Well, I am back. It appears things got a little testy while I was gone. I see there were a couple of informative articles about the Mayor and City Attorney pointing fingers at one another over who knew what when and who was telling the truth. I notice the mayor and his daughter got themselves on CNN and some other news show to talk about next steps for Prop 8 and what to do about the Appeals Court Decision. I also understand he travelled to San Francisco, also related to Prop 8. Who is footing the bill for all of this? Why are taxpayers paying the mayor of San Diego to gallivant around with his daughter, engaging in a political debate of this nature, when things are going to hell in a hand basket financially in San Diego? Besides his salary, who is footing the bill for expenses? Do not get me wrong; I am not diminishing the fight or argument related to Prop 8, and do not want to get into a debate about this issue. I am of the opinion the mayor has overstepped his position and it is time he allow his daughter to carry this fight and he need get back to the issues at hand. I am not willing to pay for his personal political agenda trips, to garner face time with the media and public, in an attempt to appear to have a heart or care about anyone but himself. He was ardently opposed to this issue until his chief of staff and daughter tugged at his ear. His change of heart and his full of tears flip flop, was as phony as the Bill Clinton three dollar bill.
I see Chief Jarman is retiring to preserve her DROP and Medical Benefits. I also read with piquancy the article in Sunday's UT by Michael Stetz; again a UT writer makes a Civil Servant out to be a thieving, greedy, jackal, only in it for the money. In Stetz's article he writes; "Here seemed yet another case of a public employee chancing a hernia from lugging all that cash out the door, while my meager retirement savings go, well, up in flames." The change of ownership did little if anything to improve the ethics or reliability of the reporting coming out of this rag. If Stetz or any of the other so called writers for this pathetic excuse for a "news paper" want a secured retirement and are willing to put their lives on the line every day; I would suggest a job in Law Enforcement or Fire Fighting. I would NOT suggest it be for the City of San Diego; there is NOTHING secure about our retirements or benefits. Go to any other City and sign up; if you can cut the mustard; make it through the back ground process; graduate the academy; complete phase training; and then finish probation; you are on your way to a hard earned retirement, that if all goes well you may get to enjoy for 12 years after you retire. You won't be around much longer than that unless you are one of the lucky ones to beat the odds and survive past that. If you are not willing to do that; get off your damned high horses and shut the hell up. You get what you earn in life. No one is handing police officers or fire fighters anything; we earn every penny of our salary and retirement benefits in more ways than time permits to explain and we are not apologizing for it. We are the ones running toward that crazed man shooting people as you all run in the other direction trying to hide; firefighters are the ones driving into the flames to stop the destruction of property as you all flee as fast as your feet or car will take you.
The numbers of police, fire and civilian personnel leaving in the next thirty days is astounding. The institutional knowledge and experience of those who are participating in this exodus will take years to recover from. Life will go on; the City will not shut down; fires will be put out, crooks will go to jail; BUT crime will rise; people WILL die; lives will be ruined and the taxpayer will pay dearly for the short sighted actions of a tyrannical mayor who cares nothing for what he has created. He will place blame at the feet of everyone else and not once will he stand and accept blame for anything. He will feed the Stetz's of the media world with fuel to deceive; continuing to contribute to the destruction of a workforce once proud to serve the taxpayer of San Diego. The mayor will sit back and downplay the seriousness of today and use fog, smoke and mirrors to assure the public all is well. He will smile and claim victory over the greedy public worker all the while taking his Retiree medical benefits, salary AND retirement checks to the bank. Replacing experience with enthusiasm is the biggest joke in America's Finest City; that is until your son, daughter, mother or father is killed because the police or fire departments could not respond in a timely manner and decisions to act took a minute too long.
To the curious; I made it to within a few hundred feet of the top of the mountain at Yosemite. I did not make it to the top of the rock. I am walking funny still and feel the pain of being overweight, out of shape and over fifty. This hike is not for the faint of heart or those like me who fit the before mentioned group. It was a way to ponder next steps and take in the beauty of the mountains. I will share the pictures in the coming days and write more about the experience. Doug Cohee made it to the top of Half Dome; Terry McClain made it to the base of the rock as did Bill and Andrea Halligan. The trip to the top and back took a little over ten hours to travel the 16.4 miles total, up and back. All in all it was a great trip filled with laughs and lots of fun. Be safe and enjoy the day.
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