As happens in the run-up to every election, CulverCityCrossroads gets a lot of letters. It’s always a compliment when a publication gets a lot of correspondence; it means that people care enough to write down their thoughts and share them. Even hate mail, in its own way, is evidence that the institution has value. Letters can give you a great overview on a situation -let’s say the school bond measure.
The campaign against the school bond – Measure E on your March ballot – lost all credibility for me in one moment.
The people who advocate for an organization called ‘SAVE CCUSD’ spent more than a year talking about how the schools were falling apart, how the need for repairs was urgent, and how critical it was that we take care of the physical safety of our students. They even persuaded a local television news broadcast to come onto a campus and do a feature on how the ceiling tiles were falling out.
I heard the words ‘ceiling tiles’ so many times over the course of six months, if it had been a drinking game, everyone would have been unconscious. The relentless scolding at school board meetings, reaching over to city council meetings…never mind that the district and the city are two utterly separate entities that are legally not allowed interact without strict protocols. Not even considering the lawn signs, the social media posts, and the tone of apocalyptic hysteria …Holy Wow.
But when the bond to repair the school facilities was approved for the March ballot – ceiling tiles and all – there was an instant, completely nonsensical pivot to oppose it.
For me, the moment came when one of these self-appointed saviors stated – at a public meeting – that if this bond was not used to build a swimming pool for our students, then it was unworthy of support.
This was one of the same people pointing out how shameful, how disgraceful it was that our students had these ceiling tiles falling on their heads. For more than a year.
So fix the schools, fix the schools, fix the schools – okay, here’s how we can fix the schools – OH NO YOU DON’T!
The people who oppose the bond – and, this is simply journalistic observation – have a dozen wild conspiracy theories as to where this money will be spent. They are broadcasting false information about past issues – that have nothing to do with the bond – and fantasizing future catastrophes – that have nothing to do with the bond.
So, the push against the school bond has nothing to do with school bond. It’s just a citizen’s vigilante committee. Their long term campaign to blame the school board and the district administration for the disrepair of the schools loses any credibility when those repairs are on the ballot, and they are screaming in opposition.
The fact is that Culver City has always passed school bonds. Every time we have put one on the ballot, it succeeded. We like having good schools. It’s good for the community in general. This is a fact.
The correspondence that Crossroads receives, (and again, this is a standard) addresses both pro and con. That people opposing the bond have gone to the trouble to use alternative names, set up a new email address, and disguise themselves in order to keep pushing these unsupported narratives is what is most revealing. While most of this faux correspondence has been caught in the filter, some gets through.
If you won’t stand behind your statements, then your statements don’t stand. Might as well put on clown make-up and say how serious you are.
We have not had to pull a single letter on the pro-bond correspondence because it wasn’t from a real person. Real voters are in favor – as they have been historically.
When you see the light bulb graphic, and the words “Dear Editor,” that means someone has an idea. We try to support all correspondence, because good ideas can come from anywhere. But it also means it’s just an opinion – this is someone’s idea. We don’t check their spelling, or their grammar or their facts.
Maintaining a local news platform that is respected and accessible to all does not mean it will be flawless. Offering real people a real connection in the community is vital. It’s essential to democracy.
We have evidence for that.
Judith Martin-Straw
