RON DAVIS -- Through My Eyes

I was attending a birthday party for a friend last week when one of

the guests decided to wow me with his political acumen.

First, he told me he was voting “no” on any bond measure. I pressed

him on the issue, and he told me that no matter the need, and even if the

bond would pay for itself without tax dollars, he was still voting “no.”

Pretty soon he moved on to Proposition 38, the voucher initiative. I

initially thought that vouchers were a pretty good idea, but after some

reflection, I’ve decided to vote against the issue. I actually formed my

opinion on the subject after attending seminars, listening to debates,

reading the literature and speaking with school officials. Heck, I’ve

even spoken to the public relations person for Proposition 38 in San Jose

-- not once but twice.

I’m telling you this not because I’m necessarily right on the issue,

but to persuade you that I’ve at least taken some time to study the

subject.

Piqued by his keen political insight on bond measures, I decided to

pursue his reasoning on Proposition 38.

He began by telling me the school system was completely screwed up. I

wondered at this because he didn’t have children in school, in fact, to

my knowledge, he didn’t have children at all.

So I asked him if he felt the schools in Huntington Beach and Fountain

Valley were a mess. Of course, he had no knowledge of the test scores for

our local schools or any real horror stories associated with our schools,

so he shifted and told me how top heavy all the schools are with

administrators and how the unions control the schools.

Then he dropped the big one on me and told me the real problem with

schools is that people aren’t involved with them enough.

On this point, I had to agree with him. Obviously, I was speaking with

an astute person who was concerned and involved with school issues, so I

asked him what two candidates he was voting for for the Huntington Beach

Union High School District. You know that kind of blank look people get

on their faces when it’s time to divide up the dinner check? Well . . .

bingo! That was the look on his face. Mr. “I’m concerned and involved in

schools” had no idea.

He didn’t know any of the candidates, their qualifications or what

they stood for. So, I asked him what school trustees he voted for two

years ago.

You’d think I just asked him to compare and contrast the gravitational

fields of Jupiter and Mars. While I was waiting for him to gather

himself, I wondered how we could fault a school system when we’re so

uninvolved with it. How can we quarrel with the results produced by a

school system when so many of us merely throw a dart at a name on a

ballot with no understanding whether that person is qualified or not, or

good or bad for our children and the school system?

Finally, he pulled himself together and proudly announced, “Well, at

least I vote!”

I had this “And I should be happy about that?” look on my face. I left

the conversation thinking that it was pretty appropriate that our

election falls just one week after Halloween.

It’s odd that we tell our kids not to be fooled by the appearance of

the candy and to scrupulously inspect it all. Because when it comes to

candidates on a ballot -- some representing a trick or a treat -- we feed

the system one candidate over another, with little investigation and

little regard for the consequences.

And, worst of all, when the system gets sick, we blame the patient,

not those of us who fed the patient the candy that far too many of us

never took the time to inspect.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He

can be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected]