Former mayor Mark Lewis did the right thing resigning after last week’s calamity over his controversial interview with The Progressive. He saved the city of El Cajon turmoil and embarrassment that San Diego went through with Bob Filner. Lewis bowed out to let the community move forward. After reading the original article and listening to the interview, though he used no racial slurs, his spoken opinion of the population of El Cajon is stereotypical towards what we as Americans commonly call minorities. This is unacceptable.
Former mayor Mark Lewis did the right thing resigning after last week’s calamity over his controversial interview with The Progressive. He saved the city of El Cajon turmoil and embarrassment that San Diego went through with Bob Filner. Lewis bowed out to let the community move forward. After reading the original article and listening to the interview, though he used no racial slurs, his spoken opinion of the population of El Cajon is stereotypical towards what we as Americans commonly call minorities. This is unacceptable.
I understand that community members, when divided by economic status, race, religion, gender and sexual orientation is where we get the term minorities, but it is discriminating in nature, pointing out terms that divide a population, not bring it together.
El Cajon’s City Council needs diversity to fairly represent the people and it is sorely lacking.
As public servants, looking at constituents in this manner is completely unacceptable and separating them from the majority population is wrong. With the 2010 Census, now outdated, it shows approximately 69 percent of the population as white, 28 percent Hispanic or Latino and 6 percent black or African American. Statistics also show there are approximately 12,000 Chaldeans that are El Cajon residents.
Moving forward, City Council needs to stop thinking on these terms when dealing with its constituents. They are people, and if citizens, voters. Plain and simple.
In a whirlwind, the face of City Council changed last week and in this case, change is good. But, I still have two questions that I am still looking for answers to.
I have often wondered, and compared El Cajon’s leadership with other cities in the county. The leaders of El Cajon are not diverse as its population. This leaves many constituents underserved. And any politician that says they are there to represent the minority is a red flag for me because they have already segregated a percentage of a population from the majority.
With elections coming up next year, it is my hope that the council will use its ability to appoint a new mayor and city council member to fill the vacant seat. With the extreme costs of a special election for the city and the people that choose to run it is simply a waste of money, especially with the process immediately beginning again. But, in appointing, it is imperative that the council conduct it in an open forum, transparent and let the constituents of the city watch, listen and participate in the process of choosing the next representative. Remember, these people vote council members into office and have the power to keep them there or remove them. This needs to be remembered in choosing the next representative and as we head into another election year.
A second question that boggles my mind is why this interview just surfaced, or I should say exploded in an interview that happened back in May? I have received several personal opinions on this, but it seems like a large gap between the interview and last week’s events that led to Lewis’ resignation. It seems that with the nature of the interview, people would have protested Lewis’ comments immediately, not five months later.
Many believe it stems from the new alcohol ordinance, and possibly so, but to assume that is as discriminating as Lewis’ comments.
In moving forward, City Council needs to represent the people of El Cajon. It is now in the limelight and every decision, discussion down to each comment made is under scrutiny from the public. That is not something to be taken lightly.
Perhaps, El Cajon needs to divide the city into represented districts. This might bring a fairer representation of the population.
