Los Angeles County Redistricting may carve up the Valley and threaten it's identity.

Fellow Valleyites, are you ready to have your voice in Los Angeles County divided muffled by division?  If not, you better be ready to speak up and speak up loudly!

Los Angeles County redistricting is about to be finalized.  One plan, supported by Supervisors Knabe, Antonovich, and Yaroslavsky, would be largely like the current plan, with about 200,000 or 2% of all County citizens changing districts.  Two other plans, introduced by Supervisors Molina and Ridley-Thomas, respectively, would split the San Fernando Valley into disconnected pieces that would divide the Valley into parts of three disparate districts.  My own home would be placed in a district that would include an area including Long Beach.  Citizens could be represented by a Supervisor that they did not vote for and this might not change for 5 years.  Is that representation?

The rationale stated for the Molina and Thomas plans shown in this article is that Los Angeles County is about 48% Latino so there should be at least two districts with a majority of Latino voters.  The fallacy in this argument is the premise that race determines representation.  I look at things currently and I see that the City of Los Angeles currently has a Latino Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Los Angeles County currently has a Latino Sherriff, Lee Baca.  Geographic or racial gerrymandering were not part of their elections.  

You don't need to stack racial decks to have representation.  True racial or ethnic equality is blind to race or ethnicity.  And creating districts according to race or ethnicity is a slap in the face of every citizen, no matter who they are, because it assumes that you are so simplistic that you only view candidates in racial or ethnic terms.

If you believe that representation in government for communities should not be based on race or religion or creed, then I ask you to help me help our Valley.  If you believe that government should be color-blind, then I ask you to help me help our Valley and our County.

There is a public hearing this coming Tuesday on County Redistricting with a final vote set for later this month.  Please contact the County Board of Supervisors and let them know you will not accept plans that divide our communities.  Tell Supervisors Molina and Ridley-Thomas that they were elected to represent Angelenos, and to do so in a color-blind manner.  Tell Supervisor Yarovslavsky you support his stand against racial and ethnic bias in redistricting.  

AND YOU NEED TO SPEAK UP NOW!