[Editor’s Note: The newspaper is indebted to C.J. Fowler and John Walsh, for the second week in a row, for forwarding Betty Pleasant’s popular “Soulvine” column, rejected for the second straight week by her home base, Wave Newspapers. Says Mr. Walsh: If Ms. Pleasant had white skin, this outrage would warrant coverage in the Los Angeles Times – Editor-in-Chief Mr. Davan Maharaj’s violation of journalistic ethics and standards.”]
MEAN MAILERS — As the Aug. 12 runoff election for the First District LAUSD School Board seat draws near, potential voters are being inundated with campaign mailers, the overwhelming majority of which are sent by the Alex Johnson campaign, all of which malign education icon George McKenna and shed little light on Johnson.
One woman complained to the Soulvine that she had received nine mailings from Mr. Johnson that were nothing but smears against Mr. McKenna. She’s angry about them. She said she’s sorry she can only cast one vote for McKenna on Aug. 12.
Civil rights activist Pedro Baez of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, was so angry about the series of mailers Mr. Johnson has been sending to the people that Monday, Mr. Baez and his group filed a formal complaint with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, demanding “a probe into the false, misleading and slanderous mailers sent by the Alex Johnson campaign.”
While Mr. Baez has been upset by previous anti-McKenna mailings from Mr. Johnson, he said the mailer that arrived Monday was beyond the pale, more than he could tolerate. “In it, Johnson verged on labeling McKenna a pedophile enabler as he alleged that McKenna covered up sexual abuses in the school district!” Mr. Baez shouted.
In his complaint to the Ethics Commission, Mr. Baez wrote: “I and other civil rights leaders formally call upon the Los Angeles Ethics Commission for a probe into the false and slanderous mailings from the Johnson campaign against McKenna. We are demanding that the Commission issue a cease-and-desist order and impose the maximum fine against the Johnson campaign for the fraudulent attacks.”
At Tuesday’s press conference about the mailer, Mr. Baez blamed Mr. Johnson’s financial backers — Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Maria Elena Durazo of the L.A. County Federation of Labor — “for this despicable act.” He said he also urged the Ethics Commission to charge Mr. Ridley-Thomas “with gross violations of ethics and human decency and order him to send out another mailer apologizing to the voters of the LAUSD District 1 — and for Alex Johnson to withdraw forthwith from the race for this seat.”
The people have given the Soulvine the two most recent Johnson mailers that have upset them so, and I must say they are really raw. Mr. Johnson has a one-note theme to his campaign mailings. It appears to be about child molestation as opposed to child education. In that regard he has accused Mr. McKenna of some despicable stuff, which I must investigate. While I’m investigating Mr. Johnson’s sex-tinged accusations against Mr. McKenna, I will probe Mr. Johnson’s lack of delineated credibility in the field of education. In his mailers, Mr. Johnson prides himself on having been an assistant district attorney (in the Bronx, N.Y.) “who prosecuted domestic violence, standing up for children and families who were victims of violence and abuse.” If that’s true, then why isn’t Mr. Johnson running for Los Angeles County district attorney? Lord knows we need prosecutors in the D.A.’s office, not on the School Board. “Our kids are being prosecuted enough!” declared a group of women Saturday when they found Johnson literature on the windshields of their cars. They’re right. We need experienced educators on the School Board. Education is a subject Mr. Johnson does not broach in his mailings. After further study, we’ll discuss these things about Mr. McKenna and Mr. Johnson during the next couple of weeks.
We Bad!! — Remember when the June 26 Soulvine reported that Ruby Mary Price, the highly educated and experienced children-oriented social worker tried to get a posted social worker job with the Children’s Institute— the white-operated agency to which the L.A. County’s LACOE gave the black-operated Kedren Head Start program’s contract when it forced Kedren’s closure? Remember how Ms. Price said she was disrespected and ignored by the C.I.’s staff and never even was given an interview? Remember how she said we contacted Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s office about C.I.’s racism and Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s obviously ignorant employee named Omar told Ms. Price “the supervisor has nothing to do with Children’s Institute, LACOE or any of those because they are separate agencies?”
Well, after we discussed Ms. Price’s plight in the Soulvine, the Children’s Institute retrieved her job application from the trash can and offered her two jobs!! Most people (and agencies) tend to change their reprehensible behavior once they’re put on front street. (But then again, a lot of them don’t!) Congratulations Ruby. It’s too bad you couldn’t accept both jobs — or can you?
Datebook — The 19th annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 7 on Central Avenue, between Vernon Avenue and King Boulevard. The two-day festival — presented by Councilman Curren Price — pays homage to the vital role Central Avenue played in establishing jazz music and culture. Presented in cooperation with the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, the festival will feature three live stages, including one inside the historic Dunbar Hotel, and will present all genre of jazz. This year’s performers will include the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Ernie Andrews, the Mongorama featuring Justo Almario, among others. As usual, the festival will be free of charge to all.
Congresswoman Karen Bass will be the special guest at the Friends of the Multicultural Coalition’s fundraiser for Mr. McKenna, which will be held on Sunday at 3 at the “fabulous” Taix French Restaurant in Echo Park.
The group invites everyone to a pleasant Sunday lunch at the Taix with School Board candidate McKenna.
On Tuesday, actress Wendy Raquel Robinson will be the special guest at another McKenna fundraiser at mid-Wilshire’s trendy Rascal Restaurant, 801 S. LaBrea Ave. beginning at 6.
And on Saturday, Aug. 1, Raul Claros and his group will host a fundraiser for Mr. McKenna at the downtown Bonaventure Hotel from 6 to 8.
Bye!
