Coffee Forum: Ward One

A little girl asked her father, "Daddy? Do all fairy tales begin with 'Once Upon A Time'?"

He replied, "No, there is a whole series of fairy tales that begin with 'If elected I promise…'."

Let’s hope that the local elections coming up on June 5th, 2007 aren’t like all of the rest, full of disappointment, regret, and animosity. It is up to us the voters to make the right decisions.

On Wednesday May 9th, 2007 @ 6:30 pm sharp I will be hosting a Candidates Meet and Greet/Forum in the Community Room at the Back to the Grind Coffee Shop in Downtown Riverside. This will be for the candidates in the Ward One City Council Seat race.

It is well known that face-to-face interaction is the best way to run for office. This gathering in designed for the residents and voters of Ward 1 to meet and learn about all of the local candidates. A chance for the candidates to meet the average voter, and take a step away from the organized groups that almost always have their minds made up ahead of time. A chance to change minds, gather support, and new votes. The time was selected in order to give people a chance to attend after work.

The list of anticipated parties includes Letitia Pepper, lawyer and teacher, Derek Thesier, Realtor, Mike Gardner, retired utility executive, currently director of sales and marketing of a employment and drug testing firm, and Dom Betro, incumbent Riverside City Councilman. (Sorry I have a conflict..a previously scheduled neighborhood meeting...dom)


This will be a non-partisan gathering promoted thru local churches, door to door flyers, e-mail, my online blog site (www.AricIsom.com), word of mouth, and press releases.

Based on the pre event buzz this should be a great event and opportunity for all of the candidates equally, and already has generated a number of phone calls from interested parties as well as the press.

This forum should continue until about 8:30 pm. Refreshments, coffee, and snacks will be served at no charge to attendees and candidates. There's one thing Democrats and Republicans share in common: Our money. So let’s get the most for our buck, attend and learn.

This blog is suppose to inform you about my views, well this story should give you a clue…

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense." So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now." The father says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep do-do."

Let’s see if we can fix this. I need your help, please attend, ask questions, and vote your heart and mind.

We will have a standard format, which includes a 30-minute face-to-face talk/elbow rubbing, initial statements by each candidate, questions from the moderator, written questions from the audience, closing statements, and more one-on-one talk over coffee.

Please leave comments in the “comment” section of the page, and let me know your thoughts. Hope to see you there.

Back to the Grind is located at 3575 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92501, between Orange St. and Lemon St.