Candidate for
Councilmember; City of Santa Monica

My name is Jonathan Mann, (nee Stevens). I recently took my wife's name and have a 22 month old som named after his maternal grandfather. I have been a Santa Monica resident for over 2 decades and an activist on the Public Electronic network, (PEN), since its inception.

I am proud to be a member of the Green Party. I support and promote sustainability in our community's environmental, social and residential neighborhoods

I have worked as a flight attendant teacher, parole agent, and was musician in the US Navy.

My top priority is for Santa Monica to be the first municipality to provide free internet service enabling residents to hold city officials accountable and have direct input into policy making decisions.

I was born at Fort Jackson Army Dispensary near Medford, Oregon on Aug 24th, 1945, (shortly after America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to this day have an aversion to mushrooms!-). I spent much of my childhood living on military bases and consequently have a less insular view of America. My father was based in Hawaii from 1946 to 1950. Soon after he was posted to Korea and my siblings and I were sent to St. Mary's Catholic orphanage in Galveston, Texas. We moved to Japan in 1954 and I have a Japanese step-mother. In 1960 we moved, again, to Fort Lewis, Washington.

I dropped out of high school in my senior year, passed a high school equivalency test and joined the Navy as a musician. I was based at Anacostia Naval Air Station near Washington D.C. and attended my first political demonstration on Aug. 28th, 1963, where I heard Martin Luther King give his "I Have A Dream" speech. Following the Navy I went to California State University (CSUN) and was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). I took a degree in Sociology.

I spent the much of the 70s traveling and working all over the world; on the road to Kathmandu and various other hippy Meccas, living in caves, burial crypts, a lighthouse, windmill, abandoned boats, etc. I was at Kent state and every anti- war Vietnam moratorium. More recently, I was at the Battle in Seattle and the Million Mom March.

I have worked as a Probation Officer, Parole Agent and a Teacher. My current profession as a flight attendant with my fourth charter airline gives me conflicting perspectives on how Americans are viewed abroad. I have participated in troop and refugee movements in six wars since Vietnam, which has reinforced my strong anti-war philosophy. I was briefly taken hostage in Ndjamena, Tchad in 1979. I love my country, but consider myself a human being before an American. We are all motivated somewhat by characteristics of fear, hate and greed, as well as a desire for peace, love and brotherhood. The rise and fall of civilization is ample evidence there have been far more brutal empires than the present American Hegemony.

Another factor in how American culture is viewed, is how we perceive ourselves as the guiding light of freedom and democracy. The phenomenal growth of computer networking, the information revolution, (Alan Toffler's "Third Wave"), and the spread of the World Wide Web has given us web surfing, blogging, pornography, E-bay and other electronic enterprises. This interactive interface disseminates information, (and dis-information), often distorting the truth, perverting the marketplace of ideas and disrupting the level playing field of information exchange, with lies, distortions, and propaganda. Knowledge is power, whether it is truth or not, as shown by the appeal of tabloid journalism and talk radio. All of this contributes to America's progressive, as well as deviant, cultural image.

Many Americans identify themselves as defenders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many others feel we are misunderstood and envied by the rest of the world and that we, in fact, hold the keys to world peace, along with the responsibility to make the world a better place. Some blame our government, the media and corporate greed for much of the ills of the world. They consider globalization as a plot to exploit the undeveloped countries in order to concentrate personal wealth among the elite.

In my opinion, none of this reflects the truth of the American character, which is too diverse and polarized to fit into a simple stereotype. Human beings have universal attributes, molded by survival instincts and learned behaviors; conditioned by both nature and nurture. I do not believe that humans can be solely defined in terms of a national character. We are all influenced by the peculiarities of our variant social, economic, political, religious and cultural programming as well as by genetic predilections.

Western civilization has diverged in numerous evolutionary patterns, which differentiate it from eastern philosophies, and other world views. As human civilizations progress, interact and clash, there has been much overlap; conflict contamination and change. Some good, some evil...

The events leading up to, and then immediately following 9/11, altered the perception of how Americans are viewed by the international community, only to be skewed again, after the attack, by the unilateral actions of President Bush. I have mixed feelings of my nationality, critical of some aspects of our history and proud of others, but I resist glorifying the American character as an ideal prototype. Nevertheless, there have been far worse models that would replace our current domination of the world.

Since World War II our image abroad has become tarnished by the arms race and the so called cold war to contain communism. Conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe, were different venues of World War III. Now we are engaged in a Fourth World War, against terrorism, which is a continuation of jihad and the crusades and may really be regarded as a trade war over resources, markets and cheap labor. Modernity versus a medieval resistance to change, pragmatism versus dogmatism.

The American character can be personalized as Yankee ingenuity, opportunity, entrepreneurism, situational ethics, democratic, libertarian and egalitarian values. These are all part of the mix of what makes us unique. We are also reflections of the same Darwinian motives that are an incentive for all humans. It is only our attempts to rise above our base nature that can mold us to be better than we can be.

The primary reason I am running for City Council is to present an alternate model for participatory democracy that is truly populist, creative and can enable an electronic electorate to restore government to the people and out of the control of special interests I was very involved in the Public Electronic Network, and founded the PEN Users Group, in 1989. I have since become very disappointed and chagrined that fellow Greens and members of this city council have deliberately allowed a powerful tool for grass roots democracy die of benign neglect in order to protect their power base.

I(am also a card carrying member of the ACLU, NAACP and numerous environmental organizations. Think globally, Act locally.

Jonathan Mann