Small but Vocal Demonstration Greets Governor

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

June 15 -- It was eerily quiet around Santa Monica College an hour before Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger was scheduled to arrive for the commencement ceremony of the class of 2005.

Traffic in the neighborhood was lighter than normal for a Tuesday afternoon, and only a helicopter circling the campus hinted that something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

A little before 5 p.m. a small group began to assemble in the campus parking lot at 19th and Pico where Cindy Vitto was preparing picket signs with slogans like "Unions Yes Arnold No" and "Return the $2 Billion to Schools" to protest the governor's visit.

"They said the volunteers distributed 150,000 flyers or something like that, so we'll see what happens," said Vitto, who hoped the demonstration would be a success.

Protesters gather in campus parking lot. (Photos by Frank Gruber)

Then the dozen or so protestor picked up their signs, walked to the edge of the parking lot facing Pico and lifted them for passing cars to see.

A couple of the cars honked. A young woman on roller blades wearing a tank-top and carrying a “No Arnold” sign above her head zipped down the sidewalk as others arrived to join in.

But the thousands of protestors that many had predicted never materialized. At its peak, the demonstration only numbered in the mid-hundreds. But what they lacked in numbers, the demonstrators did their best to make up for in noise and spirit.

"Schwarzenegger we're no fools. Keep your promises to our schools," they chanted. "Hey governor, you're a liar. Keep it up and you'll be fired."

Schwarzenegger's visit to Santa Monica College came one day after he called a special election to put his economic policies before the voters, policies his critics charge rob students and workers, but which he contends are necessary to return the state to fiscal health..

From an elevated patio near the 19th Street parking lot, Charles Lester of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor denouced the governor’s proposal.

"We not only have to defeat these initiatives, we have to defeat this whole power grab,” Lester said. "So this is not a fight of just the public employees.

“This is a fight for all of California,” Lester said. “We're going to defeat these initiatives and send the governor home.”

Scwharzenegger has been under increasing attack from unions since he unveiled his budget plans in January and has been picketed repeatedly by teachers, firefighters and other public employees.

"Governor Arnold Scwharzenegger, stop the rhetoric,” said Kenneth Mason, a teacher at SMC and one of the protest’s main organizers.

“Stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of our students, on the backs of the middle class, on the poor," he said, echoing the view of other speakers.

The governor raised tuition on public college students but not taxes on the wealthy, said Mason, likening Scwharzenegger’s policies to a "Robin Hood horror film" where the governor "steals from the poor and gives to the rich."

School Board member Oscar de la Torre gives speech.

School Board member Oscar De La Torre, who acted as emcee, warned of the dire impacts of the governor’s cuts.

"I think it's really important to remember that these cuts in education means less opportunity for our youth,” said de la Torre, who is executive director of the Pico Youth and Family Center.

"And when people have less opportunity they have less hope. And when there is less hope there is more self-destruction and an increase in violence,” he said. “So, in the end, the governor is contributing to a less safe community."

Four past Santa Monica mayors took part in the demonstration: Paul Rosenstein, James Conn, Judy Abdo and Michael Feinstein, a Green Party member who said none of this would be happening if Pete Camejo had been elected governor.

From left: Former mayors Judy Abdo, Paul Rosenstein, James Conn and Michael Feinstein

If Camejo had won, Feinstein said, "We would be learning how justice improves everything.”

Not everyone who showed up on Pico Boulevard with a sign came to protest the governor. A few came to protest the protestors.

Nearby, amid television camera trucks with antennas extended, was Ray Blumhurst who said he retired after 16 years working for the college as its mechanical systems and energy management supervisor. Blumhurst said he had been discriminated against by female faculty members.

“I say 'keep your hate to yourself,'" said Blumhurst, standing in front of his pick-up truck adorned with American flags and a large billboard that read, "Man Hating Feminist Lies Harm Us All."

At the 17th Street entrance to the campus, a young man with a PA system in a shopping cart and a woman with a bullhorn led the crowd of some 200 in chants from opposite sides of the street.

"Money for jobs and education. Not for wealthy corporations," they chanted.

A woman and her daughter who live nearby said they saw the governor enter the campus from the South side off Pearl street.

"It was a black car with tinted windows and there were police on motorcycles," the older woman said. But she did not actually see who was inside.

"When Clinton came he got out and shook hands," she said. "He was so cute. But Republicans have to hide behind dark windows."

Earlier, a cheer went up when about a half dozen faculty donning black robes and mortar-boards joined the group before heading to Corsair Field for the ceremony.

One of them, Greg Brookins, and accounting teacher at the college said he was "just trying to give my voice to the students and the difficulties they have going here in light of the budget cuts.

"As faculty, we just need to have a presence here," he said.