Winston Churchill said he loved a man who grins while he’s fighting. With that in mind, last week I asked Commissioner Randy Leonard to clarify what he meant by this statement in the Oregonian:

“What I do not want to do is take a group of well-meaning citizens and throw them under the bus again. We’ve already done that once to the Chavez committee,” Leonard said. “What we need is not just five random thoughtful community leaders, but five folks who are recognized instantly for their contributions, have been through the political wars and are prepared for the job we’re asking them to do.”

I wondered out loud whether he might have meant “white people.” Because to me, “five random thoughtful community leaders” was referring to the original committee co-chaired by two Latinos. And what Commissioner Leonard wants is a more politically effective committee, with a lower proportion of Latinos on it.
TODAY’S OREGONIAN CARTOON: Nailed it…

That’s where things turned ugly. I specifically said in the post I was not accusing Commissioner Leonard of racism, merely asking for clarification, to which he responded in the comments:

Would that be like me asking you about your realationship with your wife, Matt, and then ending with

“Please don’t think I am accusing you of beating your wife, because I’m not.”

Well, la-de-dah! That’s an interesting question, Randy. Let me be clear: I enjoy an intellectual debate as much as the next man. But sometimes, I just like to fight. Although not with my wife, of course, because she’d leave me if I so much as threatened to hit her.

So. I called Commissioner Leonard to tell him “it’s on,” and to bring his boxing gloves, but he ended up changing my mind a little. He said “I think what has happened is that Tom Potter has empowered moderate people to believe there must be something to their most dark suspicions that Portlanders are racist—the term has been thrown around with reckless abandon to the point where the true racists have been empowered.”

I asked him what he thought of Maria Lisa Johnson’s letter to the community last week, and he responded by saying she “has gotten to the point, watching Tom Potter, where he’s sent a message that even the council having a thoughtful discussion of alternatives was, in his words, “disgusting to him.”” Hmm. Perhaps Johnson reached her conclusions on her own?

Potter, Leonard seems to think, has framed the discussion in a way that there are winners and losers, consensus has been ignored, and the debate is no longer about Cesar Chavez. Exactly! It’s about fighting! It’s about violence! I’m RELISHING IT. But there has to be a point at which we wonder whether fighting, for the sake of it, is really worthwhile. Or, as Leonard puts it, whether “this debate stopped being about Cesar Chavez a long time ago.”

You know, part of me would really like to see Interstate renamed. Part of me would really enjoy going up there and putting fake new street-signs on the “Interstate” ones, just to cause trouble. But I guess that’s because I hate consensus, and I hate resolutions…I like to fight.

Speaking of fights, Leonard seems determined to make this one about facing down Tom Potter. Asked how it’s going to end, he would only speculate, “I don’t think anybody is going to win or feel good.”

Welcome to Portland’s new democracy. Where you can take your polite consensus, and shove it right down your liberal democratic throat. Isn’t it just fantastic!?!