VIEW FROM AFAR- In 2013 I decided to move from Silver Lake, California to Guanacaste, Costa Rica. There were many reasons for my decision, not the least of which was the atmosphere of mind-controlled conformity that emanated from the NC system.
Don't get me wrong: there were things about Silver Lake that I loved. I loved the unique architecture, the lovely landscaping that abounds in any gay-friendly area of any city, the sidewalk restaurants and the beautiful view I enjoyed from my Silver Lake hills home. I enjoyed the easy access to theater and other artistic amusements.
However, I detested what I called the "uni-thought", obscenely PC atmosphere that made a pariah of anyone who dared object to the official SLNC statement that declared, for example, "WE are proud of our liberal heritage".
Since I, myself, immediately became that pariah who objected on behalf of Libertarians, Republicans and others who were not part of the arrogantly assumed "WE" that was shouted from the "official" description of Silver Lake, this became extremely personal. I was sure at that point that I was never to be named "prom queen".
Moreover, the word "liberal" to me means tolerant and open-minded. These folks were anything but. The "official" description of Silver Lake included the "honoring of diversity". I pointed out that they honored "diversity" in everything but diversity of thought. That clinched my exclusion from the "in-crowd" of the self-congratulatory non-liberal "liberals" who were the "founders" of the SLNC. Me and my big mouth! Now I'd really sealed my fate as an outcast!
During the years that I attended the SLNC meetings and participated in various committees, I was often the single voice of dissent in the infamous "consensus building" process, i.e. "bullying sessions". Since I had witnessed firsthand...and secondhand from a myriad of fellow abusees of the LA City government ... the massive fraud and corruption-steeped halls of power I wanted to share my findings with my neighbors.
The obstacles placed in my path and the extreme tactics used to shut me up would have astounded me had I not already been partially schooled in the criminal actions of the city government. I got exactly what I expected to get. (By the way, the Russian word "soviet" means "system of interlocking councils". Coincidence? I don't think so.)
Examples of my well-researched findings included massive land-grabs by the CRA orchestrated by the Mayor, City Council and City Attorneys by claiming "blight"...without defining what that offending blight was. This was nicknamed "eminent domain for private gain" since the unblighted, "blighted" areas were then turned over to big developers who in turn gave healthy campaign donations to their criminal accomplices in the city government.
They also used bogus "code violations" in multi-family dwellings that allowed developer-politician teams to sieze private property without even paying the below-market prices that the CRA rules dictated. Threatened and actual jail terms assisted "compliance" from owners, which often meant "selling" (for pennies on the dollar) their properties to the politician-connected developers.
Phony "non-profits" are big players in this continuing swindle. (Non-profit merely means all monies must be spent within a year, so the profits were gleaned from padded salaries, padded expenses and other god-knows what schemes and scams that were cooked up by those who benefited. Since the Ford Foundation was heavily involved in housing "non-profits", this gives pause to ponder for anyone with half a lobotomized brain).
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Nevertheless, whenever I attempted to expose these nefarious practices I was stymied and blocked by those who ran the NC. I even filed a grievance based on the violation of my First Amendment rights to speak and write factual information in meetings and/or on the SLNC website.
The "grievance procedure" was a joke right out of 1984. Three alleged "non-interested" parties were chosen to adjudicate my grievance. One was a Hollywood-type very arrogant friend of one of the board members who was nasty and hostile toward me from day one, occasionally flinging insults when he wasn't "tsk tsking" or sighing about wasting his valuable time on such a ridiculous complaint. One was a woman who never spoke one word and the only clue to her feelings was her dazed expression by being placed in such a weird situation about which she knew nothing, and the third was the only one I felt was truly a caring human being in stark contrast to the other 2 "zom-bots" I faced as my "judges".
After the usual months of delay, the 3 "judges" wrote their findings on how to ameliorate the situation and grant me the liberty of equal footing with the Socialist group that freely advertised on the SLNC website and the board member who had his own personal blog-site-link from the same website. The excuse was that there was no one to act as webmaster. My offer of paying someone to do the necessary changes was ignored by both the SLNC board and BONC.
The answer they came up with? To allow a freely accessed blog site to be part of the SLNC website so anyone could announce neighborhood meetings that weren't "official" (meaning government controlled) or express opinions that weren't sanctified by BONC, who are paid employees of the city totalitarians, or facts...unpleasant but true...about certain beloved "officials". I agreed that that was a good compromise.
That was in 2006. This is 2014. I just went to the SLNC website and noted vast changes to the website. However, after a thorough search, I was unable to find that much-touted blog site I was promised 8 years ago.
So, my question to those die-hard NC members who have stuck with it from the beginning is this: what are the actual and concrete accomplishments attributed to the NC system? And where is that %##&@ blog site?
Pura vida from Costa Rica
(Carol Knapp is a former Angelino. She now lives in Costa Rica. Views express are those of Ms Knapp.)
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