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July 30, 2003
On Government: Mammoth Lakes vs. Santa Monica
Santa Monica is very much a community town, even though it has a population density of over 10,000 people per square mile. Santa Monica has astounding diversity, cultural, social, and socioeconomic. Almost all of the government officials are elected and almost all of them feel a responsibility to engage their constituents and act on behalf of the people. SM government officials are not all affluent. Many are just townspeople who decided to get involved.Further north, in Mammoth, we have a very different situation. Few of our officials are elected. Even our mayor (who's currently in Hawaii), is chosen by a board, instead of voted for by the people. All of our government officials are affluent, which becomes apparent in their decisions. When Intrawest came in, our affluent, home owning officials bent over backwards to please them and watch their home values skyrocket. As the town flourishes, our local school system suffers from state budget cuts due to soon to be recalled Grey Davis. Decisions are made which VERY negatively affect local businesses, but help 'the town' (ie. Intrawest). Local business are not even consulted when large 'works' projects are decided on that cut their revenue to almost nothing.
This dichotomy wasn't apparent to me until I was reading the Santa Monica Mirror just after reading our Mammoth local news. I realized that our government is much more like Santa Barbara where the wealthy make all the decisions which are mostly geared towards maintaining or improving the benefits of being wealthy to begin with.
People keep telling me I'm arguing a losing battle. Actually, they more hint towards the fact that those wealthy have every right to be where they are. We live in a free country and the story of the wealthy is really the story of America. God bless America and her Red, White, Blue and, less we forget, green. All of those wealthy people fought tooth and nail to get where they are, struggling with the rest of us. The most insulting insinuation is that the reason WE aren't as wealthy as they are is because we didn't work as hard. Well, I can't let it go. What I can't get through peoples heads is that the issue ISN'T the fact that one man has more money. Its the system that promotes selfishness and self promotion at the expense of others. Money is inanimate. It can't argue one way or another. People decide how to use the freedoms they are given. An old friend of mine used to say, "Character is what you do when no one else is around." I'd also like to add that, "Character is what you do with more money than you can use." The idea that money corrupts is tautalistically false. Money can't DO anything on its own.
People ARE corrupt, money is just an outlet for that corruption.
Posted by wonko at July 30, 2003 04:03 PM
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Comments
Assuming you do no have more money than you can use, it you did and you were a person of charater what would you do with it. Money???
Posted by: ice slider at August 1, 2003 09:58 AM
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