I think Rev. Byron William's comments in this article that loss of political power in regards to minorities displacing native-born American workers is one of the most dishonest things the Reverend has written in this paper and is in direct contradiction to his work with the Clean mOney campaign which I read previously in the Oakland Tribune he is a part of.  To say that loss of political power should be a "personal reflection" and not a political one is incredibly disingenous.  Every time President Bush signs an illegal signing statement and attaches it to a piece of legislation Congress has passed deciding which parts of a bill he will honor and which he won't, the constitution has been violated in this country.

Every time money flows from wealthy businesses and individuals outside the State of California and finances petition gatherers to gather signatures for state-wide referendums to get legislation passed, bypassing the State legislature, political power o f the people in this process which was initiated as a populist not monied process, is lost.

We are seeing record levels of spending in every political race in this country.  It doesn't take a politically sophisticated person to understand that big monied corporations control the immigration policy or lack of enforcement in this country.  Competition between unskilled workers for service jobs and in the construction industry is real.  You are not  going to be able to address the problems if you are in political denial about whether or not they exist. 

In the same vein, racial disharmony, resentments, bigotry, envy and competition seems  to be at all time highs in Oakland  despite official and unofficial pronouncements by both liberal politicians and media pundits in Oakland.  And the flames of this disharmony are sown constantly in dishonest political analyses as to causation in this newspaper and elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see how long this comment stays in this forum.  The Oakland Tribune has stamped out all dissenting views in its articles, and news coverage in favor of yet another impotent administration in Oakland.  So much for the free press in this country-- another myth which has gone by the wayside along with  so-called political power held by the citizenry.