"For the People Jobs Initiative"

Job Fairs, Town Hall meetings, help putting together a resume, the nuts and bolts of finding a job, ... It's ALL work, folks.  Maxine Waters has done the Charlie Rangel and cried to her fellow leaders to "hold us back or unleash the CBC."  In my mind, the Congressional Black Congress should not even exist, yet this woman - who like Nancy Pelosi - has enjoyed invincibility getting re-elected in her California Congressional District while she wreaks havoc with the stability, substance and decency of the Economic Opportunity available to her Constituency.

Unlike Pelosi, Maxine represents virtually ONLY people of color, a mere 10% of CA-35 is white while fully 47% are Hispanic and 34%  black all of whom "enjoy" an average annual income of about $32,000. Their Congresswoman is fleecing her constituents - not unlike the recently deposed Speaker.


This district, formed in 1970 has, at times, included parts of Orange and San Bernardino. Targeted 7 times in 23 years for redistricting, the shuffle and shift a conflagration of California Wild Fires of political opportunism was finally "Ghetto-locked" into a readily controlled police state known as South L.A. over which the "Office" of socialist, Waters, has exerted political clout since 1993. Re-elected 10 times, Waters has joined the ranks of seniority in Congress that should qualify her loyal Constituents for some sort of "pork" yet we wonder where it goes. I took some classes at the Allegheny County Community College while "serving" on Unemployment back in the 90's - about the time Maxine arrived on Capitol Hill. The branch was on Pittsburgh's North Side (Old Allegheny; Millionaire's row, now a reclaimed slum and "Project" site.) Although a well-designed building complex, there were areas where a student could not walk the halls without being bombarded with flyers, signage and banners urging them to reject drugs, get help and know the dangers of drug use. I gotta tell you; the "culture" of this community was screaming through this "motivational" artwork and it so creeped me out that I switched to the North Hills branch for the next semester. Between that and the 'African' art, I simply could not relate, relax or realize my "potential." "Geez!" I thought. "They are so cocooned in their own cultural slant that they are as though blinded by baloney." At the time, I was doing classes in Word Perfect, Computer Programming (which kicked my butt) Lotus 1-2-3 (both of these programs were ultimately replaced in the mainstream by Word and Excel, respectively.)   But as I look at Roger Williams, Texan, Candidate for Congress and Republican, I begin to understand.  Like the White Tail deer population in the country, the voters who support such leadership are oblivious to the bustle of traffic on the freeway heading to the suburbs: they have carved out a community within a community that permits them to congeal into a collective of passive, indifferent, self-centereds who simplify their lives by gaming the system for the wherewithal to trade government scrip for privacy in their otherwise 'to-be-avoided' neighborhood.  At night, gunfire and shootings plague this part of the city, known as the Manchester District, and the residents there, while lovely and diligent, are infiltrated with low-life who live, virtually off those whom - I believe - attend Community College and buy their drugs.  Unlike in the Oakland area, home of Pitt University and Medical Center, the North Side is Heinz Field, PNC Park, Rivers Casino and the main branch of the Post Office, UPS, Port Authority Mass Transit, the Carnegie Science Center and Allegheny General and Divine Providence Hospitals - substantive employers and resources surrounded by blight.   On weekends, there is no more 'traditional' neighborhood; the Mexican War Streets teeming with Peace Corps alums who have done beautiful restorations of the grand town-homes, Southern-style barbecue chefs operating hole-in-the-wall establishments preserving techniques unique to contemporary business models, Bed & Breakfasts in old churches and monasteries.  Cart vendors offer Italian Ice, popcorn and refreshments but, unlike the Hill District, there is little night life beyond the river banks.

Thus my perception of Maxine Waters' district is difficult.  I would have to actually go there and see it for myself.  Waters has, over her ten terms, acquired some political weight, having served on committees and garnered notoriety as a derided socialist.  Her work in Congress is Afro-Centric as she is focused on issues of particular importance to African -Americans while her district is virtually HALF Latino.  Given the ethics charges brought against her, exposing her husband's banking connections (hey, Max, didn't you initially endorse Hillary then switch to the Wall Street Whipping Boy when the deal cutting with the Banking Industry got serious?), today's Fox & Friends interview with Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. is particularly poignant.  Commenting on Waters' words "As far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell." King observed that Maxine is simply not doing her job.    King observes that if Maxine would tell the truth about all the issues impacting every community, not limited to the African American community, "We'd be a littler happier with what she's doing."  What's up with these politicians who have their heads so spun into a dither over race that they are incapable of just looking around themselves and seeing with awareness?