We have come to this.
“A shared set of facts is paramount to any discussion of the issues facing Huntington Beach,” wrote very frustrated city council member Dan Kalmick. “Given that this Council has struggled to find common ground on even the most fundamental issues, I believe it is time for this Council to reaffirm that the water is indeed wet and the sky is blue. “
We have long held that local government is the best theater in the world. Item No. 20 on the Huntington Beach City Council agenda for Tuesday, June 4 is fatally aimed at the item that follows it:
“Affirmation of the Huntington Beach City Council’s commitment to the Constitution of the United States and special recognition that Huntington Beach is a 1st and 2nd Amendment friendly city,” reads the agenda item submitted by the Mayor Pro Tem Pat Burns who some might call pro-God, guns and Trump.
One wonders if this is where a city has been sued by the state of California for its resistance to building more housing, for its insistence that people submit a ID to vote, and for his refusal to hand over a multi-million dollar legal settlement. to the public who pay for it, and arguing over library books, while facing budgetary difficulties, should be a waste of energy.
‘Commitment’
“This affirmation by the City of Huntington Beach City Council is intended to demonstrate our commitment and respect to the Constitution of the United States of America,” Burns wrote.
“The Constitution and its amendments constitute the foundation of our Republic, guaranteeing every person the right to live and work freely without excessive government intervention or unreasonable restriction by any entity. These freedoms have rarely been challenged in our country as they have recently been and called into question. Whether it’s a presidential candidate defending himself against unreasonable accusations in court or a city council candidate being attacked by an incumbent president through a “legal war” for speaking out .”
(We’ll explain that in a minute, but first more Burns.)
“Then there is the constant attack on our 2nd Amendment by our state which ignores our federal laws and claims to be a sanctuary state…”
He keeps on.
“Laws are being made to weaken laws that protect law-abiding citizens and businesses (2nd Amendment laws or Covid 19 restrictions), while other laws are either ignored by prosecutors or weakened in the name to allow criminals to be even more brazen or weakened. violent. With open borders allowed by our federal government or illegal immigration encouraged by our governor at taxpayer expense, laws are not enforced by our government equally or rationally – while those who speak out are often attacked or prevented from expressing themselves freely. . This only scratches the surface of the crimes committed against the citizens of our state and our country. It is a warning of a serious deterioration of our Republic and our cherished freedoms.
You will be relieved to know that none of the items is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act or will result in a reasonably foreseeable direct or indirect impact. physical change in the environment. Phew!
But climate change inside the boardroom will certainly be extremely heated.
Messier, uglier
“It’s going to be a new circus of meetings,” Kalmick said.
Huntington Beach’s crusading conservative majority has created chaos and is incapable of governing, he charged. The article about the water is wet is satire, but deadly serious, as satire tends to be.
“These are distractions from the conversations we need to be having,” he said. “This is not what local authorities should be doing. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. We all took an oath to the Constitution – the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution – when we joined the board. Did Pat Burns do something and should he reaffirm it?
We asked Burns for his thoughts on all of this, by phone and email, but did not receive a response by deadline.
However, it gets more complicated and uglier. The battle of the library books. Claims of pedophilia.
Burns’ reference to “a city council candidate attacked by an incumbent president through a ‘legal war’ for speaking out” refers to Chad Williams, an outspoken conservative city council candidate, and Kalmick, and the book “The Big Bath House”.
“The Big Bath House” is “a joyful celebration of Japanese cultural traditions and body positivity as a young girl visits a bathhouse with her grandmother and aunts,” its promotional materials say. It should be noted that onsen, as these communal baths are called in Japan, have been a mainstay for hundreds of years. Only women are allowed access to the women’s onsen. Only men are allowed in the men’s onsen.
Williams attacked the book as “the normalization of adults bathing naked with children” and a “pedophile’s dream”, and having it in a library shows the need to privatize operations because “staff municipal government can’t stop showing adults’ private parts to our children.”
In Kalmick tellsWilliams then implied that Kalmick was a pedophile for reading the book to his daughter.
Kalmick’s private attorney then sent Williams a cease and desist letter, asking him to stop saying false and defamatory things about Kalmick.
So if you’re still following, Burns sides with Williams on the First/Second Amendment agenda item. Kalmick said it was a campaign from the podium and pointed out the irony of promoting gun rights while claiming to protect children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently found that gun deaths among children under 18 increased 87% between 2011 and 2021. Guns are now the leading cause of death among children and adults. American teenagers.
We doubt there is unanimity on Kalmick’s recommended action: “Reaffirm through careful actions that the water is wet and the sky is blue.” » The sky sometimes seems a little gray. Black, even. And have you ever heard of dry ice?
Yes, it’s going to be a nasty campaign this fall, at all levels of government.
California Daily Newspapers
