Palm Springs, California.  In the hour preceding last Wednesday’s Palm Springs city council meeting, the Committee for No on Measure J mounted a peaceful protest demonstration outside the council’s City Hall meeting chambers. Their purpose was to persuade the council to extend its new Oversight Commission’s purview to encompass the entire city budget.

Developer John Wessman’s Yes on J campaign announced last minute plans to mount a counter-demonstration. Email messages from the Yes on J campaign, the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Palm Springs Democratic Club falsely accused the No on J supporters of demonstrating simply to “make a media splash”. They urged their members to meet at City Hall in opposition and “stand strong against ‘fringe’ obstructionists”.

The Yes on J campaign obviously hoped to produce a huge contingent of members in support of their counter-demonstration efforts. They failed in that quest for their numbers barely matched the number of No on J taxpayers who were seeking to exercise their citizenship protest rights.

The actual demonstration event boiled down to citizenship protest rights versus those opposed to citizenship protest rights. According to the next day’s report in The Desert Sun the Yes on J campaign had a bullhorn. Others reported the bullhorn was used to lead Yes on J demonstrators in noisy efforts aimed at silencing the peaceful remarks of the No on J citizen protest. The bullhorn-led effort was unsuccessful and a contingent of police officers kept the Yes on J coterie separate from their No on J targets. The No on J folks were not intimidated! They remained firm in their resolve and continued their peaceful protest.

The Yes on J campaign appears to be entering a desperation mode cycle. They have outspent the No on J opposition by many, many thousands of dollars. The City of Palm Springs has spent more than $70 thousand of taxpayer money to defeat the No on J efforts. The Wessman campaign and allies have resorted to using epithets, including “fringe obstructionists”, in referring to the No on J protestors. And now they seek to “kill the messenger” by silencing citizens who simply wish to exercise their right to engage in peaceful public protests. No on J versus Yes on J is clearly a case, respectively, of David versus Goliath - and allies. Once again Goliath and his allies need to be defeated.

The underlying but rather clear purpose behind the crusade to pass Measure J is the millions of dollars involved and those who will benefit. It is all about a simple word – one that starts with the letter “g”, ends with a “d” and it has a single “r” and two “e” letters in it. Money is not only the Mother’s Milk of Politics; it is the only fuel driving the interests of the downtown business community – and Developer John Wessman’s Yes on J campaign.

When it comes to money, it is claimed to excuse many things. It doesn’t excuse name calling, misuse of taxpayer funds for campaign purposes, and efforts to prevent citizens from exercising their right to peacefully protest. The Yes on J Committee and allies stand guilty of all these offenses. Voters can best show their disgust for such un-American tactics by voting No on Measure J.

Bond Shands
Palm Springs - October 22, 2011

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