President Obama had a stop at the LAUSD's "Miguel Contreras Learning Center" located mere blocks from the LAUSD's Beaudry headquarters. If you have seen the City Council bend over backwards to congratulate each other then you get an idea of how this started off. Mayor Villaraigosa and Govenor Schwarzenegger were there first, congratulating each other and thanking politicians who were there and even the ones who were not there. The pompousity was in generous supply. The President was spared some but not all of this as he arrived a little later.
Typically, the tired phrase you also hear in City Council meetings, "congratulations on your great leadership," also was used here to introduce the Mayor, but used by the Governor this time. It's almost a phrase delivered in reflex fashion by the city hall dwellers, particularly annoying on "awards day" with another coming on Friday. It's always a headshaker when they use that phrase with the oft-absent Mayor. He's currently awaiting confirmation that the final vote count in the city election gives him the "majority" of votes for the win. 54% of the voters chosing him is far from a landslide.
One interesting sound clip was of a young student telling the President that there were problems at that school, that 25 teachers were fired and got pink slips. I really resent sending in kids to deliver messages that they don't really understand to squeeze out some emotion from the audience to come over to their side. The young fellow's statement was wrong, but what do you expect with a young child as a messenger? - the firings or "layoffs," to use a euphemism, have yet to occur, and the pink slips do not mean "you are dead, job-wise," only that your number might come up. But if you DIDN'T get a pink slip, you won't be laid off. Of course, you can be fired for other things, but not solely from being on the bottom of the seniority totem pole. Sending out the kids to tug at your emotions is a slimy practice, but it's not the first time and we'll see this more as the "pink slips" get closer to becoming "layoffs."
Most of the answers that President Obama gave were more along the lines of examples of political rhetoric, delivered with as much verbosity as used by any politician this side of Joe Biden. The access to the event was very limited and the audience might have been "stacked" in support of Obama, I'd say, with many yelling "We Love You," even before he got there. I didn't hear any "hecklers" of any type. I am not sure about what actually was the purpose in having these town hall meetings but it got a lot of people excited. I think it was just to be able to piggy-back some political meetings during the visits.
I am still puzzled about facts surrounding the sudden death in 2005 of the namesake of the center, Miguel Contreras, a major figure as a labor leader and friend of the Mayor and others and how a school is named after him. The process is principally a politically controlled one, I am convinced.
Naming schools was an easy job years ago when all you had to do was pick a U.S. president for the high schools, and that stopped at "Kennedy"- probably as matter of not having anymore new schools in LAUSD to name for many years. Lesser names, but still major American historical figures, were abundant for Jr. Highs. I knew "Florence Nightingale" but sometimes I do mix her up with "Clara Barton," organizer of the American Red Cross. I knew about "Luther Burbank," the American botanist of amazing accomplishment. The elementary schools were almost self-evident, with names plucked off the street signs from the corner on which the school was situated.
L.A. WEEKLY had a story, a controversial one, on the Contreras death in the October 6, 2006 edition, The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras, http://www.laweekly.com/2006-10-26/news/the-final-hours-of-miguel-contreras/ by David Zahniser. It was truly an intriguing article and just gives you more of a perspective on some of the powerful people in politics, and the influence that may be exerted. It was not a piece that was praised by all, but I thought it was a great bit of work, much better than a lot of things that skimp on facts or accuracy or both.
A story by Ric Orlov of the Daily News in 2006, comments on the situation and what it was about, "REPORT QUERIES LACK OF AUTOPSY ON LABOR LEADER NEWSPAPER: CONTRERAS' HEART ATTACK WAS AT SITE FREQUENTED BY PROSTITUTES," http://www.thefreelibrary.com/REPORT+QUERIES+LACK+OF+AUTOPSY+ON+LABOR+LEADER+NEWSPAPER:+CONTRERAS
For a bit more on reporter David Zahniser, see an item appearing on the blog, From the Desert to the Sea, "On the LA Weekly, David Zahniser and the Progressive Movement," http://johnstodderinexile.wordpress.com/2006/10/27/on-the-la-weekly-david-zahniser-and-the-progressive-movement/ that discusses the story and the views on how reporting is and is not done in Los Angeles.
A lot of other stories were generated by the L.A. Weekly story, and you can search online yourself for more that each have a particular point of view, as you can judge for yourself.
The namesake of the school, the speaking site chosen for today's meeting with the President, has that engaging tale that Obama probably could not even imagine, although a few of the politicians there today might know more from their own personal experience, being among those in this growing fishbowl of local and state politics.
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