by Amy Reichert
www.ReOpenSD.org
San Diegan since 1972
Have you ever read LBJ’s biography, The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson?
It’s ok if you haven’t. After all, Volume 1 is 960 pages! The question is, did Nathan Fletcher read it before putting a Viva LBJ poster in his room?
You see…
LBJ used ruthless and unrelenting fear in his rise to power. So maybe Nathan Fletcher read it after all?
The Coronavirus was Fletcher’s opportunity of a timeline. After years of unremarkable political mediocrity Nathan saw his one chance to cut through a path to power and he went for it. Finally, Nathan Fletcher would get Gavin Newsom’s attention and political favor. Using 100s of millions of dollars, Fletcher used CARES Act funding to fill the coffers of the county government at the expense of drowning local businesses.
How did Fletcher get away with this?
Fear.
Good leaders & bad ones alike know that fear is the #1 persuasive tool.
Good ones say things like, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
Bad ones knowingly incite people’s fears. Let’s take a look at Nathan’s Fletcher’s social media…
Remember the hysteria of the UK variant in San Diego that never was? Nathan Fletcher’s Christmas & Hanukkah message was, “Be afraid, be very afraid!!”
And this gem…
After scolding us for months about social distancing, Nathan Fletcher cajoled this local small business owner that it wasn’t the government’s fault that a San Diego business of 80 years was closing down forever, while get this, not social distancing…
As you know, when this video was taken in December, San Diego ICU beds were at normal capacity. Ventilators? We were fine. PPE supply? Fine. There never was a justifiable reason for a state of emergency here in San Diego County that kept schools shuttered for over a year with many still not back in school as of May, 2021.
Nathan Fletcher could have stood up to Gavin Newsom and demanded local control, but that’s hard to do when you are trying to get your wife, Lorena Gonzalez appointed to a vacant U.S. Senate seat
in California.
At ReOpen San Diego we want to thank Nathan Fletcher for our path to power too.
As we watched our kids suffer, ReOpen San Diego started as a small group of Moms and Dads in Balboa Park. We met by the Botanical Gardens on the lawn because our kids had been trapped in front of screens and many of them had not even played with other kids in months.
We gathered to create a safe community for them and for us too. To process what the extended government lockdowns were doing to our children, our livelihoods and our sense of place in the world.
We all agreed our local government officials were not hearing our voices while ignoring the scientific proof that our children were becoming the biggest victim of extended government shutdowns.
We saw how Supervisor Fletcher used every opportunity to obey Governor Newsom instead of the people.
We organized and did what we thought we should do. We called into San Diego County Board of Supervisors meetings but our calls were ignored.
We attended Board of Supervisors meetings online and heard San Diegan say things like…
“I am losing my business because of the open-shut-open-shut lockdowns by the government and I am 9 months behind on my mortgage.”
On one call to the County Board of Supervisors, a man spoke in Spanish as he cried he could not feed his family because the restaurant he worked at was shut down. As you know, the state was sending unemployment benefits to organized crime syndicates in prison and fraudsters in the Ukraine. Meanwhile, regular working stiffs in San Diego couldn’t even get through on the EDD hotline.
“Por favor, ayúdame, necesito comida para mi familia,” the man cried.
Caller after caller, after caller. Hundreds of them poured in. Why were San Diegans who were suffering being ignored?
Politics and money.
Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into San Diego from Federal CARES Act monies. The state made greedy local politicians an offer they could not refuse. This money was dispensed and controlled by Gavin Newsom. If the County did not comply with the directives of the state, Gavin Newsom said he would withhold CARES Act money and even worse claw it back.
We had so much CARES Act money the County set up a COVID test site at the Pedestrian East border crossing. No wonder our case numbers were so high?
Did it have to be this way?
No.
Not every county acted as authoritarian as San Diego under Fletcher. He demanded more and more enforcement while other counties throughout the state stood up for the people and declared they would protect the constitution over politics and money. Fletcher even directed Sheriffs to go into small businesses. Businesses who refused to submit were slammed with Cease & Desist Orders, were shamed and then publicly posted on the county website. Fletcher even encouraged his minions to call the County Snitch line on their friends, neighbors, local small businesses and even family for the crime of having a BBQ in their backyard. Now we know outdoor transmission is .1% according to epidemiologists quoted in the New York Times.
Fletcher told other people to follow the science while he was actually not following the science. Fletcher used fear mongering to make San Diego one of the most shutdown counties in the entire United States.
At Reopen San Diego, we have been challenging these unconstitutional actions by our local and state officials and asking for local control over how San Diego should respond to conditions here rather than Sacramento every step of the way…
On April 6th, ReOpen San Diego had a “Let Us In Rally!” at the County Administration building.
The “CEO of San Diego,” Nathan Fletcher, still kept the people from addressing him and our elected officials in person, even though Orange County, Riverside and San Bernardino were open.
The sad irony during the height of shut downs was that Fletcher demanded that houses of worship and businesses operate outdoors in winter, but the County Supervisors limited the people to calling in or submitting comments.
Spoiler alert: The supervisors do not read your comments. You may as well go to the top of Cowles Mountain and yell your complaints to the wind.
Today, Tuesday, May 18, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors will reopen to the people. Our rally worked!
ReOpen San Diego will be there. I hope you will too. All are welcome.
We will continue to exist as long as the County enforces unconstitutional public health orders by unelected officials and Gavin Newsom has state of emergency powers or he is recalled — whichever comes first.
At ReOpen San Diego, we also like the sound of “Recall Fletcher.”
Amy Reichert
Amy@ReOpenSD.org