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Email: ronoz@ronoz.com |
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What Good Are Essays? " A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." [Thomas Paine] " We'll find the answers to progress when we find the differential to stop our wheels from spinning." " Resignation, complacency, futility, and other feelings of violence as the status quo are what keep Tucker in power and Oakland in violence." *** "Just Wondering Herb" asked a question [below] whether any of my essays received response. I get no official response at all from City Hall, OPD, or policy makers... no rebuttal, no calls, no emails, nothing. I emailed a private note to all the Council members a month ago and an assistant to "X", my own Council Person, was the only response I got. She said "X" might have a few moments for me a month out. Oh, I did get stood up at a scheduled out of the way coffee shop meeting with one Council Member about three weeks ago. I waited dutifully for an hour, placed a call, and received no response or call-back. I find this somewhat expected during this evolution of my essays of concern and solution. I first started about 3 years ago sending them privately and confidentially to Chief Tucker. We had a good rapport, but I surmised from talking with him that he just didn't understand them, either in detail or context. Nevertheless, he retained me as Ombudsman twice, recommended me as Public Safety Director, held private meetings with me, asked for help in setting up a Planning and Research, and appreciated my daily engagement with him and his senior staff. I was informed, but not enlightened, by one senior staff member that Tucker “…doesn't read or write.” After "running" for Mayor against Mr. Dellums, and establishing both a rapport with him and an admiration for him, I wrote essays about government and public safety directly and privately to him, and met with him. He said on repeated occasions that what I had written was "brilliant" and "refreshing." However, he decided, as is his prerogative, to stick with status quo and Chief Tucker, but we still have a warm affection for each other. I assume it was a political decision, and Heaven knows I'm not a political expert. I then turned my essays to Openline, an Intranet with about 500 Oakland cops. Here I got lots of interaction, but little debate. These were the real experts, the men and women in the trenches of Oakland Public Safety. It seemed almost everyone agreed with what I had to say, and I received many thanks for what I could say that they couldn't... particularly, but surreptitiously, from the younger officers. Although now persona non-grata in Tucker's Eighth Floor Aviary, I continue to contact, and be contacted by, OPD members of all ranks. I do have considerable insider information but I won't utilize it except in understanding the larger picture and developing the stamina to persist. About three months ago I began writing essays and sending them to City Hall, the Council members, select community people, and certain police personnel. Privately, I'm given lots of atta-boys but no one can/will come out publicly. So I persist. The next step is, this week hopefully, to put my essays on a website for easier access by interested parties. I have no use for the old Mayoral campaign website and it has a simple name to remember [ronoz.com]. I'll try to have it up by this weekend. I've for years taken daily walks in Oakland, enjoying my pastime of photography, so I can also share them for anyone interested. I have been asked to write for specific blogs and journals... nothing major... but I've avoided that because believe it or not, I don't have any reason to promote myself. I'm a busy dad and loving husband. I am busy with many commitments and endeavors, but my family appreciates my current passion as a way of displaying gratitude for having grown up in Oakland. As a paradox to the first sentence, I'm prepared to take my essays into full page ads as I communicated 28 times during the Mayoral campaign. Why? Perhaps with more than a bit of Walter Mitty I liken myself to Thomas Paine who wrote Natural Justice, Common Sense, The Age of Reason, and who generally addressed relevance of governance to the Age of Enlightenment. Don't misunderstand, I could not ego myself into his standards of writing, but I identify with his sense of righteousness and commitment. He didn't have it easy either. Napoleon called him "a charlatan" for questioning his authority and challenging his self-omnipotence. His Common Sense was attacked vigorously by the loyalist guardians of status quo. Yet, he persisted, and although he never attained office or position, his reward was to witness the formation of the greatest country the world has ever seen, created to some degree by his persistence, eloquence, reason, and common sense. This analogy is too lofty, but in a smaller way I too am trying to contribute to an age of enlightenment and great things for Oakland. I do get emails, and I appreciate them because they keep me on topic. I just responded thusly to a recent email... Yes, "Y" and "Z" are ostriches, but they're our ostriches and we have to somehow convince and subscribe them. It is our burden, not theirs. There is no question that they are well meaning and have devoted countless hours to Oakland. They have experience, contacts and a constituent base... It is also a formidable task to energize "A" at City Hall and any of the policy makers. They appear to be cold granite to real change. If we can just turn them around... I believe they are all grand fighters, but just need stirring and awakening... They have to realize that a fight is necessary, and that we're on the same side. I am deadly serious "B," there's no reason we can't have low crime rates as San Jose. We've got a blighted and wilted city with the greatest potential for magnificence. We've got weather, geography, people... but we lack intrinsic self-confidence. Simply, we lack sufficient heart, brains and courage to spend the price we must pay. It's first about attitude. Resignation, complacency, futility, and other feelings of violence as the status quo are what keep Tucker in power and Oakland in violence. When a teacher walks into an urban classroom... the first expectation sadly is that the black kids will be underachievers, the Asians will excel in math but do poorly in English, the Latinos aren't interested, and that each white kid has a good chance. That's the kind of attitude Oakland sees for itself... as an ugly, violent, stepchild... no matter what is done, the attitude is silently, "Oakland can only administer a sugar coating on the violence we're meant to endure..." Kind of like telling a child growing up she's ugly and having that affect her entire life. When "A" says that people of color are ground up as glass... it's not just the criminal justice system... It's Oakland's unintentional double-personality psyche that seeks so altruistically to help our citizens in need, and yet expects that subordinate sub-cultural standing is somehow permanently ordained. The only energy I consistently felt was when shaking hands with people on the streets and in their congregations. It is in a handshake that one truly gets a sensation of connection. I believe that we can take a shortcut to Oakland's future if somehow we engage the representatives of those in the communities we are so resigned to dismiss. The Task forces were a start, but soon became committees of special interest constituencies. Also, there was no harnessing of the power inherent in the Task Force volunteers into driveshaft actions. We'll find the answers to progress when we find the differential to stop our wheels from spinning. I believe also we have an obsession with the notion that spending more money for more resources is the road to solutions. No, it is the road paved with self-credited intentions. ronoz From: PSA1@yahoogroups.com [mailto:PSA1@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of hisen1 Has anyone in the City or the Oakland Police Department responded to |
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Email: ronoz@ronoz.com |
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