I’m working on a “2007: San Diego’s Politicial Year In Review” style piece for the last CityBeat of this Años. If you, loyal readers, have any suggestions for what you think the most important political events of ‘07 were, send in a comment. Otherwise your stuck with my wizened wisdom.
Meanwhile, in researching the piece (what happened in January, ‘07, anyway? Did Dick Murphy resign? It all blurs together over time…) I was reminded of a pivotal moment of leadership this year that had almost slipped my feeble mind. Hour magazine (described as Montreal’s English language urban weekly–kind of a Canuck CityBeat) has issued its twelth annual list of “Zeroes to Heroes”: those who have either distinguished or disgraced themselves on matters GL&T. Listed as one of the heroes was our own Gentleman Jerry:
Hero: Republican San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, who – with his beaming lesbian daughter, Lisa Sanders, by his side – abruptly and very publicly changed his position on gay marriage at a Sept. 19 press conference, then signed a city council resolution urging the California Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage.
It was probably Jerry’s finest mayoral moment. The irony is, of course, that, like Mitt Romney in his “I am a Christian, too!” speech, Sanders will now have to kiss up to the very same narrow minded people who were offended by his embracing his daughter to help win the June primary. Better, perhaps, would be for him to have another shining moment and say to such people: “I don’t need your vote. I don’t want your vote, I’d be ashamed to receive your vote. And I will win without your vote.”
But, outside of Frank Capra movies, such shining moments are few and far between. You can’t really knock Jerry if he doesn’t have another. At least he’s had one. Which is one more than most in politics.
