Hang On, Sloopy

Tomorrow Eydie and I will walk down to nearly Lake Merritt and join hands with a hoped-for 5-10 thousand others, ringing the Lake and thereby symbolizing community unity in Oakland.

Which we don't have: Ignacio De La Fuente, who is the president of our city council and who is Hispanic, was heckled and insulted, and urged to resign, earlier this week during what was supposed to be a sober and uplifting swearing in of our new mayor, the legendary former congressman Ron Dellums.

Who is black. So, I hear, were most of the hecklers.

Ignacio ran for mayor and got whacked pretty good. Some thought the contest had a racial component, coming as it did in the aftermath of eight years of the White Zombie, Jerry Brown. (Number me among the some.)

It's always the same argument in Oakland, no matter what the color of the Mayor's skin or the particular twist of his accent. Are we spreading the wealth and raising all boats or divvying up the spoils and adding a vessel or two to the yacht armada?

So we will stand still and hold hands. But such vague public acts may lead to something substantive, or so we must hope. Whatever happens, it will be something to blog about.