Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006 | John Rippo, thank you for your improvements to my letter. Indeed, the concept of Freedom of the Press, that is to say the entire fourth estate that exists today including all forms of modern communication, was supposed to help protect and guarantee the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for all of us.
However, there is hope this morning in Andrew Donohue‘s column summarizing the first year of Mayor Sanders who “acknowledged that everything he’s tried to accomplish has taken longer than he expected since taking control of City Hall.” The most unacceptable fact is that after one year, Mayor Sanders is still planning, and he has accomplished nothing toward actually restoring, improving and guaranteeing our quality of life to the levels that we have already paid for and expect for all of our children and families. Actually, Donohue forecasts that Sanders’ “second year could prove barbaric.”
But that doesn’t stop the San Diego Union-Tribune establishment from continuing their attacks against all San Diego families by demanding Sanders “more aggressively attacking the city’s financial troubles through cuts or tax increases” to champion their own corrupt special interests regardless of how outrageous the negative consequences are against the interests of the entire San Diego community such as the hellacious 2003 Firestorms. So the most overwhelming fact remains that after one year of Mayor Sanders “the forecast still doesn’t offer a solution on how to cover the remaining $24.6 million gap” in a city today where “the roads still have potholes, the libraries are still closed on Sundays and the police are still leaving.”
There is also one more bottom line truth relative to shared responsibilities in a Democracy, as long as the citizens of San Diego continue to watch and do nothing between elections while public safety, health, infrastructure and services continue to fail with no end in sight, as long as San Diegans continue to tolerate demagogic Union-Tribune establishment attacks that continue to destroy our community, we are also enabling the failing quality of life in San Diego we are experiencing today.
We must all speak out loud and clear between elections to protect, improve and guarantee our quality of life, or we the citizens of San Diego are also enabling the destruction of our quality of life legacy to our children.
To quote the words of the great philosopher Pogo: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us.”
Thank you for speaking out, John Rippo.