America’s Finest City Needs Help Mayor Bob Filner In The Cross Hairs

He Needs his Day in Court

No he has not stepped down and we pray that the ancestors give us the strength and wisdom to assist him through this attack.

Our personal belief is that he has been set up so that he can be taken down. His mission has been counter to the land developers and monied interests that don’t want to give up their power and control.

Filner wants to preserve the land for the people. The developers want to transform our historic downtown public tidelands and waterfront into Miami Beach. It is where the Kumeyaay fished and dug for clams and were at one with the universe.

The unions’/developers’ cabal wants to cancel the extensive legally-designated North Embarcadero waterside public parks on our public tidelands. These open green spaces by the blue bay are guaranteed by the Coastal Act and Port Master Plan. The mayor wants to preserve open space, which does not make the greedy folks happy and they want to get rid of him. It’s all about money and land. The monied elite and their spokespeople know that they can’t beat him at the ballot box because a majority of the electorate are behind him.

So his enemies are going after him with the political tool of sexual harassment.

This indicates the avarice and length that the politically power hungry will reach to seek and keep power. To play the sexual harassment card is not only an affront to the progressive and compassionate feminists who pushed for laws to assist all sisters who were at the mercy of dominating sexist males in the workplace, but it is a blatant perversion of the original intent and spirit of these policies. The protective measure of sexual harassment was never intended to be a Machiavellian political tactic and tool to be refined and manipulated to drive someone from office.

The mesmerising affect of the power of implication, and the desperation of people to be on the politically correct side of this issue is worrisome.

As civic leaders and elected officials jump on board the Filner bashing wagon without either a shred of evidence or an accuser thus far indicates how vulnerable we are as citizens. We are left asking ourselves where our leaders are and where are they leading us? And, more importantly, who to believe?

Has humankind really progressed beyond the reptilian- brained civic complacency that led to past world wars? Is America’s finest city truly ready to take the lead in a transformation of consciousness that transcends the ashes of yesterday?

It’s all very scary. Could Donna Frye, who could usually be counted on to go to the wall for the people, with all of her populist uncompromising commitment, have been painted into a corner by the manipulative political tacticians? And, if so, is she aware of this? If this unholy alliance is successful in taking Filner out, San Diego will never have another progressive mayor, which spells doom to the progress we have worked so hard to bring about. It will also neutralize Myrtle Cole’s power.

As the first women of color to be on the City Council representing District Four, she won in large part due to Filner’s support. It does not serve the string pullers to have this woman in a power position. Few have stepped up publicly to support Filner. The Apartheid neighborhood of the Fourth District represents the Third World of San Diego, and it’s Filner’s strongest base. If Filner is forced from office, his likely replacement, Todd Gloria or ex-Republican Nathan Fletcher, are favorites of unions and downtown developer donors who are focused on developing our historic downtown public tidelands.

Gloria and Fletcher do not share Bob’s proven affinity for neighborhoods and international outreach. The union power play to replace Filner is clearly misguided.

Filner has promised to seek professional help for his personal failings in dealing with women and staff. Why should we forgive this behavior? What gives evidence his promise to reform can work?

Because Filner’s record proves he is a historical champion of women’s rights as well as civil rights--Sunday’s Union Tribune quotes Marilyn Boxer, former chair of the SDSU Women’s Studies Department. She said history professor Bob was “especially helpful” in “establishment of the nation’s first women’s studies program there in 1970”.

Unlike certain progressives, Rep. Susan Davis is willing to forgive, saying “This whole issue is really up to Bob to solve. The fact he is getting professional help is encouraging, because obviously things really have to change.”

Bob Filner spent his youth fighting for civil rights for the disenfranchised, getting beat up, while standing up to the KKK. It is now time for us to pay him back with our loyalty and support. His supporters are invisible to the downtown monied elite. The aware, informed and active citizens who refuse to drink the moneylaced kool-aid are locking arms to encircle the swamp until it is drained to expose the greed and avarice that has historically oiled the wheels of the status quo in San Diego. We need to let the world know that with the help of Mayor Filner we can make changes that show we have what it takes to deserve the title of America’s Finest City.