I am very happy that Karlo Silbiger successfully ended his long quest and reached the coveted mountain-top when he was elected to the School Board last night.
This is an artfully classic case of Lady Destiny planting a big, fat smacker on the seasoned face of a terrifically deserving, talent-rich young man.
I am very happy for Prof. Patricia Siever. She emerged pretty quickly from the electoral shadows of Culver City, which can be daunting, and leaped onto the School Board where I am certain she will be an influential, take-charge force.
She overcame the tart — and not insignificant — predjudices of snooty-snoots. They grumbled that she sounded too high-faluting. These worrywarts haughtily said that she should have remained inside the cozy community college circle she frequently mentioned.
(They sound like the same envious liberals who kvetch seven days of each week about Sarah Palin, Rush, Cheney and Beck because they don’t understand how conservatives can be so much smarter and richer than they are. Hint: Sarah, Rush, Cheney and Beck are happier than you in their private lives, and they do not walk around angry and jealous every day.)
A Path Toward Uncertainty
I am much less sure about the rise of the third new Board member, Kathy Paspalis. Although the shrewd people in the El Marino school community long ago swore fealty to her after years of watching her effectively perform as a parent activist, the difference in the two roles is the distinction between being a player and a mere fan in the stands.
In an important aside, I am thrilled for Ms. Paspalis simply as a private person. She answered a storm of vicious, undeserved attacks in the closing days in the one way that always silences critics, by outscoring them in the voting booth.
However, beyond that sentiment, my question is whether she is up to the duties of a School Board member.
Since evidence for affirmation during her rather robotic, low-energy campaign bordered on invisible, I am puzzled by her election.
When I spent an early evening last July conducting an introductory interview with her, I came away impressed by her mind, her ideas and her ability to communicate with clarity — at least across the table at Tanner’s to me.
But when she stood before a crowd she became a single-dimension cardboard candidate. Observing her up close at the Democratic Club, I kept thinking, “Come on, girl, come on. You can do it.” Alas, it was like watching your daughter at a critical moment in the school play. You hunch forward to catch the punch line only to find that her memorization skills have betrayed her.
Drawing Lines of Distinction
Serving — effectively — on a freshly disjointed School Board of strangers requires skills from Ms. Paspalis that were not evident during the campaign. I found both her responses and her chemistry stale and flat.
The lagging candidates Robert Zirgulis and Gary Abrams veered into unorthodoxy just often enough during their campaigns to distract attention from the more traditional arena where the first four finishers spent all of their time.
I believe that worked to Ms. Paspalis’s advantage.
I hope she proves me wrong for the sake of the community that needs five knowledgeable, imaginative, insightful, combative, competitive members. I could scarcely summon five keener ways to describe the perfectly prepared Alan Elmont.
Obviously, memorizing the telephone directory is insufficently persuasive.
A sad morning for Culver City.
For reasons that will be explored later, Mr. Elmont should have placed third. Instead, he will spend the next two years contributing more than anyone else from Row 1 at every School Board meeting.
A pity.
But Mr. Silbiger can tell him a long tale about destiny, and being ready when it arrives.
