San Diego From My Perspective

By Shawn A. McMillan

Back Ground and Philosophical Perspective on The Current Crisis

For me, it has been as a boy growing up in the suburbs of San Diego, where we chased rabbits, played tag in the canyons, and played baseball in the dirt lots and fields where University Town Center now stands.

Then as a young man scratching to get a start in life, wondering where the money would come from to pay for my education, eating my fair share of ramen noodles and struggling to get the bills paid.

For most of my adult life I've seen this city from the inside of a class room at UCSD, as an entrepreneur in the then nascent computer and electronics business, as an activist protesting what I perceived to be government abuse, as an attorney, as a husband and a father.

I've lived in a San Diego where those who felt they had too little outnumbered those who had enough. I've seen our city face scandal after scandal over the years. And now, I've seen my hometown face financial ruin.

I have also seen your great strength and resolve. I've seen it in your faces as I've walked the streets and spoken with you, in business, on juries, and during this campaign. Yes, our problems are many, but our capacity for solving them is limitless.

The root of our problems is right in front of us. Our city government has become the seat of a buddy system that functions for its own benefit, increasingly insensitive to the needs of the taxpayers who foot the bill. Over the years we have seen two distinct classes develop: Those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon the taxes.

For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told that there are no simple answers to the complex problems which are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is, there are simple answers, there just aren't any easy or painless ones. And, our politicians often know what needs to be done, but shrink from unpopular actions.

The path we chart is not an easy one. It demands much of those chosen to govern, but also from those who did the choosing. Make no mistake: We have come to a cross-road, a time of decision has been forced upon us, and the path we follow, if you're with me, turns away from any idea that government, and those who serve it are entitled to bleed us with their insatiable appetite for more.

It is a path that is impossible to follow unless we have faith in ourselves, and in the collective wisdom and genius of our neighbors. We are all in this together. On this path government will perform its proper function and protect the interests of the taxpayers above all else.

The simple fact is, that our tax burden has grown steadily through good times and bad, but the services we get in return have steadily degraded.

What is needed is to cut government spending, we are going to trim, and cut, and squeeze until we reduce the cost of government, and the cost of the services provided by government. Concurrently we will maximize the efforts of each and every city employee by becoming more efficient, more effective, and more economical. We will eliminate duplication in function and effort.

It wont be easy, nor will it be pleasant. And, it will involve every aspect and every department of our city's government starting with the mayor's office and working our way down.

As you have all figured out by now, I'm not a politician, I am an ordinary citizen with a deep seated belief that much of what troubles us has been brought about by politicians; and its high time that more ordinary citizens brought the fresh air of common-sense thinking to bear on the situation.