Editorial:
The Good:
LaDainian Tomlinson
It is not often that we single out a sports figure for the editorial pages, then again it is not very often that a football player the caliber of LaDainian Tomlinson says goodby to San Diego fans.
For several years Tomlinson, or LT as the fans like to call him, was the best running back in football. Tomlinson owns or shares 28 team records, including career rushing yards, yards from scrimmage and touchdowns. During his nine seasons in San Diego, Tomlinson won two rushing titles (2006 and ’07), set an NFL single-season record for touchdowns in a season (31 in ’06) and racked up 12,490 rushing yards, the eighth-highest total in NFL history. He was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2006 and earned Pro Bowl honors five times. And when he does finally retire he will be inducted into football’s Hall of Fame. The only thing missing from his professional resume is a Super Bowl appearance.
But beyond this on the field exploits was his commitment to the community.
Two days before Thanksgiving, LT hands out 2,000 turkeys and food, enough for a Thanksgiving dinner, through his foundation. He visits children in hospitals, giving presents and personal attention. He has his own charity golf tournament, gives $1,000 college scholarships to seniors at his old high school, and hands out dozens of bikes and hundreds of shoes to underprivileged kids in San Diego.
Since he couldn’t afford to go to NFL games as a child, he buys tickets for 21 kids to every home game. Twenty-one is his jersey number. And again, he gives them his time. After the game he comes back on the field to greet each of them, sign autographs, and pose for pictures.
LT will be missed by San Diego’s football fan and by the community. We wish him the best of luck and hopefully he will finally make the Super Bowl. Unfortunately it won’t be as a San Diego Charger.
The Bad:
Outsourcing
San Diego Mayor Sanders has touted outsourcing and the competitive bidding process as the answer to many of the city’s fiscal problems. Editorial La Prensa San Diego has argued against the process based on the loss of income and jobs for the local workforce.
With the first proposal before the city council to outsource its computer support, the worst case scenario is proving to be the reality. Sanders’ proposal is to award the $1.5 million dollar contract to firm in Gardena, and we are informed that some of the work will be done overseas in India. To make matters worse, a San Diego firm bid $30,000 dollars less then the Gardena firm.
The city council has final say on this proposal, let’s hope that they do the right thing and squash this proposal and keep our tax dollars in San Diego, not out-sourced to India!
And the Ugly:
UCSD “Compton Cook Out”
Racism is alive and well on the campus of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD.) This past week, Racism was on full display in an off-campus party that invited people “in hopes of showing respect” during Black History Month. The Facebook posting offered a dress code of T-shirts, rapper-style urban clothing by makers such as FUBU, and gold chains. Women were urged to go as “ghetto chicks,” described in the invitation as having gold teeth, cheap clothes and “short, nappy hair.”
The invitation went on to say the party would serve watermelon, chicken, malt liquor, cheap beer and a purple sugar-water concoction called “dat Purple Drank. It was noted that this party was to demonstrate how blacks lived in the ghetto.
Black and minority students are outraged at the insult and disrespect, and that in today’s world these types of attitudes still prevail, describing the campus atmosphere as hostile. The Black Student Union and minority groups have called for immediate action by the school administration. UCSD administration is framing the “Compton Cook Out” as a teaching/learning opportunity. Students continue to protest, demonstrating their outrage with their call for action and accountability.
We agree with the students in their call for action. The school administration has been listening. But this “Compton Cook Out” also serves to demonstrate to the students and minority community in general that as minorities we still have along way to go. Contrary to the belief by some such as African American politicican Ward Connerly, who calls for the dismantling of Equal Opportunity, minorities continue to experience blatant racism and ethnic stereotyping. Even the election of a Black President can not reverse racism.
Minorities still need to be vigilant and we still need to work together to bring about the painfully slow process of change. While we would like to believe that we are reaching racial equality, the “Compton Cook Out” has reminded us that racist attitudes continue to be a murky undertow in our society.
And while the administration at UCSD has little recourse to discipline the students involved because it was an off-campus event and was not sanctioned by any campus organization, the administration should make a greater effort to bring about diversity on the campus. For years the school has talked about diversity and about bringing in more students of color. After Proposition 209 passed in California, the proposition which banned race- and gender-based preferences in state university admissions, the black student population on campus has shrunk to only 1.3% of the total population. If the administration wants to make a difference, increasing the minority student population would be a good place to start.
27. February 2010 at 2:28 pm
Not just students at UCSD, this condition has existed in San Diego and our nation. As long as there are only token levels of representation and limited/exclusive economic/educational/political (apparently centralized in the hands of a few of its members) access and success, we will continue to have and society replete with social injustices and racism. It could happen in smaller groups, in which one already over-represented group may attempt to continuously exclude or minimized the memberships of other groups. But, if the group in change reflects the frequency of their appearance in the population – it is called a level of representation that reflects the population. That is what I believe representations levels are called for in our city charger, no?
I guess it is a good thing that the range of repression and control has long been limited in those little political environment of is San Diego. And why is that? Because typically those small districts and areas in which exclusive, or nearly exclusive, political power in the hands of one group, they have only a very limited range or power and influence. For Racism can only exist if one groups has the power to represses the voices of others. In those areas, where there is some small power in the hands of the populations who live in over all repression, there could have been the tools of change. If, in those areas, the leaders would have spoken-out and taken a stand on racism in their own areas, and in our city as well. But, such is not the case, when the topic of reflective levels of inclusion are talked about and requests are make to build structural systems that reflect our citizenry – the requests go answered, ignored, or crushed upon the turning of a screw build of words like ‘what are you talking about’ or ‘your the only problem,’ and ‘No one else is saying anything.’
The small amount of power these little non-mainstream group have, that little bit they are ‘alloted’, it is decreasing every year. Has anyone noticed the changing and replacement of those in the power-structures controlling those areas? And, fewer and fewer are in charge or at the higher levels of department or city staffing. No, their little bit of ‘given power’? It is to be concentrated in only their districts or areas, and as if in some pink donation to the dragon of master control – they do not express nor dare to brooch the topic of near exclusive sets in so very many aspects of city government. UCSD, USD, SDSU, PLN, CCDC, SDUSD, MWD, MWA, CDS, COC – whatever, is there any real difference between all those acronyms?
I have found that the problems of near ethnic exclusion and inequality are systemic and affects all levels our society and city government. Or, I could be wrong, perhaps if all those acronyms above would publish the brake down of rates of ethnic inclusion/representation, sure if that information could be published, somewhere accessible, we could see if my observation are correct or if they are in error and the problems of racism and inequality in San Diego – truly only exists at UCSD.