I had the pleasure of introducing Oakland City Councilman De La Funeta at the luncheon of the Piedmont-Montclair Rotary Club Friday at the beautiful Sequoyah Country Club. Mr. De La Fuenta (third from left in photo) hopes that mayor-elect Jean Quan is tough enough to manage the problems of Oakland. He questions the city being able to confront the problems. I myself think that the politicians must deal with the over paid civil servants and under funded pension funds. Many cities and states have the same problem. Americans have been over-spending and under saving for years. Now we must tighten the belt. Therefore, expect demonstrations and protests next year as we have seen in Europe. So many people feel that they have entitlements that we will have to have a serious cultural change. I remember that when I was on the Alameda County Grand Jury, we found that Highland Hospital employees had a huge sense of entitlement. This situation is made worse due to the indications that the truly rich do not want to contribute to the solution to this problem. They too think they are entitled to their yachts and mansions. I see little interest in fixing the crumbing infrastructure or educating minorities. This is how we solve the unemployment problem, not more tax cuts for the rich. On the other hand, more taxes from the poor and middle class to fund the aristocracy of the belligerent unions is proving to be unacceptable. It is too difficult to get anything positive done. This stagnation can easily lead to extremist elements. I fear for our future.
