A couple of weeks ago, at a house party for LA City Council candidate Mike Bonin, a friend asked me why I was supporting Mike over other candidates running to replace Bill Rosendahl in the March 5 election.
"That's easy," I told him. "He's the best candidate to get us through the Zombie Apocalypse."
Before you think I've lost my mind, let me explain :)
I've known Mike since I first became active in local politics in 2003. Back then our relationship was cordial, if distant - sometimes we weren't always on the same side of issues.
All that changed in 2008 when we became co-regional field organizers for the Obama campaign. Together we managed hundreds of volunteers who made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to voters all over the country. It was a massive operation unlike anything either of us had experienced - it took everything we had and then some to get through it.
Then election night happened. As the rest of us celebrated Barack Obama's victory, I'll never forget the look on Mike's face when he realized Proposition 8 had passed, and with it his rights to marry.
It would have been easy for Mike to give in to despair and cynicism, but that's not what happened. What happened was this - Mike organized.
First, Mike helped create and run Camp Courage - workshops teaching activists how to talk about and organize for marriage equality. Then he took the show on the road - to Fresno and Sacramento, San Diego and Oakland, East LA and Washington DC. Activists trained in these workshops organized their own networks, taking the fight for marriage equality to states all over the country.
Then another election night happened. This time, in 2012, four states made history when voters in those states affirmed the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In California, the state court had overturned Proposition 8 and victory looks possible in the Supreme Court. And finally, after much pressure from activists - many of them trained by Mike at Camp Courage - President Barack Obama "evolved" on marriage equality.
So yes, I'm voting for Mike Bonin because he's the most experienced and has the best positions on public transportation, the environment, development, and job creation - but mostly I'm voting for him because he's the best person to get us through the Zombie Apocalypse.
Because if you're talking about someone who won't give up and won't give in no matter the odds, who'll fight for what he knows is right, and who'll empower others to create real and lasting change, Mike Bonin is that person.
I'm assuming the commenters here care about their community, which is why you bother to post here at all. It's so easy with the anonymity of the interweb to forget that we're neighbors.
- Unfortunately, there are a handful of hard-corp, agenda-driven, mean-spirited and unscrupulous would-be-"one-percenters" who regularly hijack the conversations with provocative, inflammatory, deceitful and self-seeking missives designed to confuse, misinform, mischaracterize, slander, character-assasinate and otherwise manipulate the perceptions and actions of readers at this forum. Sadly, they have no interest in the sense or correctness of anything you have to say, nor are they at all inclined to be influenced or edified by it. Their goal is to misrepresent your words to the advantage of their agenda and to provoke you into a state of negative emotion by which they hope to neutralize your capacity for constructive commentary. - Most of the regular readers and posters to this forum are well aware of who these people are and the nature of their underhanded, illegitimate and counter-productive tactics and continue to conduct intelligent, uplifting and meaningful conversations despite the interference - kind of like talking over radio static. - In short, "don't let the bastards get you down". Continue to post - many others are listening to you with open minds.
SOV - if you invented Vince Dale to make yourself look more important and to make Bonin detractors look silly - than I really think it's time for you to seek professional help for your multiple personality disorder before you hurt yourself (or someone you love)...
- Click on link, then scroll down to the 7-page posting of nothing but names - and be sure to add Congressman Waxman to the list!- http://venice.patch.com/articles/who-will-you-vote-for-in-the-march-5-2013-los-angeles-city-elections - So, now i'm "Vince Dale" as well as Mike Bonin, Linda Lucks and Steve Clare. Frankly, anyone moronic enough to fall for all the nonsense the Ryavec-hate-team is printing about me deserves to be deceived by them. - Interesting - endorsements for Tina Hess, Bostwick et. al. are fine , but Mike Bonin's 251-plus endorsements are "dirty politics" and "backroom deals". - There aren't nearly enough people reading this thread to make a dent in the outcome of the election. For me, the reason I argue so vehemently for Mike Bonin is primarily because I believe that he truly is the best choice and secondarily because I enjoy exposing the deceptiveness, duplicity, hatefulness and arrogance of self-aggrandizing little-tin-despots who have the gall to think they are actually fooling people with their feeble attempts to mislead and misdirect them. - I respect people's right to disagree with my views, but these pipsqueak cyber-tyrant-wannabes deserve to be exposed for who and what they really are.