Re “Supe Ridley-Thomas Is Grilled for Backing Autumn in the Spring”
[Editor’s Note: Mr. Kimbrew, editor of the California Friends of the African American Caucus blog, is vexed over two recent essays by Betty Pleasant, perhaps the best-read essayist in South Los Angeles. The first is linked above, the second reproduced below.]
Dear Friends,
[img]2398|right|Autumn Burke||no_popup[/img]I am not a writer or journalist. But I am willing to make a settlement to the Wave Newspapers to fire or retire Betty Pleasant.
I witnessed the most embarrassing verbal abuse situation of my lifetime at the state Democratic convention over the weekend. Betty had no right to disrespect in public Autumn Burke, whom she doesn't even know. You, the community, have let this abuse go far too long. Betty has lost the respect of our community as a journalist.
We must encourage and help our young people grow. Autumn Burke is a young, upcoming leader in our community. Betty Pleasant was wrong. As a parent, I must speak out. Please help me to retire or fire Betty Pleasant.
I am asking our community to boycott the Wave Newspapers until they fire or retire Betty Pleasant. Our massive campaign starts today.
P.S.: Betty, please apologize to Autumn Burke. Do not call me, email me or fax me. My attorney has sent you a letter regarding this situation.
And Furthermore…
By Betty Pleasant, Contributing Editor
The 62nd Assembly District candidate, Autumn Burke, whom the Seven Dwarfs love so much that they have jettisoned the needs of the people to support her election, is worse than we thought. Never mind that she has no more knowledge of and involvement in the community she seeks to represent than my 5-year-old granddaughter. Ms. Burke is not even involved enough in the world around her to exercise her basic citizen’s right to vote!
I hold in my hand the voting record of Autumn Roxanne Burke from the primary in the year 2000 to the 2012 general election, encompassing a total of 12 primary, general and special elections. She voted only occasionally (seven times) in the early years and did not vote in 2007, 2008 and 2009, which included the historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Can you believe that?
This election was so important that people who had never voted in their lives registered and voted for Mr. Obama. Not Ms. Burke. She passed. She alleges she worked for his election and raised a large sum of money for his campaign. Yet she did not vote for him? Oh, come on.
Yet Miss Snow White went to the California Democratic Party’s endorsing caucus, in the Lawndale Civic Center last month, and she asked the delegates to join her Seven Dwarfs in endorsing her for the 62nd Assembly seat. They have good sense. So they did not. The caucus did endorse Rep. Karen Bass’s re-election. They found that Ms. Burke did not vote for Ms. Bass. Caucus officials said, “No ballot was received from her.”
The people are actively castigating the Seven Dwarfs for their support of Ms. Burke. They are analyzing the dwarfs’ motives, given the stakes involved. Now that the shock has worn off, the overwhelming consensus among the people is that our politicians have changed. The politicians we counted on, and who have heretofore never let us down, have changed. The questions being debated now are “why?” and “for what?” The Soulvine is desperate to know what it is that the Burkes have promised County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas that would cause him to throw his people-oriented sensibilities out the window and embrace a family he has, over the years, openly vilified as being the cause of his 2nd Supervisorial District’s woes. Chief among them are the demise of the MLK Hospital, which he had to rebuild, and the oil drilling and fracking problems in the community, with which Rep. Bass and state Sen. Holly Mitchell are grappling. The people say Mr. Ridley-Thomas has turned into Bernard Parks. They point out they are now on the same side, supporting the same candidate. “How did that happen?” they ask. One distraught constituent called me and said, “Hell, if we had wanted Parks, we would have elected him. We elected Ridley-Thomas because he was on our side.” To which I could only reply, “That’s true. I feel your pain.”
BACK TO REGULAR BUSINESS — The Compton NAACP is seeking to resolve a problem that has been troubling black people throughout Los Angeles County for as long as we’ve been here: Why is it that black people are not hired to work on government-funded construction and destruction projects? We see it all around us and we question it among ourselves. It seems Frank Lee and Kenneth Turner, co-chairs of the Economic Development Committee of the Compton NAACP, the most pro-active NAACP chapter in the Southland, have researched the problem. They have amassed documentation detailing County contract violations to federal mandates as to the hiring of black people on the jobs we see around us. The pair is seeking a meeting with Supervisor Ridley-Thomas to discuss the documents, the issue and to set about remedying the decades-long problem. I’d like to attend that meeting. I want copies of their documents. I want to tell you all about them.
Renegade activist Eddie Jones pled guilty last week to charges of battery and assault against Najee Ali when he pepper-sprayed Najee during the March on Washington anniversary commemoration in Leimert Park. The court ordered Mr. Jones to perform community service and to enroll in anger management classes. The judge also issued a three-year order of protection in which Mr. Jones is required to stay at least 50 yards away from Mr. Ali. The court also set a restitution hearing for Mr. Ali for June.
The family and friends, including me, are hosting a healing happy hour fundraiser for Najee today from 5 to 8 at the Post & Beam, 3767 Santa Rosalia Dr., adjacent to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza). Najee is undergoing chemotherapy for his recently diagnosed Stage 3 lymphoma. We want to lift his spirits, show him some love and give him money to help pay his medical bills. I will see you there.
The Baptist Ministers Conference hosted a debate the other day among the seemingly thousands of candidates seeking the open seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board. The people declared Genethia Hudley-Hayes and George McKenna the winners. The rest of the contenders were just there.
What is this about Inglewood Mayor James Butts getting a raise in his city salary from $9,000 a month to $14,000 a month? Didn’t he just tell me the other day that he had to cut the city employees’ health benefits because the city is operating on a deficit and would face bankruptcy if the benefits continued? I must speak with him again.
Still smarting from the mistreatment her constituents received in that city Promise Zone mess, Rep. Janice Hahn has jumped back into the breach to ensure her people are not ignored again. She has requested a meeting with Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to make sure that the Jordan Downs housing development receives the $30 million Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant that she pursued when she was the City Council member for Watts. Ms. Hahn is not leaving federal funding matters up to the city of Los Angeles again. I don’t blame her.
Rep. Bass and Sen. Mitchell are co-hosting a discussion about California’s new prison policies and resources available to help formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones. The meeting will be held Saturday from 2 to 4 at the Crenshaw Christian Center, 7901 S. Vermont Ave.
Councilman Curren Price will host two workshops to get 9th District constituents enrolled in the Affordable Care Act health program before the March 31 deadline. The next workshops Saturday, March 29, from 10 to 3, at the 9th District Constituent Center, 4301 S. Central Ave.
AND FINALLY — Wow! Thank you, readers, for the overwhelming response to last week’s Soulvine. I’ve never received as many “atta girl” emails and phone calls as I received last week. I appreciate your appreciation. But remember, it’s all about you, the people, and my job is simply to have your back.
