They were good speeches. They were selling futures we would never see. They proved they are utterly unable to work. They spend their days around the metaphorical water cooler.
Then the work began and they failed. They failed utterly. Notably it was the federal government who acted. Who did the actual work while they frittered about injustice. Wrote roadblocks to success.
Our representatives told us stories. What was going to happen. How it would be better. None of it was true. They cannot bring themselves to see it. They will not take ownership. They made the bureaucracy that made the disaster. It happened on their watch. They do not see. It will happen again.
One skill for television: talking. Another skill for potholes: working. Another skill entirely for reforming what is rotten. Cronyism. Corruption. They stand up and say they have our backs. They talk endlessly. They slow-roll us. They have always slow-rolled us.
They say they need more money. We dug deeper making real sacrifices. They have wasted billions on homelessness. No accountability. Not then. Not now. They say they are undergrounding the electrical lines. They are not. More utility poles go up. Higher poles. Larger poles. Filled with transformers.
The potholes are not small. The metaphorical ones. The real ones. None of them are small. You cannot forget them when the votes are counted.
There is only one way. Win the election. Then win the peace. Real solutions. Real accountability. Real transparency. Here and everywhere.
Nothing else will do.