The City of Fullerton Celebrates the 4th of July in Grand Style.
Barry Levinson
Yesterday my family attended the City of Fullerton’s celebration of the 4th of July with games for the kids and food and music for all to enjoy. As always the fireworks show accompanied by music was a roaring success.
The Park and Recreation Department takes the lead in ensuring a great event and congratulations should be given to all those Park and Recreation employees who worked hard both prior to and at the celebration. Also I would like to thank Hugo Curiel, the Director of the Fullerton Parks and Recreation Department for a job well done.
Then it came time for the politicans to show up and say a few words right before the fireworks show was about to begin. Our Mayor, Greg Sebourn spoke eloquently about the sacrifice, the courage and bravery of our forefathers. It is very true that this is not just another holiday but a celebration of all those brave men and women who won for us the greatest country on earth, these United States of America. It would be really nice if all the politicians making these speeches throughout America on the 4th of July would actually demonstrate just a little bit more of that sacrifice on a daily basis. I hope all of the readers understand that it is not enough for politicians to wrap themselves up once a year in our flag, if they are not defending what it represents throughout the rest of the year as our elected officials. What does the flag represent? To me it represents our Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights and our entire United States Constitution. I think most politicians are doing a rather poor job protecting those sacred documents.
It is too late for our city council politicians or our school boards to speak out against the mandatory vaccination bill signed into law by Governor Brown. We have our new Assembly Woman, Young Kim to thank for voting for it in the assembly. Now we have AB 57, which is a fast track Cell Tower bill which will make it very difficult to stop telecommunication companies from putting up more and more cell towers with greater and greater radiation emissions in our towns and cities. Now that activists like myself and others are starting to get the attention of the public, the telecommunication industry now wants to change the rules of the game. Now with more and more studies and scientists around the world raising red flags of the potential dangers to public health of cell tower radiation emissions, they do not want local elected representatives and the people they represent to have as much power over the decision to place more cell towers in their jurisdictions.
Has anyone from our Fullerton School District or our City Council said a word about this proposed bill now in Sacramento? The answer is NO. If asked off the record they would most probably answer that it is not our issue because we do not have a vote in Sacramento. To that line of thinking I say the following: Leaders lead and those that know better must do better. What happened to all those July 4th politician speeches about our forefathers protecting our freedoms at the cost of losing everything including their own lives? Answer: It is now July 5th and they can now do what they usually do, which is to duck the most important issues facing us as Americans.
Happy July 4th to all of us in this Country and hoping we get some leaders who have one half the courage and backbone of our forefathers. You see ladies and gentlemen, like Martin Luther King “I have a dream”. A dream that collectively our elected and appointed government leaders will wake up one day and decide to do what is best for the country not what is best for themselves. That those that know better, will do better because they have been infused with the courage to speak out even if it is at their own peril. Why would they do that? Simply, that is what leaders do, they put their own interests behind the interests of the general public. I do have this dream but it will not happen based on just hope and prayer, it will take much hard work by each of us to get to that point. Do we want to preserve this great nation or not? That is the question we must ask ourselves. I know the answer is yes! Let us start working together to make sure we get the job done.
I report, you decide.
#1 by Anonymous on July 6, 2015 - 11:25 am
I have a dream too! In fact I have many dreams on a nightly basis. Thankfully, none of them have a anything to do with elected and appointed public officials.
#2 by Joe Imbriano on July 6, 2015 - 12:49 pm
That is quite a shot at the public officials.
#3 by yellow car on July 8, 2015 - 11:15 am
Yeah and no one gives a damn about what mr tin foil Joe blurts out in his empty room here.
#4 by Barry Levinson on July 6, 2015 - 2:28 pm
It did not take long for Anonymous to respond with his insipid comments. The city establishment is worried that one day very soon the people of Fullerton will get wise to the crony capitalism and selfish nature that describes all to well our city government leadership. They are afraid that their gravy train might be derailed.
We are told by our state and our city that we have a major draught. We are told that it is an emergency so we the citizens must use less water and down the road pay more for it. Yet what does the city do? They are still planning to propose huge new developments. I asked for a moratorium on all new major developments. Their response at city council was and is total silence. Why the silence? New development as envisioned by the city will bring in millions of new revenue dollars for them. We the people sacrifice while at the city they still party on. Does this in any shape or form remotely describe the actions of good public servants? Where will that new revenue go? Answer – where it has gone for many many years. In fact 80% of the General Fund goes directly to themselves for salaries and benefits. Unfortunately the 80% does not begin to cover the huge unfunded pension and retiree health care costs that will have to be paid for by the taxpayers sooner rather than later.
Until the city council and the city manager get serious about our budget by reducing the percentage that goes to salaries and benefits, we the people will continue to get the very short end of a very long stick.
I report, you decide.