Painting a Different Picture

As each morning begins here, at Confidential Central, the phones ring off the hook. County employees recently out of the shower, call and vent about what the day ahead holds. If there is a Supe meeting on the daily agenda, the phone rings twice as many times as usual and the voices are three times as loud. But not all of our tips are political. Thank God.

A commuter, who wished to be remain anonymous, called first thing this morning and said that the traffic on 101 South was backed up for miles. Once she approached the apparent accident, she saw a car was in the car pool lane, surrounded by two CHP officers. On the ground, next to the car, was the half torso of a naked man. There were no dents in the car, no spilled motorcycles on the ground, and there were no other vehicles around. The half-torso, lying face down, had a pole protruding from its lower section. There was no obvious blood on the pavement. Somebody actually used the mannequin-in-the-car pool lane trick and got caught.

Danville resident Layton Judd is searching for a Pizza franchise with the intent of opening in Walnut Creek. In an interview yesterday, Judd, an experienced restaurant owner who must have forgotten the trials and tribulations of the six juice bars he once owned, claimed that another pizza place would do extremely well in Walnut Creek. Judd and his lovely wife have two beautiful children. The pizza parlor entrepreneur is a very good father, who has raised his son, Monty, extremely well. I am sure that Judd is thinking of placing Monty in the parlor as a manager. I know that Judd is just passing on the disciplinary lessons he learned from his dad.

But discipline is diminishing all around us.

There was a blog posting yesterday,claiming that the national press had blown the Pamela Vitale murder out of proportion. The national coverage hasn'’t even begun. There are currently reporters here that will paint a picture of this community that may be so embarrassing people may not want to look at it. Or, they may wake up and see that there is a problem within. It was just eight months ago that Lafayette was pegged as Methamphetaminene center. Was that the only problem in the county or community? Abslutely not. The problem, locally, is that nobody can believe that something like the Vitale murder can happen in beautiful, bucolic, Lafayette. Why not?

Is nobody looking around? The root of the community's problem lies in the public schools and everyone is aware of it. From the drug problems, to the racism, to the way the students- some of them- show up, clad in costume, with an attitude that they can do whatever they want, public schools are on a downward spiral that will take more than a few good educators to repair. Teachers, under payed, under appreciated, and over stressed, because of the work and the problems they face each day, are not the solution to fixing the problem.

The parents are the only solutiuon. And the discipline they practice with their children is the foundation of the soluition.

I am a firm believer in a firm hand on the ass of a problem child. I know that all the liberals are now saying "throw the guy in jail- he hit his kid." I believe It's better to administer the slapped ass at home, rather than have somebody else administer it when the kid involuntarily checks into the crowbar hotels that are gaining occupants faster than anyone can imagine.

Take a look at the schools across the county and tell me that there are not some very scary things going on. If you don'’t have time to visit one of the schools look at your local Safeway, or Long's. Look at the kids in line. Go to a mall. There are so many human canvasses walking around that many of the arms and legs, stomachs and necks, should be hanging in a museum for Tat artists. I have always had a theory- if Tat artists are so talented, why not put the art on canvas and make a fortune, rather than sitting on a stool, in the back room of a run down building, squirting ink into the flesh of a less than good looking person, in an attenpt to make them hot? I don't know what is happening to our paint and pierce happy generation. Could it be that at 37 I am just old?

Possibly. But it is time to really analyze a few things within the communities of the county. And, once the media circus begins on the front steps of the courthouse, if there is a Vitale trial, the picture painted of Contra Costa should be one we all look at, and decide if we like what we see.

Where was the bottom half of the torso?