U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman is setting up a South Bay office off Rosecrans Avenue, Manhattan Beach. The real estate is an ideal location, on the border between El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, near the aerospace industries as well as the Beach Cities.
Someone ought to set up shop outside of his office and demand that he address the following issues:
1. The plight of homeless veterans. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that Waxman issued another flurry of letters to investigate the amount of money private lenders are taking in on the Brentwood VA campus. The truth is that the land does not belong to those private interests in the first place, but to the armed forces who return stateside and need care. There is no excuse for veterans to be living on the street or burdened by excessive pharmaceuticals without proper in-patient oversight.
Where Was Henry?
A corps of contractors will be fitting in seismic improvements to the Brentwood VA, in partial readiness for the veterans who will be living there. While Waxman “laments” the amount of time that it took for the restructuring to take place, he should look no further than himself for blame, since he was representing the Brentwood VA and the surrounding regions for nearly four decades.
Now that Waxman has set up his office, it is time that every veteran in the region give this Congressman more than a piece of his mind on his sluggish response to veterans' homelessness.
Easy Reader News also reported that a Hermosa Beach veteran, Larry Delassus, died of cardiac arrest in the Torrance Courthouse last year. He was engaged in fraught litigation to save his beachside home from foreclosure. Wells Fargo Bank incorrectly had assessed his property, relying on an incorrect parcel number. Delassus had paid his mortgage two months in advance. As far as mismanaged paperwork is concerned, the bank took responsibility for the mistakes, according to one source, yet the bank refused to relent on demanding a higher interest rate.
One has to wonder: Where was Congressman Waxman when this man was struggling to hold onto his home? To his credit, Waxman has helped Russian immigrants process their paperwork. He has helped other constituents in their battles with big banks. Where was the Congressman when Delassus was left to his own devices (plus the assistance of a strong advocate named Anthony Trujillo)?
2. Waxman must put a cap on Cap and Trade and global warming. Now that Congressman Waxman has an office in the South Bay, he cannot ignore the truth that the region endured an intense cold snap last week. On some nights, the temperature reached near-freezing levels. So much for the notion that the sun is burning up the earth. The earth is getting warmer, but that does not imply man-made causes or manmade solutions.
Some People Have Regrets
3. Gun-control is all the rage now, and President Obama brought forth a wall of children at his latest press conference, before whom he outlined his executive orders for tracking the mentally ill and toughening sanctions for gun crimes. “Woe to the nation whose prince is a child,” wrote King Solomon at the end of his days, when he rued the gross mistakes of his youth instead of relying on his child-like “hearing heart.”
For the President to enact sweeping domestic policy following the emotional plea of a small gathering of school-aged children nearly amounts to the same. Like the children at the President's press conference, Congressman Waxman is leading with his emotions, not his power of reasoning on gun control. Certainly he is avoiding the heart of the matter.
Santa Monica has even discussed banning toy guns from the city. As if children’s playing cops and robbers is a threat to public safety, Santa Monica city leaders now want to disarm the kids. Cities can take away the guns from the Good Guys but it will not stop the Bad Guys from getting the guns and committing crimes. Congressman Waxman has vocally supported resurrecting U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban, a sweeping reform that did not prevent gun violence like Columbine or Oklahoma City.
Next up, Three Deadlines
Of course, there are the three major deadlines pressing on the United States federal government, from the sequester to the debt ceiling and finally funding the government. Congressman Waxman voted for the fiscal cliff, and he continues droning about protecting the middle class from tax hikes even though he has a distinct record of voting against middle class tax cuts, and he supported a massive number of tax increases, Obama-WaxmanCare, which have descended on us starting this year.
Perhaps “Occupy Manhattan Beach” or “Occupy Henry Waxman's Office” should move in, too. It would be a shock to his system, since for nearly 40 years he never had to pay attention to constituents or research serious breaches of the public trust, like the ill-treatment of L.A. area veterans or the gross mismanagement of our tax dollars at the federal level.
Congressman Waxman has set up his office at 1600 Rosecrans Ave., 4th Floor, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. Telephone 310.321.7664. Every voter in the 33rd should pay him a visit.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer and blogger on issues both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong resident of Southern California, he currently lives in Torrance. He may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com. Also see waxmanwatch.blogspot.com
