Do You Know Us
Excuse me?
Do you know us?
I’m talking to you. The ones with the charts and surveys
playing games with a community’s serenity. You claim to be connecting us
by so called interest,
but
do you know us? We are the people of the Foothills.
We are Sunland-Tujunga
joined by the glorious hills of the Valley. You don’t know us. You are strangers. If you knew us,
you’d know that you
cannot
dissociate the
home of John McGroarty
from that of Bolton Hall --
Great entities of our history. If you knew us,
you wouldn’t draw lines
such that our children would
learn in one district and
live in another. If you knew us,
you would know that Foothill Boulevard
is not a place where we’re divided,
but it’s where we come together. It’s where we shop for our meals
and meet our friends.
It’s where most our events begin and end. It’s where we go to Sunland Park
and watch our kids play
little league games. No day is ever the same
as we travel Foothill
on this errand or that. It’s a place that can’t be divided.
It just can’t. It’s where on a hot day in July
we can watch Harley Davidsons
do tricks on the street
as our children bob on their
hot feet waiting for the fireman’s
water hose to cool them down as
they happily dance in the spray. If you knew us, you wouldn’t take away
Adam Schiff, Jack Scott, and Carol Liu.
People we elected duly.
People who are members of our community. And you wouldn’t attach us to officials
we barely even know in places far away.
People of whom we had no say
as delegates for our home. So pick up your charts and
throw them away and see.
See that we are not a demographic,
but a community. Gather your lines and
wrap them around
the Foothills. When you do that, you’ll truly link the
“communities of interest.” In these hills, we are bound.
In these hills, we live.
In these hills,
we are Sunland-Tujunga. If you knew us, you’d know
that we are one,
not two. | 
