[img]1640|right|Arthur Christopher Schaper||no_popup[/img]Before taking the reins of the state Assembly, Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles) represented the United Food and Commercial Workers and later was political director for the California Labor Federation. Situated in safe Democratic districts in East Los Angeles, Mr. Perez became the perfect replacement for Karen Bass, his predecessor in the speakership. Ms. Bass replaced retired U.S. Rep. Diane Watson (D-Culver City) in 2010.
Speaker Perez has played power broker for different special interests instead of speaking up for California voters and the public interest, which would prosper under less spending, less government, and less of Mr. Perez. Rather than spotlighting the pension crises assaulting our state, rather than standing up to the special interests that take a special interest only in themselves at the expense of the public interest, Mr. Perez is well-known for defending gay marriage (marriage equality for those who decline to state the obvious).
He supports the rights of transgendered students. He believes they should not be discriminated against in public schools. He does not support comprehensive education reform, which would transform tenure from an entitlement that guarantees a lifetime job. However, he does support state-level micromanaging of student discipline. He chooses to coddle teachers’ unions, which represent themselves instead of the individual teacher, and certainly not the students.
Mr. Perez believes every person should be able to marry any consenting adult, same sex or the opposite sex. This argument carries troubling undercurrents for our state and our culture. If a man can marry another man, what will prevent the pleas for multiple spouses? A marriage of man and machine? Or a child? These arguments are not alarmist since Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the noted “wise Latina,” sounded her concerns about changing the definition of marriage. “What’s wrong with polygamy, then?” she asked during oral arguments about the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Prop. 8 initiative.
Anyone Need a Groom or a Groom?
[img]2064|right|||no_popup[/img]I doubt Speaker Perez cares about polygamy. He has multiple partners already.
First, he is married to the interests of the public sector unions in our state. He cares more about the political hegemony of workers who work together for their own causes, even if the state and the public industries fail in the process. The California Teachers Assn. is notorious for defending the worst teachers while standing silent for the best. Los Angeles Unified officials had numerous reports about Mark Berndt of scandal-scarred Miramonte Elementary. Even when they placed Mr. Berndt on leave, they could not fire him. Following months of legal wrangling, they offered him a severance and released him. Only when a private photo lab discovered, then reported, his salacious photos did anyone take legal action to incarcerate the man. How many incompetent teachers survive the Dance of the Lemons in California public schools? How many students have filed lawsuits against school districts and the state because of sclerotic work rules and inadequate educational reforms?
Kids Can Wait. I Am Busy
Our students cannot wait. But no matter how loudly they court love and support from Sacramento, Mr. Perez isn’t listening.
He is married to billowing boondoggles, which are ballooning away state tax dollars. Let’s talk about the high-speed rail project, which predictably has run over budget, and is slated to run over farms and homes in the Central Valley.
Speaker Perez is married to the Environmental Lobby. He cares about the fish not the farmers. He cares about water, not those who work the soil in the Central Valley.
Mr. Perez’s callous indifference to the plight of the farmers positioned a well-known cherry farmer, Andy Vidak (R-Hanford), to win an open state Senate seat in a two-to-one Democratic district.
Married to the animals, Mr. Perez champions the boutique interests of Sen. Ted Lieu (S-Redondo Beach). Mr. Perez has guatanteed that bears never will fear hunting dogs, or that puppies will be sold on street corners, even though he is selling our state to the lowest morale and the highest lobbying bidder in Sacramento.
Mr. Perez is married to raising taxes and spending. He is married to promoting a hostile business climate in the state of California, one that drives away businesses, jobs, profits, innovation, any hopes of a lasting recovery. Mr. Perez is married to the ideology of progressives. For decades, they have infiltrated higher education, corrupting the proper scope of the state, micromanaging our K-12 public schools without antiquated and now demeaning ideologies.
Since Perez has so many partners, so much power, and the money to make it all work together, I have no choice but to propose:
“Speaker Perez, will you marry me?”
Now that the Supreme Court has invalidated Prop. 8 state constitutional amendment, people can marry either sex.
Since you have decided the will of the voters means nothing, the interests of our students are of no consequence, and since you support a state based on regulation and frustration rather than job-creation and innovation, my best hope of thriving in California is the right partner.
What do you say, Speaker Perez? Will you marry me?
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong Southern California resident, he currently lives in Torrance.
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