The image above was published along with an article about the Orion Constellation, which is visible around the world. Click the link to read about the constellation.
My blog posting, here, is not about the constellation. I am reacting, instead, to a social media posting by a young man named Orion, a resident of Santa Cruz County, California, which is where I live - and where I have lived since 1961.
Orion's posting, on a Facebook page maintained by "Santa Cruz Against Runaway Development," discussed our local politics. Here is a slightly truncated version of his commentary (emphasis added):
My family has been in Santa Cruz since the 30s. I’m 19 and under the ideology that without action there is no progress and without communication there is no action.
One of the main ways that politicians get around public opinion and remove the ability for pushback is the slow erosion of public spaces and the division of people in general. I wanted to like Ryan Coonerty and Renee Golder [Coonerty is currently running for Mayor in the City of Santa Cruz and Golder is running for reelection to the Santa Cruz City Council], but after doing my own research they are completely influenced by the major development companies working with workbench who are actively destroying the identity of this beautiful town.
That said. Building housing in high rises is not a bad thing. The way it’s happening is bad. The removal of public voice, opinion, and input while simultaneously ignoring pleas to listen is going to strip Santa Cruz of the very thing that made it special.
We need infrastructure. It’s a basic support that holds up a city. It sounds backwards if I were to suggest fixing the utilities after building your house so why would that be different here? Well it’s simple, the city and county have failed at their task as public servants in providing basic services to the people of Santa Cruz and I don’t believe electing Ryan Coonerty will solve any problems.
A local government on a fiscal sense is similar to a non-profit where the money that comes in goes out. That’s a simple way to put it and there much more nuance to it but the city spends and spends on things that it can’t afford. Every time there’s a new tax it puts a burden on the people who run the foundation of this town, the fast food workers, downtown workers, and the owners of those businesses.
The basic local economy is at stake. These housing projects aren’t affordable for the people working in Santa Cruz and attract remote workers who can afford them which makes the problem worse.
THE SALES TAX WILL KEEP INCREASING
They will get less and less money coming into the city, worsening the budget deficit to the point of total collapse of our local economy.
We need leaders NOT politicians.
You can’t build a pyramid from the top down. You need a foundation to build from.
Right now the city is pushing the foundation away. We are only in the beginning of the end and we can stop the end from coming.
I am always happy to see people who want to "make progress," and to do so by way of "action." And "action," of course, almost always does require some kind of effective "communication" before the action is taken, with that action then making the change that brings on "progress." When I talk about "action," of course, writing in a daily blog titled, "We Live In A Political World," I am most usually thinking of "political" action.
The posting I have copied out, above, got a lot of positive reactions, with many people agreeing with Orion - and a number of those who commented hoping that he would run for political office. In a response to one of those comments, Orion said, in essence, "maybe next time."
When I first ran for public office, in 1974, I did so after various people asked me to do so. I didn't think up the idea on my own. It's a very good sign when people are asking you to run for office, which is exactly what seems to be happening with Orion. I do want to make a cautionary comment, though. While it's definitely true that we need "leaders," as Orion says, genuine leaders are, by definition, part of a "group." Nowadays, our politics tends to be driven by individuals, who step forward, individually, to run for public office. This is true at every level of our government, and that's really not the best way.
I think it's important to start with the "group," first, not with the "leader." What makes the right kind of politics work is the engagement of various "groups," who are meeting regularly, and in person, and who are working for something that those in the group believe is in the public interest. The paucity of such small "groups" of interested citizens is what concerns me most about our current politics. Self-government isn't advanced by individuals, who individually decide to be "leaders." It is almost always advanced by small groups of those who come together to accomplish some particular public policy objective.
That's my experience, at least, and I think that's still true!
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