Forever unmatched
Guest commentary by Nina Shelley

Jim Loebl was a gifted and generous man, devoted to his family, friends and his beloved city of Ojai. His legacy of public service will be an inspiration to many. By example, he set very high standards for public service and taught us the value of vision in leadership and the desire and ability to serve with honor, integrity, honesty, commitment, compassion, good will and heart.

Early in my 16-year tenure on the City Council, I became aware of the knowledge, wisdom and dedication Jim Loebl brought to his decisions. He was clear and direct, never a nitpicker, open and honest, fair and knowledgeable of the law and human nature. He was generous in his praise of others, often commending publicly a colleague, a staff member or a member of the public for their participation in resolving an important issue. However, always professional and courteous, he always knew very well how to stand firm on an issue about which he had an informed opinion. He seldom changed his position, but at such times, win or lose, he was most often right.

Jim Loebl was the consummate protector and defender of his beloved city. By word or deed he succeeded in preventing changes which would have destroyed the city, its beauty and the quality of life we enjoy today. He was rightly critical of those who seek status, wealth and praise for projects unsuited to Ojai.

As a colleague, I will always remember those early days in which I turned to Jim for support of my efforts to get the city of Ojai to recognize and support the arts and the artists for their cultural and substantial contribution to the economy of the city. Without Jim's agreement and support, we would likely not have our valuable Arts Commission today. He also strongly supported my very controversial proposal that the position of mayor be rotated annually, giving each of the five council members the benefit of that experience. These are but two examples of beneficial changes supported by Jim Loebl and which have lasting value in the governance of the community. The instances of positive changes supported by Jim are numerous.

Working with Jim Loebl was to enjoy his ever-ready wit and great sense of humor, which rescued more than one City Council meeting stalled in settling an issue at 11 p.m. He was also a wonderful storyteller. Out of his rich treasury of political experience came great stories which invariably ended on a humorous, if not hilarious, note.

Devoted and generous, Jim Loebl stood very tall as a man and as a citizen, not because of his impressive height, but because of his character. I treasure and revere that which I learned from him and am immensely grateful to have had the privilege to work with him as a colleague and to call him "friend." He was a man who demonstrated a kind of love for Ojai and its people which will likely remain forever unmatched.

Nina Shelley is an environmentalist, activist, former U.S. Marine, Ojai mayor and City Council member.

Views pointed
Bret Bradigan, OVN publisher

Whether you are viewing the grand sweep of history or the impassioned debates at city council or the county supervisors about traffic or development, it becomes clear that seldom do two people see the same issue or event through the same perspective. As in "Rashomon," viewpoints are as varied as the observers.

While we are all products of our experience and temperament, these great gulfs of political opinions roughly divide into two groups: those who believe in the perfectability of man, and those who don't. Let's further state, for the sake of argument, if not of clarity, that the divide is between those who follow a Hobbesian view of our species as nasty and brutish, and those who believe Martin Luther King Jr.'s stirring dream.

Thomas Sowell, conservative writer, Hoover fellow and, like me, a big fan of prophet Eric Hoffer, has called these tendencies the "Utopian View," and the "Tragic View." Steven Pinker, in his provocative "The Blank Slate," wrote, "Not every ideological struggle fits this scheme, but as we say in social science, he has identified a factor that can account for a large proportion of the variance." Expressing the tragic view, Immanuel Kant wrote, "From the crooked timber of humanity, no truly straight thing can be made." Expressing the utopian view, Robert Kennedy, borrowing from George Bernard Shaw, said, "Some people see things as they are and ask 'why?" I dream things that never were and ask 'why not?'"

The tragic view lines up mostly with conservatives, while the utopian view fits best with most liberal thought. And these are prisms through which we see the world. Pinker wrote, "The right-left axis aligns an astonishing collection of beliefs that at first glance seem to have nothing in common." For instance, people with strong religious beliefs are usually tough on crime, favor lower taxes and strong military, and are patriotic, family-oriented free marketeers. People who favor affirmative action and welfare programs are often pacifists, environmentalists, and secularists.

For conservatives, institutions such as church and family are all that stand between us and our raw nature. For liberals, these institutions smack of backward paternalism and stand between us and the expansion of our moral centers and the decrease of destructive tribalism.

For my part, as a journalist and student of human nature, I have witnessed firsthand shocking inhumanity, greed and destructive self-absorption, I have seen people shamelessly rationalize their most venal acts as somehow selfless, and I have precious few illusions left about the "perfectability" of man. Cynicism is my armor. It can also be, I recognize, a barrier to seeing those moments when people truly do act not for today and themselves, but for tomorrow and for all mankind. And I recognize that had the tragic view prevailed throughout history, slavery, apartheid, segregation, unchecked pollution, women's bondage to the home, and absolute monarchy would still be the norm and not the exception. But I also see the excess of enthusiasm about the engineering of human nature leading down a path from Rousseau through Thomas Paine to Joe Stalin.

So while I naturally incline toward the tragic view - as George Carlin put it: "If you think there's a solution, then you are the problem" - the thing I cannot abide is the blinkered obedience to authority. Hidebound tradition leads to unquestioned acceptance of authority leads to nationalism leads to genocide. The lessons of history are clear; just as the utopians have their souls stained with the victims of the French Revolution and Mao's China, so do the tragedians have to atone for the Hitlers, the Rwandas and the Bosnias.

Many conservatives suffer from what might be called "Empathy Deficit Disorder." They espouse the view of the poor as victims of their own weaknesses, as if such a fate could never befall them though some intrinsic merit of their class and station. As Molly Ivins wrote about such people, they are "born on third base and think they hit a triple." Having witnessed the high and mighty brought low, such an assumption of entitlement would never occur to me. When I ride past Ojai's homeless along the bike trial, for instance, I know that with a few bad breaks, that could be me. My view, coming from an underclass upbringing and understanding the perfidy of outrageous fortune, leads me to the assumption that I, despite having done well for myself by most objective standards, could fall just as far as I have risen. Hard work, diligence and pluck mean nothing without the opportunities that good fortune provides. And who your parents are, rather than who you are, is, sad but true, the best guarantor of that good fortune. The first prerogative of power is not to share, but to preserve the status that it provides for ourselves and our kin at the expense of others.

The best arguments for liberal policies, I then believe, are merit-based. Phase out those institutions and traditions that stand in the way of opportunity and phase in and preserve those that create opportunity, and so allow the best among us to shine their brightest. Just don't let that cheery optimism blind us to the ugly realities of human nature. As Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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