It is important for the readers of this newspaper to know the following:

Heartfelt community concerns and the showing of respect to the voters who elected you, not race were at the bottom of the dust-up over Bernard Parks’ no-show last Saturday evening for the County Board of Supervisors candidate debate in his own L.A. City Council district.

Korean American residents and Neighborhood Council members, many of whom are senior citizens, came by the van-loads to hear the debate.

Many wore headphones so they could follow the debate with the aid of language translators.

Latino residents came as well.

They were all made to feel at home in the sanctuary of a large South L.A. African American church.

It was only a candidate debate, not the most important event in their lives; surely not on a Saturday night when they all could have been doing more entertaining things with family or friends.

But it was L.A. at its best… a coming together of diverse people holding a common understanding.

They believe that picking a new leader is worth their time, and there’s something to be gained by listening to the candidates make their cases for support and votes.

It’s too bad Mr. Parks wasn't there to share that moment with them.

It really was something to see.

The candidate debate forum Mr. Parks declined to attend — l the last minute — was sponsored by four L.A. City Neighborhood Councils in the 8th District of Los Angeles, the Council District Mr. Parks represents in the city of Los Angeles.

The 90-minute candidate debate was scheduled for 6 o’clock to 7:30 p.m. at New Creation Christian Faith Center, 8826 S. Western Ave., L.A..

The four Neighborhood Councils combined forces to sponsor the debate because they felt it would be difficult, if not impossible, to schedule the candidates to appear in four separate debates before each one of the four Neighborhood Councils in Mr. Parks' Council District.

Mr. Parks' had confirmed his attendance, according to the debate sponsors, but by 6:30 p.m., it became clear that Mr. Parks wasn't going to show up to participate.

To the best of my knowledge, that was the first time the sponsors had any indication he wasn't coming. They announced that the debate would take place with Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas and Morris Griffin participating.

Mr. Parks and Sen. Ridley-Thomas had participated in a debate earlier in the day on Saturday at Beethoven Elementary School auditorium sponsored by the West L.A. Democratic Club. So, this second debate-of-the-day was to be held before residents of Mr. Parks’ own Council District, the people who voted for him to represent them on the L.A. City Council.

It should be noted that Sen. Ridley-Thomas preceded Mr. Parks as Councilmember for the 8th District. So both men are well known to residents who attend their Neighborhood Councils’ candidate debate.

What Mr. Parks essentially did was take a pass on his own constituents.

Sen. Ridley-Thomas participated in the 8th District Neighborhood Councils’ debate against challenger Mr. Griffin. There was no apparent scheduling conflict for Mr. Parks. The Culver City event he participated in at Fox Hills Park was scheduled to conclude at 5 p.m., an hour before the debate in his Council District was scheduled to start.

To say that people who attended the debate were upset is something of an understatement (much as Betty Pleasant describes in her column).

Mr. MacFarlane is a spokesman for the Sen. Ridley-Thomas campaign for the June 3 Board of Supervisors election.
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