ER - Tired of political 'pie' throwing

Tired of political 'pie' throwingTired of political 'pie' throwing
by Sylvia De Rooy , 5/25/2006
LETTER to Editor

We’ve all experienced political mud slinging, but locally we’ve now moved on to flying cow pies. Maybe it’s the ugly example Washington politics sets or maybe it’s the increasing power of corporate interests manipulating the political scene.

And then there is the media, often using their voices as a bully pulpit. In the past weeks I’ve seen a plethora of slanted, biased editorials and articles calculated to push the candidate that best suits their interests.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that the meadow muffin brigade, the slingers of cow pies, are invariably tied in to big money interests.

The Gallegos/Dikeman coverage best typifies the convoluted and dirty twists and turns of recent local political ads and writings.

Now we get to listen to Dikeman and his backers singing the same song over and over, with Allison Jackson and Jill Geist as his backup singers.

Jackson lost her job in the DA’s Office, wants revenge and sees Dikeman as her only way back into her old position.

Geist signed and approved the application for a Justice Department Violence Against Women grant. She was notified on Sept. 29, 2004, that the application was denied. The county had received funding for an unprecedented 10 years; it was past due to get defunded. The Justice Department instead funded a program in Hoopa that includes a shelter. This is a valuable program for that part of the county.

So, Geist gets the letter of denial in September. The Board of Supes meets in May and goes off on the DA’s Office for the loss of the grant. Geist reacts with mock surprise at the news that the grant was denied. Seems she hadn’t even told her pal Neely about the grant denial. Why was Geist holding her cards so close to her chest? I can only speculate, but her friendship with Jackson is hard to ignore. It is also hard to ignore, that if played right, this could be effectively used to make Gallegos look bad. And that’s exactly how it’s being spun. Meadow muffin incoming. Splat!

It’s critical that we recognize and brace for the fact that grant funding is becoming tighter and, as those funds disappear, it will be the most vulnerable who will be impacted. Dikeman can say he will get more money, but the county is already doing its best; the money just isn’t there.

Jackson and Dikeman claim the Humboldt County Child Abuse Services Team is being mismanaged. Not only is that completely untrue, but the person with primary responsibility for the program is one of the best attorneys one could ask for. Dikeman claims he is going to “restore” services, but you can’t “restore” something that is still there and in good working order. I could say that Dikeman’s statements are misleading, but I won’t. He works in the DA’s Office and he knows better, so instead I will say the big lie lives on.

I’m sick of it. I’m sick of politicians and calculated dissemination of disinformation with more twists than a pig’s tail. I’m sick of newspapers increasingly being owned by big money to be used for politicizing. And most of all, I’m sick of people mindlessly accepting the cow pie deliveries.

(Sylvia De Rooy is a Westhaven resident.)
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