Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' downward spiral

No one in America is immune from financial disaster. Here is an American hero, I think, who migrated up the political chain of command to Congressman and then traveled back to his roots in Oakland to become mayor once again. There are some things wrong with this picture, tragedy brewing that might make a good script and screenplay, and a story filled with lessons learned for a new generation.

The title: What’s Right and What Went Wrong with Ron Dellums?

Let’s dispense with the current situation and observation upon which we might return in the end. If Ron Dellums was like a lot of politicians in Washington, on the take, as many suspects, then where is that money now? Just maybe Ron Dellums was as clean as a whistle and as true and devoted to righteous causes as he claimed and as many of us believed, and still do.

Today, Ron is 75 years old and is managing a complex city, with all of the challenges of a racially and culturally diverse urban area with all of the problems that come with it, crime and unemployment being foremost. Ron filled the shoes of Jerry Brown, former governor, who also down-stepped to take this city job.

Some might be critical about this down-stepping because it impedes the forward progress of other, younger candidates. If that were the case, why didn’t they show up in force? Perhaps they didn’t because being the mayor of Oakland requires leaders with a unique combination of abilities: political engineering, community organizing, intense enthusiasm and compassion.

Ron was influenced by his father, a longshoreman, and his famous uncle, C. L. Dellums who organized The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

His personal history is an example of steady, incremental, forward progress. While his married life isn’t so great, what with several wives and one son in jail for murder serving a life sentence, he stood against the war in Vietnam, he stood for women’s’ rights and equality for African Americans and other minorities, and he brought home the bacon for his community.

So, today, Ron is just struggling like the rest of us to hang onto what we have. It seems to me that public stewardship of his kind might deserve a bailout, but that won’t happen to the working stiffs like us.