State already saving money -- on party supplies

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

The invitation to Gov. Gray Davis’ inauguration came to our house

addressed to Victor Lietzig. Close enough. We thought we’d go so we

could let you know what this year’s “low key” gubernatorial

inauguration was really like.

We wended our way through a phalanx of bomb-sniffing dogs,

California Highway Patrol officers and mounted police to join the

throng streaming into Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium last week.

Don’t know how good all that extra security really was. Vic was

packing a suspicious looking digital camera in his sport coat breast

pocket, and I had a small knife in my purse. Since there were no

metal detectors, we walked into the auditorium without a hassle.

Herb Wesson, speaker of the Assembly, was master of ceremonies. He

raised the roof by making fun of Davis’ inability to raise the roof.

He said he had tried to bring some life, some spark and some color to

the Davis campaign, but had failed miserably. The audience applauded

wildly. Wesson asked them to applaud again because he doesn’t expect

to be hearing that sound much during the upcoming session as the

Assembly deals with the state’s budget crisis.

We don’t know what Davis said during his gubernatorial address

because we fell asleep as soon as he started talking. But, being

clever columnists, we asked the media relations person for a copy of

the speech.

According to the text of the speech, Davis said California’s

greatness lies in “the workers and entrepreneurs who fuel our

economy, the farmers and farm workers who feed our world, the artists

and performers who capture our imagination ... .” Zzzzzzzz.

The woodenly delivered speech was blissfully short. Davis alluded

to spending and hiring freezes and the elimination of 10,000

positions. Sounded like people out of work to us. Then Davis called

for the creation of 500,000 new jobs. Just when we were wondering

where 500,000 new jobs were going to come from, Davis called on

Washington to solve the problem. Yeah, right. Like that’s going to

work. California voted for Al Gore. California ain’t gettin’ nothin’

from Washington.

We held out hope for a fun evening at the party that the inaugural

committee had dubbed “Celebrate California.” But Davis had warned us

that due to the economy, this was not a time for pomp and

circumstance. True to his word, there was neither pomp nor

circumstance. The Sacramento Bee previewed the evening event as a

cross between a state fair and a fourth-grade class project. In our

opinion, the newspaper overstated the sophistication of the event.

Having exhausted all that we could find to do in the afternoon in

Sacramento, we arrived at the convention center an hour early. Since

the inner doors were closed, we dropped by the press table. They

asked if we had our media passes. We didn’t, so they issued two

passes, meaning that we had wasted $30 by actually paying for our

tickets.

We decided to see if our passes would get us in early. The “guard”

at the inner door asked if we were there to set up. We bluffed by

saying we were there to photograph the setup. We sailed through,

another indication of the tight security. Next, we did what all good

media people do who beat a crowd of 2,000 people into a food event.

We ate our fill of tamales, fish tacos and bagels. We got some free

wine, too.

“Celebrate California” really was overrated as a fourth-grade

class project. Nine areas supposedly represented different regions of

California, but what they really represented were the businesses that

sponsored the booths. The Palm Springs Resort Visitors Bureau took

digital pictures of people in front of a golf course backdrop. The

Sacramento Golf Course booth had a practice area with Velcro whiffle

balls. Sea World gave away Shamu cookies to the first few hundred

people. Orange County had a fruit tray. The Central California booth

offered small packages of prunes and almonds. Yawn.

We had heard that the San Francisco booth had a wax dummy that

people could get their picture taken with. We posed next to the

immobile figure, but it turned out to be the real Gray Davis. Oops.

We apologized to the governor and moved over to the Willie Brown

dummy. Vic photographed me slipping wax Willie a $20 bill.

There was some square dancing and a children’s singing group, with

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as the headliner band. At a break in the overly

loud music, we listened to an interminably long Native American

blessing in what may have been Chumash. We left shortly after Davis

was honored with an eagle feather.

After any party, it’s time to get back to work. The state is

facing a $34-billion shortfall. Davis is threatening massive cuts to

services, plus tax increases. We hope that the state can deal with

its budget crisis, and that Huntington Beach gets its fair share of

the tax dollars we contribute. But we’re not holding our breath.

It’s a good thing that the voters passed Proposition 50 and other

environmental bond measures in the past. Those bonds may be the best

hope for continued progress on environmental preservation and

improvements for the next few years.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].