COURTESY the EVERGREEN AVIATION MUSEUM

Tues | Jun 12 Does this sound familiar? Good-sized suburb located outside of Los Angeles struggles for identity and something that’ll draw in the out-of-towners’ dollars and comes up with a bold idea. The suburb? Garden Grove. The bold idea? Casino gambling, which has been so successful in transforming burgs like Bell Gardens, Commerce, and East Haverbrook into glitzy jet-set destinations. Godspeed, Garden Grove. But a couple words of advice from a city that has tried a bold move or two: be careful. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be noticed—just ask Paris Hilton at the Lynwood jail . . . you know, when she’s not in lockdown—but you don’t want to be too rash. So, a casino? Great. A rusting ocean liner, giant plane made out of wood, or a Russian sub? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, no.

Wed | Jun 13 Did I mention that Garden Grove wants to put its casino on Harbor Blvd. a mile or two from the entrance to Disneyland? It’s amazing that the heads of the folks at the Magic Kingdom haven’t popped like poorly-made balloons filled with guacamole. They’re already fighting Anaheim to stop the development of some low-income housing around its property. Now low-rent casino gambling? Man, it’s like Riverside came over to spend a night or two on the couch and never left.

Thurs | Jun 14 Flags.

Fri | Jun 15 Some members of the Long Beach Teachers Union get together and vote to reinstate executive director Scott McVarish a couple days after the union’s board had voted to remove McVarish from his position. The Long Beach Press-Telegram, which feels about unions the way most people feel about scabies, crows over what it calls “discord” in the labor organization. Of course, it misses the larger point, which is that this “discord” is what is known as “democracy.” The disagreement within the teachers’ union actually underscores how well the union works—how it directly reflects the varied opinions of its members and thus is, again, democratic. See, since most of what we call “democracy” in this country is a sham, it’s jarring when we actually witness it at work. Democracy is messy, what with everyone having their say, and it’s rarely convenient or efficient, which is why most of our Founding Fathers were scared to death of it. The teachers have a union of people who believe they have a say and say it. It doesn’t mean their say will ultimately prevail or that they’ll even be happy with the direction things go; it just means that they care enough and believe they have a stake in things. When was the last time you had that feeling about our political system? As for McVarish? When he was originally let go, the P-T called him “strident and ruthless.” It said that he came to Long Beach three years ago “with the intention of switching the focus from improving education to improving teachers’ salaries.” You know, I bet that’s true. And you know why? Because he’s the head of the TEACHERS’ UNION. He is not an elected official, he is not an education official; he is a labor official, hired and paid by workers—teachers—to look after their interests. They’d do it themselves, except they’re busy TEACHING. You wanna talk ruthless? Consider how the Press-Telegram is behaving in contract negotiations with the union of reporters and designers, etc.—the people who put out the paper. The P-T’s opening offer on a three-year contract was a zero-percent pay increase—that is, nothing—during the first year, followed by whopping two-percent raises in the second and third years. Why, it’s almost as if the P-T intends to switch its focus from providing excellent local journalism to attempting to run a newspaper on the cheap. How else to explain why it hasn’t had a regular City Hall reporter since the last one resigned a month ago? Or why this coming Monday’s top local story—about the election in the 37th congressional district—will be written by a reporter from the South Bay Daily Breeze?

Sat | Jun 16 I’ve heard that one of the indicators of a serial killer is that they torture small animals as a child. I’ve also heard that you can tell someone is crazy when they become delusional. Torture? Delusions? This must be about Dana Rohrabacher. And yes, this is about Congressman Crazy, who today leads a rally of outraged citizens in Huntington Beach protesting the jail sentence of two immigration officers who shot a guy in the back, then tried to cover it up, and then claimed they did it because he was an illegal alien, which they didn’t know when they shot him. Okay, “rally” is a little bit of a stretch. Basically, it was a sad collection of elderly people who get pissed off listening to talk radio hunched over and holding some homemade signs that made this look like the worst church car wash ever. As for delusions, Rohrabacher says at the rally, “the President of the United States, if they want to be President of the United States, is going to . . . have to get my support,” adding that he would journey far to the land of the paisley, where he would do battle against the forces of the pale wizard and his army of rainbow-flavored minions.

Sun | Jun 17 Happy Father’s Day!

Mon | Jun 18 Happy birthday, me! Its times like these that we are given to pause and reflect on what we’ve learned so far. Today, looking back at it all, I think about the good and bad in my life—much more good than bad—and I’ve come to this conclusion: no matter the challenges, heartaches, and setbacks life brings my way, I just really want my daughter to stop yelling, in her most inflated Don Pardo radio announcer voice, “THE BIG 4-6!” every time I walk into the room.

Tags: dana rohrabacher, long beach teachers union, press telegram