Larsen, Teddy Bear, Cunningham
Larry Larsen is a great man, and an Anaheim hero. The kleptocrats of the town hate him. And he is most certainly not a racist.
On the other hand, he’s a guy of a certain age who doesn’t realize the impact of his words, and it’s good that he’s no longer on the Sister Cities Commission, during these times when anti-Asian hate and violence really is at an epic level.
Larry fought in the Army, against Chinese Communists and Chinese-funded Vietnamese Communists. This is back when, for better or worse, the guys fighting in that war believed they were fighting for the freedom of the Vietnamese people.
For more than fifteen years, as a volunteer alumnus at Anaheim High School, Larry has invested immeasurable time, energy and money fighting for Anaheim’s most-at-risk, inner-city kids. He fought to get gym lockers, a swimming pool, and sufficient lunch tables for the thousands of kids there who lacked a voice at City Hall. Larry pretty much forced the school board to purchase an available vacant lot by the High School from Taormina, because he knew they needed more parking.
Back when his friend Lorri Galloway was a pretty good Councilwoman, there were two teen suicides of AHS students jumping off a bridge at Euclid and the 5. Larry and Lorri talked the girls’ friends into speaking at Council, something they were afraid of at first but did a stellar job of, and the City put more fencing up there so that this wouldn’t happen so easily. One of the things that gave him most joy was playing Santa Claus at the Eli Home for a lot of underprivileged Latino kids (albeit an unusually skinny Santa.)
In 2012-14 the people of Anaheim were fighting to get district elections – a reform nearly 70% of the public ended up voting for. One of the main objectives was to get some Latino representation in this half-Latino town. The power structure here, led by Disney and the Chamber, wishing to either defeat that reform or postpone it as long as possible, created a Citizens Advisory Board to study the matter for a long time, with two members each appointed by the five Councilmembers. Since the Council at the time was 3-2 against districting, there were only 4 out of 10 members fighting for it – Vivian Phan (an Asian), Bill Dalati (an Arab), Martin Lopez (a Latino), and Larry. With sheer perseverance and sound arguments, Larry’s minority finally made it happen, one thing he is most proud of.
When finally allowed to, after the Council wasted $3 million of our money trying to prevent it, Anaheim voters overwhelmingly chose district elections, and in 2016 that allowed us to briefly have a Council majority not beholden to Disney; two of that majority were Latino. Since then the power structure has dealt with that setback in two predictable ways: QUADRUPLING their spending on Council elections, and recruiting Latinos who would follow their orders.
Fast forward to a couple months ago, Larry is Moreno’s appointee to the Sister Cities Commission, and that Commission is exploring partnering with Pudong, a city in the Shanghai Province, as another sister city for Anaheim. Larry lost it, repeatedly blaming the “China Virus” on that country, and claiming they owe us $150 million for what the pandemic has done to our city and nation. Not good things to say when we are in the middle of an epidemic of anti-Asian hate and violence. And since then he’s doubled down, and has now been removed from the Commission, unanimously.
I wouldn’t be writing about this at all, because it’s kind of embarrassing when a good friend of yours “of a certain age” gets all politically incorrect, and then doubles down. But since this was discovered and publicized by the Chamber’s blogger-for-hire Matt Cunningham (and increasingly deranged Councilman Jordan Brandman) it’s being used as a cudgel against our only honest Councilman, Jose Moreno, since he appointed Larry.
Before we move on to Cunningham, let’s make a couple of ancillary but relevant observations:
- It’s no coincidence that Pudong, out of all Chinese cities this Disney-funded Council could have chosen to make a sister city of Anaheim, is the location of Shanghai Disney Resort.
- It’s been inaccurate, for a while now, to call China “communist” – they are a repressive capitalist dictatorship. (Not that this reflects on the many undoubtedly good people in China and Pudong.)
- This Pudong sister city project was on the table years ago, but the Chinese dictatorship put the kibosh on it due to their anger at the Dalai Lama’s friendship with former Mayor Tom Tait (another Anaheim hero.)
Cunningham, an enigma wrapped in a scorched Teddy Bear.
Who’s Matt Cunningham? (If you don’t know.) Well, not to go back too far, but since 2012 the formerly right-wing Republican blogger who once complained “Blogging doesn’t pay the bills,” has been a blogger for hire, paid by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce (even though he lives in Orange) to spin the propaganda and craft the arguments for Anaheim’s ruling power structure. If there’s any constant to his Anaheim Blog (now Anaheim “Independent”), it’s to encourage the transfer of wealth from Anaheim’s public to Disney and Chamber-connected businesses (most of them not even headquartered in Anaheim.) When it’s convenient he uses “conservative” arguments, because that’s what he’s most familiar with, but if not he’ll use whatever comes to hand.
During Disney and the Chamber’s fight against district elections he used, unsuccessfully, every bogus argument he could think up. So Larry Larsen was always on his enemies list. But his enemy #1 for all these years has been Councilman Dr Jose F Moreno. It’s an obsession, but he is paid for it.
Why Matt’s sudden concern over Larsen’s insensitivity to Asians? (Or, actually, China?) Matt has never written a cross word about former President Trump, who was the source and aggravator of all the “China Virus” talk. (That would upset whatever Republican readers he has – including Mayor Sidhu and Trevor O’Neil.) He has never once written about racism, except to ridicule the idea as a liberal, “woke,” fantasy. But now he suddenly emerges as a defender of the endangered Asian-American masses, once it looks like a way to bash Moreno.
And STILL I wouldn’t be bothering to write about any of this, EXCEPT that Matt just had to include this little whine toward the end of his last piece:
“When local progressive activists (and some opportunistic politicians) sought to destroy this writer [Cunningham] by grossly misrepresenting a satirical blog post, Moreno had no time for reaching out in collective humanity. Instead, Moreno went into eye-for-an-eye mode and publicly joined the political lynch mob seeking to destroy my ability to earn a living.”
Some of you may not know what he’s referring to, since it happened almost eight years ago. So let me take you back there, to December of 2013. The Anaheim Police Department, under the de facto rule of loose-cannon Deputy Chief Craig Hunter, had just killed seven young mostly Latino men (one Filipino, one white) in the space of 12 months. Most of them shot in the back fleeing, most of them unarmed. David Raya, Marcel Cejas, Bernie Villegas, Roscoe Cambridge, Martin Hernandez, Manuel Diaz, Joel Acevedo.
So then, as Matt told it, he was strolling by City Hall one day and saw a burned, ripped-up teddy bear lying on the ground, and had a flash of inspiration: He went and purchased a few votive candles and set up a shrine around the bear in imitation of what Latino families do, took a few photos, and built a “satirical post” around it, complete with fake quotes from Moreno and a left-wing group, blaming this “teddy-bear-i-cide” on racism within the system. He really thought that was clever and hilarious.
When my wife Donna, mother of Joel Acevedo, saw that post, the first thing she did was rush to the bathroom to throw up. Then she sent Matt message after message begging him to take it down; he responded sardonically that she lacked a sense of humor. When she ended up cussing him out, he printed that, so that she would look irrational and unhinged.
National, even international news caught on to this and Matt was the embarrassment of Anaheim for quite a while. He eventually had to take the post down, with a whiny note that too many people misunderstood his “satire.” I don’t know of him losing ANY paying work though – Then-Supervisor Todd Spitzer removed him from the Parks Commission, and he lost his OCTA-shilling contracts, but the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce went on paying him, as they do to this day.
I’m happy to say this was Matt’s first and last attempt at humor, but it does show you what he thinks is funny – Mexican kids getting killed. This is YOUR spokesman, Anaheim Chamber. And I submit that Matt Cunningham isn’t worthy of licking Larry Larsen’s boots.
While I don’t condone what Larry Larsen said, it should always be remembered that Matt Cunningham is a coward, a gutless coward, who is being paid by the Chamber of Commerce, and led by the most despicable individuals in the city of Anaheim, and you might as well say in all of humanity.
I strongly disagree with one of your points: Matt Cunningham is precisely worthy of licking Larry Larsen’s boots.
As to his use of the term “Chinavirus,” it’s disheartening, but not (except when it involves negotiating with China about a sister city) disqualifying. There’s lot to dislike about the Chinese government — none if it justifying any dislike of Chinese- or other Asian-Americans — such as its total lack of concern about human rights in other countries. (Yes, the U.S. has its own bad track record on that front — but at least it tolerates a loud internal opposition about our overreach, which is worth appreciating.
Trump was intentionally using “China Virus” to stir up Americans to support him for racially charged reasons, which is inexcusable. Larson is doing it because Trump and his ilk convinced him that China did something intentionally wrong. They’re not the same thing at all.
One thing I asked Duane Roberts on Facebook when he took you on about Larsen being an “Anaheim hero” despite his use of the term is to ask him how we talk about the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19-causing) variants that have arisen over the past year. We call them the “UK” and “Brazil” and “South Africa” variants, and the “Los Angeles” (or “West Coast”) and “New Yotk” (or “East Coast”) variants — not because we’re trying to provoke racism, but because it’s a natural way for us to remember and discuss things. (Yes, it was unfair to the Spanish in mid-1918, as it would have been unfair to call this the “Italian Virus” because that was Covid-19’s big leap to the West, but it’s not a huge ijustiice: Germany has survived the rubeola measles virus carrying its name.)
If Trump had used a measured tone while talking about “the Chinese Virus,” rather than sneering about the “JYYYNAVIRUS,” it would not have been such a big deal. But is also wouldn’t have aroused Anti-Asian passions that applied even to those born or living in the U.S., as opposed to Chinese officials.
I wish that Larry and other Trump supporters of his generation had been brought up in a time when ethnic jokes were not prevalent and cool — but they were, and not only the Trump supporters of that generation often traffic in such painful humor. Larry can be both an Anaheim hero and an unfortunate stan of Trump; using him as a weapon against Dr. Moreno is — characteristically for Cunningham — disgusting.
“I don’t know of him losing ANY paying work though”
He did.
https://voiceofoc.org/2013/12/cunningham-loses-octa-contracts-and-county-parks-post/
His white friends at the nearly all-white Anaheim Chamber of Commerce never stopped paying him and actively lobbied to get him new contracts, including projects involving Disney’s nearly all-white GP&A team.
I’m sure you’re all surprised.
OCTA contracts, that’s right.
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
You know, it IS possible for Matt Cunningham (and Brandman, and O’Neil) to be mendacious cretins exploiting the hell out of this to get free shots at Moreno *AND* for Larry Larsen to be racist towards the Chinese.
You can apologize away his behavior all you want (hint: he’s not talking about the “China Virus” because he’s an armchair epidemiologist who’s concerned about proper attribution), but if you read the minutes from the Sister City Commission meetings, Larsen comes off at best as a paranoid old crank with his worrying about the “China virus” and “these people” incapable of independent thought. Is he worried that students here on an exchange program will go all Manchurian Candidate on us and shiv their host families in the middle of the night once they get the Communist Batsignal?
Larsen: “And why we would even consider having a conversation with these people, let alone inviting them over for a campfire and slow dance to a bunch of Joan Baez albums[?}”
Isn’t that what a cultural exchange program is SUPPOSED TO DO? What happened to our big sunny Cold War optimism that we could bring The Other around to our side simply by exposing them to a big ‘ol slice of American awesomeness? Someone this opposed to cultural exchange with “these people” shouldn’t have been serving on the Sister Cities Commission in the first place.
Good points. I hadn’t caught that “these people” comment.
Missed you, dude.
Biff: Except that there’s this old story, from … um, yesterday. (It’s been bubbling up for days.)
Larry is an old crank on issues of race — and I think that I’ve said that to his face. So, in my opinion, is one highly respected OC blogger, whom most of us like, and no I will not say who. But his crankiness comes from his belief that we on the non-right, who will (often with good reasons) make all sorts of heinous accusations about what our own country does, will bend over backwards to avoid seeming racist or xenophobic when it come to our rivals-to-enemies like China. (And some will even caution against concluding that Russia is involved in cyber-attacks, even though it seems likely.)
I don’t like that he has a point — but he has a point. It’s hard to believe that China would try to weaponize a Covid in a lab … or at least it’s as hard as believing that the US, Russia, the UK, France, and Israel would do so, which come to think of it is not that hard at all. That doesn’t mean that China did it intentionally, or even did it recklessly, or even did it at all — and it certainly doesn’t mean that what the Chinese government does reflects on Chinese residents around here (most of whom, so far as I can tell, are from Taiwan) — but it’s not a crazy thing to believe might be true. I had concluded that it didn’t happen — but then damned if scientists aren’t coming forward and saying that the WHO report was inadequate.
But Larry is wrong in an instructive way when he talks about China owing the rest of the world damages. That opens up a great discussion about international law, accountability, reparations, etc., where he’d likely crack a joke after finding himself on the other side of whether the U.S. owes reparations or damages to anyone.
But that’s not disqualifying from public service — although as Vern has said it probably is from the Sister Cities committee. On the other hand, if we demand that whoever is on that committee must not raise concerns about Chinese government actions in deciding on a Sister City relationship, that’s pretty putrid, because we should be talking about that. I think that at least the group should consult with some people from Taiwan, Hong King, Tibet, or Xinjiang before going ahead with Disney’s proposal here. Think that that’s racist? Take me on.
Nobody takes Jerbal seriously. There is no moral or intellectual basis for his existence.
And his writing is so constipated that trying to read it makes your bowels start to hurt.
Hard to believe he is stupid enough to resurrect that self-inflicted humiliation, but there you have it.
And now that he has ridden this sad, rented mule as far as it will go, Jerb thoughtfully considers a comment that maybe Larsen’s First Amendment rights have been violated; perhaps he recalls his own humiliating “resignation” from the County Parks Commission after he set up votive candles around a teddy bear he set on fire.
Matt Cunningham outed sex-abuse victims
Your Tax Dollars at Work
https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/
Oh, I see I’ve been scooped. Well, carry on….
*Speaking of insignificant events: As the Trumpster Party excoriates Liz Cheney for actions non befitting a true Brown Shirt ….. It is easy to see that Kevin McCarthy
will be her replacement at the helm of “The Vanishing Party in America”. As we watch
with great interest the various rattas, cucharaches and putas do their “Off Broadway”
work…. The “VPA” is certainly alive and well……but their only problem is that they do
know how to say “Cuba Si…..Yankee NO!” .