Ah, dirty politics. Even though it’s as American as apple pie and as common as mud, the attempted smear against City Council candidate Roy van de Hoek by Stern/Barovsky attack-dog Lloyd Ahern in your pages (“Let the record speak”) was so redolent, the fumes have wafted well beyond the bounds of Malibu proper. Ahern may have seriously miscalculated in underestimating just how well known is van de Hoek’s single act of civil disobedience that exposed BLM mismanagement at Carrizo Plain and was instrumental in its subsequent designation as a National Monument.
Before giving any weight to the absurdist version of events proffered by Mr. Ahern and the big development interests who hold his leash, readers should bear in mind a truism: Roy beat the bad guys, and bad guys bite back. The Bureau of Land Management concocted any charge they could think up in seeking vengeance against van de Hoek as a whistle-blower. He was defended under the laws protecting same, and later re-hired by the Dept. of the Interior. The BLM narrative of his case as peddled hopefully by Ahern and his political masters bears as much resemblance to reality as a Selma, Alabama, police blotter on the crimes of Martin Luther King. Civil disobedience is the right of all human beings who have no other recourse by which to right a wrong. Those who act in its noble tradition demonstrate an extraordinary degree of courage, character, and personal commitment in asserting values beyond money. They are rightly honored in history and widely admired, except by those who just don’t get it. What Mr. Ahern mistakes for a blot on Mr. van de Hoek’s record is a badge of honor.
Malibu voters can practice another noble American tradition come election time: Take the measure of just how scared the special interests are of the candidate they have clumsily attacked, elect the best man for the job, and hand Mr. van de Hoek’s grasping, desperate opponents the defeat they have earned.
Andrew Christie