“Fragrance Free” summarizes all the hypocrisy of the liberal movement. You can be bounced from a Berkeley City Council Meeting if you have a bit of floral essence in your skin lotion, but if you smell like you’ve been baking in a dumpster for 3 days, you’re in – no problem. In Berkeley, requiring people to wash would be considered economic discrimination.
THE CITY OF BERKELEY HAS DELIBERATELY SET LOWER STANDARDS THAN ALAMEDA COUNTY AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, in order to accommodate people who don’t wash and politicians who are not exactly qualified for their jobs.
Berkeley’s Supervisor for Aquatics is a lifelong Parks & Rec employee named Phil Harper-Cotton. But Phil has no training, certification, experience or interest in any area of swimming or aquatics.
“Fragrance Free?” This seems to be a new requirement to enter a lot of public buildings, public meetings or hold certain jobs. Chanel and Dior are out. So are heavily scented skin lotions. OK. “Fragrance Free” is a new standard of “liberalism.” Living in Berkeley, California for the past seven years has taught me the downside of liberalism, and it is this: Protecting the wrong people for the wrong reasons. This includes public employees whose performance and behavior warrants their termination, rather than union protection; and street people whose violent behavior warrants incarceration, rather than eligibility for services.
“Fragrance Free” summarizes all the hypocrisy of the liberal movement. You can be bounced from a City Council Meeting if you have a bit of floral essence in your skin lotion, but if you smell like you’ve been baking in a dumpster for 3 days, you’re in – no problem. In Berkeley, requiring people to wash would be considered economic discrimination. Why? Because some people simply choose not to, and others don’t have the facilities. Berkeley did a good thing by opening up the showers at the public pools to the homeless population, but now they’ve closed all the pools except for one. And access is limited to less than 10 hours per week for public swimming.
The fact that Berkeley has all but destroyed its once-notable public swimming network is another reflection on the downside of liberalism, but that’s another, more complex story.
“Fragrance Free” gained hold because too many food servers and bar tenders showed up at work after bathing in the aforementioned Chanel or Dior. Many people have no clue about the meaning or spelling of “subtlety.” I remember a date long ago, when I was literally choking during a concert because the woman had no clue about this. At the time I was too polite to suggest that she follow Dr. Bronner’s advice; “DILUTE, DILUTE, DILUTE.” So I suffered for it, and came to appreciate the upside of “Fragrance Free.”
Berkeley considers enforcement of other public hygiene standards to be economic discrimination. For example, time-honored hygiene codes have been dispensed with at the public pools and YMCA in Berkeley, including the one that requires people with long, stinky hair to wear a swim cap in the pool. The Berkeley Y was the first public swim facility I knew of to stop requiring actual “swimwear” to enter the pool, and caps on stinky dreadlocks. I complained to the City of Berkeley Department of Environmental Health about this, but they wouldn’t do anything. THIS IS BECAUSE THE CITY OF BERKELEY HAS DELIBERATELY SET LOWER STANDARDS THAN ALAMEDA COUNTY AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, in order to accommodate people who don’t wash and politicians who are not exactly qualified for their jobs. Huh? Yeah, here’s an example:
Berkeley’s Supervisor for Aquatics is a lifelong Parks & Rec employee named Phil Harper-Cotton. But Phil has no training, certification, experience or interest in any area of swimming or aquatics. I learned that when I got his resume through a California Public Records Act request. This guy is an administrative appointee, who is vastly unqualified to even be a lifeguard, much less the system administrator. But Berkeley has created a caveat in its municipal code that allows him to be employed in an area WAAAAY out of his field. Berkeley also has other peculiar codes that conflict with good public hygiene and safety. Every county, city, township and municipality that runs a public pool system is required to have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on site and available to the public upon request at all times – except Berkeley. Similarly, every such entity is also required to make water-testing information available to the public upon request at all times – except Berkeley. Berkeley has deliberately set standards lower than the county and state in order to accommodate Phil Harper-Cotton and other people working out of their field. The public is subjected to lower hygiene standards for public bathing facilities, in order to accommodate the people who choose not to wash.
In this context, it is not surprising that I have failed to have people evicted from food service areas in Berkeley when they smell like dumpster muffins. It even happened at the local Whole Foods, but they have no connection to the City. It’s time for this silly city to get serious about “Fragrance Free,” on a uniform, rather than selective basis.
The last time I attended a Berkeley City Council meeting, it was a big event that drew many of the “unwashed masses” – LITERALLY THE UNWASHED MASSES. The foul odor of bad human hygiene hit me when I was at the steps of the Old City Hall, because the doors were open. When I went upstairs to the council chamber, the place was packed with stinky people – mostly middle aged white folks. White people can really stink you know? I can say that.
Phil Harper-Cotton can't swim, and happens to bes black. And I’ve been accused of racism for objecting to Phil’s employment, based on his gross lack of qualifications. Because Phil is black, I’ve been accused of being a racist. My objection to Phil’s employment has nothing to do with race - it is because he is vastly unqualified to work in a specialized field, which happens to require highly specialized training and attunement to the culture of the sport. He has no clue. But because he’s black and I’m white – I’m considered to be a racist. The fact that I once carried a sign with the Memphis Sanitation Workers in 1968, BEFORE MLK was killed in my hometown doesn’t matter. I’m considered to be a racist in Berkeley because I object to this man’s employment, and I argue forcefully for upholding hygiene and safety codes at the municipal swimming pool and the Berkeley YMCA.
In most of America, I am considered “liberal,” “progressive,” even “radical,” on all issues. I fully endorse the comments of Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) in calling out the Republicans for employing Nazi tactics. Neither of us called them Nazis, but we call out them out for using the same tactics of repeating a big lie until it is accepted as gospel. In Berkeley I’m viewed as a racist conservative by a small, but powerful cadre of local politicians and administrative appointees. Their number is small, but it includes the Mayor, most of his personal stooges on the City Council and the people they’ve appointed to various commissions. The croniness and corruption is pretty deep here.
So Berkeley is wired to protect and coddle incompetent administrative appointees, and people who choose not to wash. OK, humor me a little: What’s wrong with this picture?