Pulling the Plug

It’s like Supervisor Yvonne Burke said earlier this year when yet another horror was discovered at King-Drew. “Somebody,” she said, forgetting perhaps that it was she who for years defended the hospital’s shaky record, “has really got to get on the ball here.”

But who? There is plenty of opportunity to criticize the Board of Supervisors, especially after Tuesday’s typically endless meeting that even Fox News abandoned in despair.

But the people of the county put them there, and keep tabs on them, and choose to get excited about the seal and its cross — or in the case of the city of Signal Hill, the oil derricks that are going to be removed, and in the case of Pomona, the goddess Pomona — instead of the welfare of our neighbors.

Voters do pay attention on occasion. Witness for example the vote to impose a tax on themselves to beef up trauma facilities (like the one now slated for closure at King-Drew). And voters may well approve an additional tax later this fall to fund Baca’s jails and Sheriff’s deputies.

But it’s not enough. The people, through their county government, provide for the people least able to care for themselves, and are responsible for their decisions.

If, then, a new seal is to be adopted, there are perhaps more appropriate choices for symbols than a mission that looks like a Taco Bell.

For example, an ambulance driving past a shuttered hospital. Or a jail inmate lying prone behind bars. Or an abused child, being forced to chase after a federal dollar bill. Or a county citizen, protecting the old seal.

We may lose the patient, the inmate and the child. But we can still hang on to that seal.