Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
Some Marin roads are more racist than others, according to the County Board of Supervisors. Beginning today, roads that have benefited from white privilege all these years will get less attention than roads serving more diverse travelers. (See picture below.)
Oh, you think I’m kidding?
I’m not, because I just read it in a story by the Independent Journal. It began: “Marin County will use the racial demographics of neighborhoods to determine which roads to repair first.”
Written without disclaimer, the news story goes on to explain how the county is going to alter its annual road repair spending through the lens of “equity.”
In that way, Marin will fix roads based not on which roads need fixing, but fix roads that serve the community with residents most in need.
It’s another decision out of San Rafael in which Marin leaders, well meaning though they may be, put form over substance in a feel-good quest for “equity.”
Anyone with a head on their shoulders knows that roads aren’t racist. They are just roads and when they need repair, they need repair. This happens mostly due to weather, which falls on people of all skin color and the roads upon which they travel.
Forgive me for not applauding. This isn’t equity. It’s pretend equity.
Reprioritizing road repair spending, but failing to address the ultimate equity issue – the life span of the people who use these roads – is bassackwards in the extreme. We know, and have known for quite some time, that Black Marin-ers live a full seven years less than white Marin-ers. Marin also is the location of Marin City, a community of flat-out post-modern segregation, complete with old-fashioned attributes like substandard public education and high crime.
Road equity?
We can do better than that.
Postscript: At the very least, can we get a list of these racist roads so we’ll know which roads will not be repaired in a timely fashion. Surely, the county must know what roads are the racist roads, no?
NOVATO’S BAD CALL
Novato city government has an ongoing deficit problem, despite gobs of “free” money from the federal government for alleged “COVID relief.” Look, I’m sure Novato’s moms and dads will fix it, especially with the addition of Tim O’Connor to the Council. He actually knows his way around a financial sheet.
I might just point out that the city’s spending problem is in part self-inflicted by Novato’s ill-advised 2019 law to accelerate the minimum wage above and beyond the state’s requirements.
That unneeded move hurt the cost structure of the city’s business community. It hurt the city, too.
COVID
Last COVID report I saw had 11 Marin-ers in the hospital and zero in the ICU. That’s the good news. But also breaking last week comes the release of the full report from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “It details evidence that researchers affiliated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology started working on a vaccine for the virus that causes Covid-19 before the rest of the world had even heard about the virus.”
That’s smoking-gun evidence that COVID came from the lab in Wuhan, China.
ICYMI
Former California AG and now Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated an ethics law that limits federal employees’ political activities when he stumped for Sen. Alex Padilla during the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ annual awards gala last year, the Office of Special Counsel has found. CNN reports that during his speech, Becerra, in his official capacity as HHS secretary, strayed from his prepared remarks that had been approved by an HHS ethics attorney and expressed his support for Padilla when speaking to attendees and said he would be voting for Padilla in California’s Senate race.
“In delivering his speech, Secretary Becerra impermissibly mixed his personal electoral preference with official remarks,” OSC Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said in a letter to the White House. “While federal employees are permitted to express support for candidates when speaking in their personal capacity, the Hatch Act restricts employees from doing so when speaking as a government official.”
Becerra called the violation “inadvertent.”
No word from the White House on what punishment, if any, would be administered. My guess: No punishment.
And, by the way, Team Biden has been found to have violated the Hatch Act numerous times in the last 48 months, each without punishment. And, to be fair, Team Trump did it a bunch of times, too. All without punishment.
A law without punishment is no law at all.
ONE MORE THING
– Where do you take someone injured in a peek-a-boo accident? The I.C.U.
– How do you make Holy water? Boil the hell out of it.
– A man was admitted into a local hospital with 25 toy horses in his rectum. Doctors described his condition as stable.
I apologize for that “stable” pun in advance. Thanks for reading and until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Jayden Harris says
The moment I saw the headline in another local news publication about the County’s ridiculous road repair policy, I said to myself, “Wtf? That’s racist!” The targeting a particular racial demographic for preferential service or treatment at the expense of others is flat-out racism on the part of the Marin County Board of Stupidvisors. It is not “equity”. Doesn’t surprise me though. Many on the left believe that racism is a one way street and that people of color cannot possibly be racist. That is false. It’s a lie. Racism is a human character flaw. It is learned. Anyone is susceptible to being racist. Anyone. Btw, I like the birthday cake pic. Lol.
Nancy says
The level of idiocy in Washington pales in comparison to the actions exhibited by the boneheads on the BOS.