September 19, 2001

Should sewers be optional?

There's a particular small group of folks here in San Mateo County. As individuals, those I've met are likable, hardworking, energetic, very dedicated to their ideas. Collectively they remind me of a bunch of joyful, enthusiastic, exuberant teenage vandals with sledge hammers.

The leaders of the San Mateo County Libertarian Party are so few they're probably all on a first name basis. They've provided the only sample ballot arguments against many of the 22 ballot measures being voted on in various places in the county Nov. 6. Rather than prepare specially written arguments against each, they've plagiarized themselves repeatedly, but since voters in Daly City's Jefferson Elementary District won't be reading sample ballot booklets provided Sequoia High District voters, for example, few will notice. I think it's disgraceful to use inflammatory words like "waste" and "graft" in arguments against particular ballot measures unless you have real evidence. If you have, go to the Grand Jury. I think it's also truly evil to refer to local public-spirited citizens who prepare bond measures for voter approval as "politicians" who must be kept on the "straight and narrow."

One of the repeated "arguments", used against several school bond measures up and down the county by the Libertarians, contains a bit of sarcasm. "I wish my parents had borrowed more money when I was a kid-and left their debts for me to pay off." It's used repeatedly against bond issues of all sizes and degrees of rationality. At first, it even sounds plausible.

Then I remembered 1963. With a wife and an eight month-old boy child who might soon crawl into danger, it was time to move out of SF. Lydia and I finally discovered a three bedroom, one bath rancher in Linda Mar we could almost afford. I was persuaded to overcome my stomach butterflies ("Why don't we wait until interest rates [5.25 percent] and housing prices [$17,000] go down?"). We signed up for 30 years of debt. If Lydia and I had died before that loan was paid off, our four children would indeed have been left with a debt, though the house was the best investment we've ever made. Like thousands of other families in Pacifica, we'd never trade our mortgage for Libertarian rhetoric.

To build or repair schools, to supply long lasting equipment, to update classrooms, bond issues are often necessary. "Pay as you go" for capital improvements is pure nonsense. (I have another word for it, but this is a family newspaper!)

I can't prove my suspicion, but perhaps some of those of the Libertarian persuasion really don't like public schools at all, and would prefer them crippled or destroyed. I think some would like to go back to the good old days of the 19th Century, when only a few kids went to school in what is now Pacifica, and more ten-year-olds dug potatoes and milked cows than learned to read and write. Of course, not all Libertarians fit my stereotype, any more than all school bond measures fit the negative Libertarian template. Ironically, there may be some bond issues that deserve defeat. Each bond measure needs to be looked at individually and carefully. Voters need solid facts to make valid decisions. When the Libs tar all school bond issues with the same brush, it's harder to tell good from bad.

The Libertarians even criticize hotel occupancy taxes, using such inflammatory words as "opportunistic pickpocketing." They sound as if they'd prefer volunteers to staff fire and police departments! I often criticize government for its many shortcomings, but, for the record, please don't take away cops or firefighters. Don't make sewers optional! Keep libraries, schools, parks, and water supplies in public ownership and serving us all.

E mail Paul Azevedo at Paul@thereactor.net. Check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.