OpEd: All By Myself

I don’t know where to begin.   How I got here.   What to do next.

When I purchased this publication four years ago it was never my intention to run a WordPress.   James Mills had a stroke the first weekend, the previous publisher harassed the next editor Tony Castro till his kids said, ‘dad you don’t need this’.   To stay alive I let Brandon live in my guest house for two years.   Sacrifice after sacrifice to survive.  Last year when I ran for City Council it was my intention to hand it off.  This year Brian bought Brandon’s shares and I took my eye off the pages.

First I’ll apologize for some of the Ai stories.   Brian is no longer part of the day to day.  I’m all by myself here, just learning the WordPress.  Many don’t understand what took so long but I could not see the screen.  I’m fully blind in one eye, and needed an -11.50 lens to get to 20/100.   In June, I had a procedure that brought me sight and shared that story here: https://wehoonline.com/oped-shadows-light/ .   Since then it has been a brand new world.   Today I sit in front of the computer without any lens and able to see the screen 20/50.    My eye has refracted down to a -1.25.   It’s a miracle.

While I’m sure this paper is not worth the headache and harassment directed this way, I do love the City of West Hollywood.   I hate injustice.   I hate when power corrupts.  I love celebrating the city and helping to shape its policy.   Many things have changed in WeHo.  There is less to fight for. The City Council did not pass an on-time housing element and State Law took over our housing policy.   The City Council also passed a law that took the power away from itself to make changes to the city worker policy and temper mandated increases of worker wages and inflation in WeHO.   Today, my hope is to guide us a little bit with a focus on protecting our community and small businesses.    To give you a voice. 

Yesterday I learned how to add a link, and soon will learn how to load a photo and publish a story on my own.   I’m not planning on chasing ambulances but do hope to keep it this alive long enough for one of you to take over.

We have done much to give a platform to residents, business owners and more.  Your voice and mine.  We didn’t always win but they did hear us.   On the other hand the personal attacks, distortions and daily gay, fat, jew, old, blind, fag comments,  it’s too much.  I’ve been threatened and abused as much as any city council member and I’m not going to waste my time on mentally ill readers.  

But this screenshot from yesterday showed me were still doing good.   

I’m not in it for the money.   Glad to offer Free ads for community serving businesses for the rest of the year.   Down the line we will also change our subscriptions plan to hit more mailboxes each day.   

If you can’t take my mistakes you do not have to read these pages.    You have 100% control over your social media and I bet 90% of it is garbage.   You don’t have to choose this site.    If you do, just know, I’m not perfect and I’m not a journalist.   I’m trying to provide a platform for us to engage on the issues of the day.  Take it or leave it. 

But I can use some help,  a little bit of patience,  a little bit of participation.   And thank you for the love from so many.   Now its time to share our WeHo stories.

xo Larry