Gordon gets writer’s respect and vote

I am responding to a letter (“David Gordon is bad for Burbank,” Mailbag, March 20) from Carolyn Jackson charging Councilman David Gordon with having “proven” he is “an uninformed, misogynistic, unreasonable and belligerent bully.”

I cannot comment on misogyny, belligerence and bullying, since I was not present at her interactions with him back in 2005-06. Aside from the obvious factor that tossing muddy personal labels and name-calling at a candidate just before an election ought to focus on the accuser highly justified suspicion at the least, I can say that whatever Jackson thinks Gordon has “proven” to her, she has proved nothing to me by her assertions. What is proved to me — from years of watching David Gordon on the city council, tracking his votes on important issues, plus noticing his performance as a professional eye care provider in this community — is that he is eminently well informed and surpassingly reasonable as well as unusually independent, honest and outspoken.

I admit he does not mechanically “go along to get along” like so many in political life and thus has evidently made his share of enemies in certain quarters. If some citizens of Burbank prefer representatives so agreeable that they vote many thousands of dollars for a golf course while cutting funds for essential services, I prefer a maverick who is more argumentative.

I might also remind us that strongly disagreeing or mildly agreeing does not necessarily make anyone a bully any more than a wimp. The issue now is who, with integrity and courage, best represents our interests as residents of Burbank. For his record on this, David Gordon definitely gets my respect, gratitude and vote.

Richard Hebert
Burbank