If you are a trailblazer and you are unscathed, then you are a fraud. No person paving the way for an entire group of underrepresented people gets a free pass. Jackie Robinson: jeered, spat on, hated, abused—and this was by teammates—died at 50. MLK: rebuked by his own religious congregation: assassinated at 39.
- If you have to TELL SOMEONE you are a trailblazer: you’re not.
- If you haven’t elevated others in your ascent; you are not a trailblazer.
- If you don’t have an ability to articulate your rise and what it means, you are not a trailblazer.
- If we see your ego more than your methods; you are not a trailblazer.
- If you haven’t taken a politically unpopular/legacy damaging stand, you are not a trailblazer.
- If your health hasn’t been impaired in any way, and/or you sleep well at night and you look the same coming into our consciousness as you do going out, you are not a trailblazer. We should see the stress on you, because you are fighting for something larger than yourself, and that stuff hurts.
- With that in mind, let’s talk about the person today whom I am not voting for.
Rebecca Kaplan.
She has not demonstrated an ability to articulate a workable plan the she has envisions for the city. She has run for office, every election cycle, for 7 of the last 8 cycles; including twice for Mayor, three times for City Council, twice for AC Transit, and flirted with running for the State Assembly. I understand that as a Stanford Law grad, the most money she had ever made before being on City Council was $19k annually. There is no one reading this that could go to Stanford and afford to come out of school and live off $19k before taxes—in Oakland—your student loans might equal that, and certainly your living expenses would. Throw in Tufts and MIT, and you have someone who has been able to attend some of the most expensive schools in the nation without a financial care in the world. It’s hard to find trust in a trust fund baby who says they’re one of the people.
Most important, she has misled us in three fundamentally disturbing ways:
- You cannot say that you are running for Mayor because Oakland needs new leadership, while serving as Vice Mayor. You ARE Oakland’s leadership. Wanting to switch seats doesn’t change that.
- Being as smart as she is, and as experienced a politician, she has virtually no vision. http://kaplanforoakland.org/issues/ and even less of a means to getting there. That is absolutely unacceptable for someone of her background. How does this happen? Because she doesn’t want to make a commitment and risk being challenged in her beliefs and alienate anyone, and in some cases, she doesn’t really believe in anything and cannot articulate it.
- In 2010 Kaplan made the decision to partner with Jean Quan to ask voters to select them as a 1st choice/2nd choice combination. We have Quan, in large measure, because Kaplan asked for us to do it. Also, you have to ask yourself, if you don’t want Quan, why would you take someone who is Quan-light? There is nothing that has distinguished Kaplan in her decision making that would make her leadership any different from Quan. In truth, JEAN QUAN is a better leader than Kaplan.
In Summary
Whether it is missed key votes, broken promises to the black community, telling audiences that she is bisexual and not a lesbian, a Christian and not a Jew, that she is openly fighting the power structure but secretly cozies up with business and has used independent expenditures and funneled money from corporations and ballot initiatives to her campaign—no one knows who the real Kaplan is. We know one thing: she is from Toronto, Canada—yet it shows up nowhere in bios in print or online. By not taking the tough issues on the councilmember is doing is not being the Queen of Nice; she is saying and doing whatever it takes to become Mayor. I shouldn’t have to guess about my mayor’s background, beliefs, values, and goals for the city….and you shouldn’t either.
holowe 