Mayor Tom Bradley

In reference to Mayor Bradley’s retirement speech and resulting articles and editorials (“Los Angeles Will Not Forget Him,” Sept. 25):

I was part of a group effort that put him in office the first time and helped keep him in office. I seethe when I hear his story told as one man’s rising based on individual fortitude and strength of character.

I was deeply disheartened in Mayor Bradley’s assessment of his electoral victories as an example that all children, from whatever beginnings or ancestry, can grow up to be successful. This simplistic, ill-thought-out, false individualistic rhetoric was further demonstration of Bradley’s lack of political clarity and vision, which translated into an inability to push for systemic changes in Los Angeles.

A more accurate and constructive observation about his success, one that would have lasted long after the surface changes he made have been overturned, would have been that without a lot of support from many diverse and progressive groups that were willing to compromise, he would not have had those victories.

JOHNATHON DOUWE

Los Angeles