PROTEST IN CENTURY CITY

(This article originally appeared in the September 7, 2010 edition of the Century City News)

I FOUND THE OUTRAGE AT THE JUSTICE FOR JANITORS PROTEST

By Michael Douglas Carlin

I have been asking for a very long time, “Where is the outrage?” A sitting President of the United States lies under oath… where is the outrage? A sitting President of the United States is murdered in broad daylight… where is the outrage? Civil Rights leaders are murdered… where is the outrage? Genocides are committed around the world… where is the outrage? The Earth is abused… where is the outrage? Jobs are shipped overseas… where is the outrage? Entire industries are shipped overseas to circumvent the Environmental laws of this country… where is the outrage? Pat Tillman is murdered by his own men… where is the outrage? The military covers up the truth of Tillman’s death… where is the outrage? Terrorists hold our civil liberties hostage… where is the outrage? Men who served this country in the military were disrespected upon their return… where is the outrage?

The proletariat bourgeois struggle turns another page intersecting with the history of Century City. I have been looking for some time now to find the outrage and I have finally found it.

In France, this might have come at the hand of the guillotine, in Germany and Cambodia bullets were used, Rwanda and Darfur used machetes… but here in America there were meetings, there was legwork, there was preparation, negotiations, planning, scheduling, press releases, t-shirts, signs, and oh, yes, there were arrests… I counted ten but am told there were thirteen.

I spend most of my days in Century City. I saw a couple of Police Cruisers that alerted me that something was up. I met the officers in one of the businesses where they were talking to the staff and alerting them as to what was coming down. They had been walking from building to building and alerting the building managers and prominent businesses about a scheduled protest. The two officers wore their uniforms well and they were well mannered. They worked hard to alert local businesses so that security could be added and unnecessary personnel cleared out.

The preparation was done to ensure public safety. The police were not the only ones making preparations. The Union was also making their preparations as were many others throughout the city. It was determined ahead of time that there would be arrests. Civil disobedience is an accepted form of protest in America. The script was written and each side performed their roles to perfection as if this was a Hollywood movie.

The protesters began marching up Avenue of the Stars as planned. Nobody could have scripted what happened next. Every single one of the Century Plaza Hotel workers marched in single file out of the hotel in support of their fellow workers. They lined the street in front of the hotel and began chanting in solidarity. The crowd cheered...

The issues are never simple. JP Morgan Chase owns the Century Plaza Towers and 2000 Avenue of the Stars. The property is managed by CB Richard Ellis and they have contracted ABM to supply the Janitors that are part of SEIU Local 1877. Tenants have moved out of this prestigious space due to a lag in the economy. Every company right now is examining their cost structure and ABM and CB Richard Ellis decided to cut 16 janitors from their expenses. The 29 janitors that were left walked out in protest and as a result were suspended.

But anybody that thinks this is about 16 janitors, or about ABM or about CB Richard Ellis or about Century City doesn’t really understand America. This isn’t about a bunch of space that isn’t leased and doesn’t need to be cleaned. This is about a bank bailout two years ago. This is anger about unfathomable sums of money being given to companies that were determined to be too big to fail. This is about banks that don’t care about their customers. This is about foreclosures in the wake of those massive bailouts. This is about the promise of America that one of the incredible men at ABM represents. Not too long ago he was the little guy cleaning offices and now he is management. Aaron Cohen and Carey Doss from ABM are now embroiled in a shit-storm that has absolutely nothing to do with them. Yet they find themselves front and center of controversy where other good men and women have stood up and said, “Enough!”

Neither side has the ability to fix what is wrong with America. Neither side is fully right and neither side is fully wrong. The negotiations will not bring satisfaction to either side but we have to look at the process in awe of this great country. We have to look in awe at the democratic process in action. We have to look in awe at the tremendous job done by the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Police Department to keep the fever pitch in check and keep the emotions under control.

I saw the outrage today and I know that humanity may be in trouble but we are going to right what is wrong. I saw American Patriots today on both sides of this important issue choosing peace.
In other parts of the world you hear the mob and it is too late. Here we settle our disputes in courts of law. Here we have protests that are orderly.

Justice For Janitors Protested in Century City. God Bless America for allowing a peaceful demonstration and God Bless the demonstrators, media, police, building managers and security personnel for allowing our American System to function by granting the sacred right to peacefully protest. America may have a myriad of problems but the solution lies in talking about those problems and negotiating resolutions.





Reflections On Century City Protest

by Michael Douglas Carlin

Was it Mayan? Was it Incan? Was it Aztec? It was a ritual… a spiritual ritual. Civil disobedience is a rite of passage for any activist. The arrests were made with dignity. They were made with respect. The police were there doing their job. They didn’t want to be called out into the heat – in full riot gear. They were there protecting the population from a threat. I never once saw a police officer with his or her hand on their gun. I never saw that salivation to escalate things into violence. I witnessed a true measured response. I witnessed activism. I witnessed people who moved the discussion forward by saying, “Wait! This is important. This is something that defines our community. This is something we don’t agree with.”

They gathered in Roxbury Park to make a statement. They marched up and down Avenue of the Stars and chanted in unison so that our community would stop and take note. I heard someone complaining that the permit never should have been granted. All of that traffic stopped… all of those businesses closed down. But what about the people marching and making the statement? They were taking time from their lives. They were making a sacrifice to be here making that statement. They were exercising their right... granted to them as citizens.

In Israel/Palestine the marchers would have been throwing rocks at the police and the police would have been firing rubber bullets or worse. What would have happened in South Africa? Belfast? Serbia? Afghanistan? Sri Lanka? Or Russia? No, granting the permit was the right thing to do. Sacrifices are made on every side of an argument… to keep peace. Marching was the right thing to do. Shooting video and broadcasting was the right thing to do. Taking photos and writing columns was the right thing to do. Civil disobedience was the right thing to do. Now negotiations are the right thing to do. Problem solving is the right thing to do. Working through Mayors, Councilmen, Assemblymen and Senators is the right thing to do. Working in the best interests of citizens is the right thing to do.

The demonstration gathered in the intersection of Constellation and Avenue of the Stars and the protestors marched around in a big circle. A number of protestors sat in a small circle at the center of the intersection. One woman was wearing all white… like the sacrificial lamb of old only this time not a single drop of blood was shed. Her sacrifice was made with dignity and respect. The police moved in and declared this an unlawful assembly. The words were drowned out by the chanting even though they came over a loud speaker. The protestors, that numbered in the many hundreds and may have been even a thousand or more continued their protest but they gave a little ground. The Police took a little ground and an ebb and flow of a dance began. Soon all of the protestors save the sacrificial lambs were on their way back to their lives.

Each of the civilly disobedient was extended the dignity and respect they offered by the civilly servant LAPD. They were read their rights. Their hands were cuffed behind them. They were patted down and their belongings were put into zip-lock bags. They were moved into awaiting vans for transportation to their next phase of their sacrifice. This was a beautiful dance on every side. It was activism. It was outrage – civil outrage. It was the restoration of faith in change. It was the restoration of faith in humanity. It was a spiritual ritual granted by ink on five sheets of paper called the Constitution. America gets criticized for our lack of culture. This was culture’s finest hour.

©2010 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.

FREE BLUE SHOT WITH A CHASE - ER

(This article originally appeared on August 10, 2010 in the Century City News)

by Michael Douglas Carlin

There is an arrogance in a bank that gets $25 billion dollars in TARP Funds and then spends $138 million to purchase two corporate jets and a hanger to house them. That arrogance starts at the top and can flow straight down to the branch manager. In fact, an incident inside the CHASE branch in Century City had a customer escorted out of the bank because he asked for change. The police were not called, no pepper spray was used and no arrests were made. But CHASE said to Sam Sharif, owner of Ummba Grill, we don’t want you here if you are going to be so demanding by asking our branch to keep a stock of five dollar bills around. The branch in the Palisades wants Sharif’s business and the business banker there has had a suitable relationship with Sharif for over six years going back to her time at Citi. Sam from Ummba isn’t the sort of man you would expect to be a trouble maker… in fact, Sam is one of the happiest people in Century City and Ummba has HAPPY HOUR all day on Monday and Tuesday and from 11-7 on Wednesday through Sunday. They offer half off all beers, well drinks and house wines and five dollar appetizers, five dollar specialty drinks, six dollar martinis, and twenty dollar specialty pitchers. Sam was so upset at being escorted out of the bank by security that he began a drink special at Ummba. For every customer that closes an account at CHASE he is offering a free blue shot with a “CHASEer”.


My blood boiled when we bailed out the banks and foreclosed on the little guy. Now that I have talked to the folks at CHASE in the media relations department who stood by the decision to throw Sam out of the bank it is bringing back the anger of the bail out. They are too big to fail. They no longer have to compete so having change for merchants isn’t a concern for CHASE anymore. They can’t lose. They don’t have to write loans. They don’t have to give customer service. Billions of dollars were given to them that they didn’t work for and that has led to this arrogance. I asked the Media Relations guy why they didn’t approach this straight up with Sam and call him up and ask him to take his money to another bank. He said, “We don’t want him to move his money. We just wanted him out of the bank.” That pretty much sums it up. They want our money but they no longer want us around. They no longer want to offer us the products we need. A merchant needs change and I wouldn’t blame Sam for being upset that his bank not only didn’t provide a tool he needed to run his business they refused to provide it and were incensed when he asked for it. The bank is appropriately named CHASE because they CHASE their customers away. It is time that we all stand up and toast Sam who had the audacity to ask for five dollar bills so that he could make change in his restaurant. It is time that we all stood toe to toe with Sam and didn’t wait for CHASE to CHASE us away. It is time that we voted with our dollars and moved all of our money, NATIONWIDE, out of the hands of arrogance and into banks that treat customers with respect and dignity.

They can continue to be arrogant as long as we support that arrogant behavior. I asked the media relations department to call Sam and work something out with him to make him happy because of his mistreatment. I told them that I didn’t want to write this story and that maybe they should offer him change for his restaurant whenever he needs it, or free checking for a year. But in the end all that happened is the two great managers at the Palisades Branch reached out to Sam on a personal level and told him that they stood by him for his loyal patronage and that there was nothing they could do.

Ummba Grill is an icon within Century City and is located at the Century City Mall. Pictured on the front cover is an amazing staff. It is the hip and happening place every summer as they have the best patio in West Los Angeles. Their patio is booked for events nightly and their success has led to large balances that are going to be moving to another bank, pronto. Those large balances are also leading to a second location at the best mall in Los Angeles – Santa Monica Place. This is the American Dream - two men who made good on their investment and won the hearts and stomachs of a finicky crowd to not just please but to exceed every expectation of their customers. Ummba Grill is the best Brazilian Restaurant North of the Border and people come back time and time again. I have held hundreds of events at Ummba and always had the best service from the staff and incredible food. When Abraham McDonald won the Oprah Winfrey Contest his celebration party was at Ummba Grill.

The time has come to focus all of that TARP anger on a single bank. So let’s satisfy that anger by voting with our dollars and pulling every last one of them out of CHASE. Let’s see how arrogant they are when all of their customers have left. If we focus this anger on a single bank, CHASE, we can send a signal to other banks that we are not to be mistreated when we ask for something a bank should provide in our business or in our life. We can send a message that America is a place where you must compete and provide products we need and customer service or we will CHASE you out of our country – that you are not too big to fail. Sam has offered a free shot with a CHASEer, what will other companies offer those that pull funds out of CHASE? Get on board!!!!

Sam is inviting all of Century City to come get a free blue shot with a CHASEer on Wednesday night the 18th of August beginning at 5pm. Come and show your support of Sam as a man who demanded that his bank provide him with change. Come slam your shot and then CHASE it down in support of Sam. Then tweet and retweet this information to all of your friends and families in America so that we can make a statement that banks shouldn’t be incensed when we ask for something we need.

Our Galaxy has 100 billion stars. The Universe has 400 billion galaxies. We can see all of this and have yet to identify a single planet that can sustain life as we enjoy it. We should therefore protect Mother Earth at all costs.

(This article was originally published on July 27th, 2010 in the Century City News)

THE LAST RESORT


Our Galaxy has 100 billion stars. The Universe has 400 billion galaxies. We can see all of this and have yet to identify a single planet that can sustain life as we enjoy it. We should therefore protect Mother Earth at all costs.

Truth exists. The more fully you align yourself with truth the better your life will be. Frustrations come from being out of harmony with truth.
Why Conservatives and Liberals should begin hugging their nearest tree.
I remember being a part of America as a kid and swept away with the newest hit on the airwaves. I must have been one of the first to buy the album, Hotel California. I played that album over and over on my record player. I was warned that I would damage the record but that didn’t stop me from listening to it again and again. I know I thought that I would just go down to the record store and buy another because I was living in the disposable era of America. I am quite sure that I was not alone in discovering what I thought was an obscure tune on the other side of the album called “The Last Resort”. I would sing that song, off key, for hours on end because I connected with the simple meaning.

“Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here.
We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds.
In the name of yesterday and in the name of God.
And you can see them there on Sunday morning.
Stand up and sing about what its like up there.
They call it Paradise, I don’t know why.
Callin’ some place Paradise, kissing it goodbye.”

We, as Humanity, are obsessed with finding PARADISE. Milton’s Paradise Lost, the Bible’s Garden of Eden, Dante’s Inferno all talk about the qualities of PARADISE. There are many names for Paradise: Nirvana, Heaven,Elysian Fields,Tian, or Janna. There have been many great migrations throughout history looking for the greener grass… for Paradise. Columbus gave Europeans the “New World” where men and women could carve out their own personal Paradise. The Vikings migrated to the Mediterranean, Iceland and Greenland as well as the Continent of North America. Today finding our own Paradise has become a little more complicated. Nearly Seven Billion people occupy the planet and every single landmass has been identified and mapped. Today’s flight from our circumstances includes the dream of Space Travel to another Planet. The fact is that there is no place to go. Our neighboring planets are uninhabitable. Our moon is uninhabitable. The only home we know is Earth. The time is upon us as humanity to face this fact and to be careful about the choices we make to keep our home safe and comfortable. At least for the next five billion years.

WHEN I WAS YOUNG I BECAME A MORMON
Like the line from the song I was looking for the grand design. I was searching for answers. I was on a quest to find more. I found the message of the Mormons very interesting in my youth for a number of reasons.
I still have many friends and family in the Mormon Church and have no axe to grind. I still have many beliefs that are couched in Mormonism. Their eleventh article of faith is: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.” I would add to it a provision for the ever growing population of agnostics or atheists to not worship at all.

Star Trek was a popular television series at the time I joined Mormonism. Close Encounters, ET, Alien and Star Wars all created alternate space based realities that appealed to my sense of adventure. I was easily swept up in the belief that there were many planets to visit and that aliens were plentiful.

Mormons have as one of their core beliefs the promise of being good in this life results in a reward that would lead to the right to have your own planet and become a lesser God in charge to design and implement a plan for that planet. I have since thought that entire concept through and have no interest in that much responsibility. Additionally, if there are other planets out there to design we have yet to discover a single instance of a Mormon ruled planet.

A very good friend of mine was the production executive on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. He influenced me by letting me in on a secret that the researchers didn’t want to get out at the time the movie was released and that was that all of their research up to that time had led to the conclusion that there is nothing else out there. Since the release of the movie we have progressed so much. We created the Hubbell Telescope, other ground and space observatories, radio telescopes, sent numerous probes to the four corners of our solar system and we have recorded images millions of light years away. However, so far not a single planet has been discovered that is confirmed to be able to sustain life as we experience it.

THE GOLDILOCKS MISSION
Life is around us in many forms: Viruses, Bacteria, Micro Organisms, flora and fauna. Some life forms can exist in extreme conditions. The possibility that Alien Life Forms exist is highly probable. Stephen Hawkins has warned us that the best course of action with Alien Life Forms is to simply steer clear because of the threat they might pose to Humans if they are found to exist. Space is a gigantic place. The odds of us finding intelligent life before it finds us is rather slim. In the 50’s SETI was formed to find life on other planets. Just how many planets are they looking on?
Let’s look at some numbers. In our own galaxy there are 100 billion stars. In the part of the Universe that we can see there are another 400 billion galaxies. If we assume an average of 3 planets per star that becomes an unfathomable number of planets out in the Universe. Environments that can sustain human life are very rare, even on our own planet. Extreme conditions of floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, are known to take human life. Man made disaster also can destroy life.

We all remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Too hot or too cold, too hard or too soft, too big or too small were all countered with the solution that was just right. Our own planet is “just right”. If we were spinning significantly faster we would be too cold to sustain life, if the earth were spinning significantly slower we would be too hot during the day and too cold at night to sustain life. We are also just right when it come to distance from the Sun. A little more distance from the Sun and we would be too cold and a little more near the Sun and we would be too hot.
Water is another element necessary to sustain life. Too much water and there is no ability to sustain life, too little water and there also is no ability to sustain life. Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide are elements that sustain life, as are plants,nutrients, animals, and insects, microorganisms, viruses, bacteria, minerals and sunlight. Each element is important to the overall ecosystem.
“The Goldilocks Mission is the first dedicated organization to set, as its goal, the travel to and the colonization of another truly livable planet when it is discovered. This may take many decades before this mission leaves earth and possibly many more, depending on future developments and discoveries in propulsion in space and time travel, before it arrives at its new home.”
-Dr. Spencer Brown

Criteria for a sustainable planet:
1. A star in the same class as our sun or perhaps a red dwarf.
2. Dense planet like our Earth.
3. High metallic content.
4. Not too hot or too cold.
5. Enough water but not too much water.
6. Plate tectonics and geological activity.
7. Presence of Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen.
8. Absence of noxious gases or acids in concentrated amounts.
9. Absence of noxious bacteria.
10. Absence of noxious viruses.
11. Foundation for complex chemistry.

To further complicate the search for a place to go is the fact that even though we have developed the ability to get into Space we have no means to travel the, perhaps, hundreds of million light years away to get there. The myth that there is a place to go will elude us for thousands of years at best.

If we do find a place to go and we develop the means to get there we will have to wrestle with the moral issue of displacing other life forms to preserve our own existence.

TIME IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT COMMODITY
We have a home right now called Earth and time is ticking away.

EARTH DAY
There was a method to the madness of walking two Llamas from Mann’s Chinese Theater, in Hollywood to Century City. The entire endeavor was without any commercial interests. One day a year we have a day that honors our great home, Mother Earth. One day a year it is O.K. to have our motivations be about not profiting but giving back. Our goal was to honor Earth Day…not just any Earth Day but the 40th anniversary of a day dedicated to being grateful for a place to be. Our Home. Brett Stevens, Stuart Wilde and I walked with the Llamas and traffic stopped to photograph us in Los Angeles with these majestic animals.
I got a telephone call from my son when he saw the picture on the AP wire. He was mocking me for walking with the Llamas calling me the tree hugger that I am. I silenced him with a few words. We wanted to send a message that people could walk more and drive less. Emits less exhaust, saves precious oil, costs less, takes traffic off the road and burns calories – I don’t see anything here you are against. In fact I don’t see anything here anybody is against. Everybody I know of all political persuasions wants a clean environment. No one wants one industry to cause other industries to perish due to pollution. In fact, all of us want people to take responsibility for their own actions – good or bad.

An environmental disaster caused thousands of birds to perish. The oil spill widened being carried by winds and swells. Seals and dolphins were washing up on shore dead with oil clogging the blowholes of the dolphins leading to a painful and horrific lung hemorrhaging. The BP spill you ask? No, this was the oil spill of 1969 which was the impetus to getting momentum behind the very first Earth Day. Said Fred L. Hartley, President of Union Oil Company: “I don’t like to call it a disaster, because there has been no loss of human life. I am amazed at the publicity for the loss of a few birds.”

Forty years later we have coinciding with the celebration of Earth Day another major environmental disaster that threatens the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The oil will virtually kill the fishing industry in the area and the toll to bird wildlife will be catastrophic. There was the loss of life in this disaster and Tony Hayward said to the Guardian Newspaper, “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean: The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” If we don’t hold them accountable they try to minimize the effect and skip responsibility.

Now is the time for all Americans to come together to prevent disasters of this magnitude. In Los Angeles we have representatives from every single country in the world. The most diverse population that has ever existed resides within our city limits. We have the ability to turn 2011 into the biggest Earth Day ever to march from downtown Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier with our Llamas in tow to create an International Earth Day where men and women from all cultures, political affiliations, religions, and walks of life celebrate our home on Earth without any commercialization of the event. After the successful march we could have the participants reach back to their homelands to encourage participation from every recognized nation on the globe.

Senator Gaylord Nelson created the first Earth Day. We congratulate him on this accomplishment. We can make the day much more meaningful by following in his footsteps. We can use our own footsteps to honor the only home we have ever known and the only home that we can see with our monster telescopes that can sustain life as we know it.

Thomas Storke spoke after the Santa Barbara Spill, “Never in my long lifetime have I ever seen such an aroused populace at the grassroots level. This oil pollution has done something I have never seen before in Santa Barbara – it has united citizens of all political persuasions in a truly nonpartisan cause.”

We can give meaning to the loss of life – flora and fauna by coming together on April 22, every year and honoring our home – Mother Earth. Who will march with us on this Earth Day? We are making plans to celebrate Earth Day in 2011 with another Llama Walk and we invite all to join us.

© 2010 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.