Che Guevara Eyes

On September 25thTed Loza, Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham’s Chief of Staff, was arrested on bribery charges. Reading local articles accusing Loza of taking bribes and free trips to Ethiopia really brought me back to that front desk when I used to think I was making a difference working for Graham. I remember Loza working vehemently to procure a ticket to Addis Ababa as the Council was going into their summer recess. It seemed like Graham just snapped his fingers and whatever he needed could be accomplished with brief phone calls. Former Constituent Services Director Jeff Jennings would always urge me to use the name of the office. “It’s a weapon.”
When Loza returned with Graham, his mentor joked about a woman in a sexy red dress that Ted met on his last night in Ethiopia (Graham must have been feeling extra open on this day because he also referred to me as his pet and motioned for me to sit next to him).No question Ted is a womanizer and a smarmy individual, but he learned a lot from Grahamzilla. Similar to Immigration Custom Enforcement raids, police banged on Loza’s door late in the evening waking his family and neighbors. Loza is not a U.S. citizen and is an advocate for immigrant rights. Although this is a corrupt individual working within an exploitative system, he is still a victim of racism. He took a $1,500 bribe from the taxi cab commission, while Jim Graham dishes out money from his constituent service fund for important community tasks like helping Kimberly Johnson, his former scheduler, move. If anything authorities should come to Graham’s apartment to question him about his activities in Paraguay and El Salvador and the many pictures of young boys in his home. Ask him why live GoGo can’t be played at several Ward One establishments. Ask him why Washington’s economic development strength translates to a higher poverty level than we had two years ago.
I remember being told to break out of my hip-hop mentality by Fernando Rivero, the legislative counsel at the time. I bumped into him in the street and said “Hey Shorty!”
This five foot-man looked back at me in anger and yelled “Stop acting like a low-class nigger!”
I admit what I said was insensitive, but it didn’t warrant that kind of malicious response. The next day he called me to his office for an awkward exchange. He said he only used the word 3 times in his life. I called him a liar and a racist as I walked out of his office.
I waited until Graham had a small window of time to speak with me about the matter. When he told me that I must have said something to upset him, my mouth dropped a little. He was defending the racism even though it was closeted. I explained that I didn’t mean to hurt any feelings when I jabbed him with Shorty, but calling me a nigger was just hateful. Graham continued to condescendingly congratulate me on alienating myself from everybody in the office.
During and after the talk my eyes kept darting from Graham’s to those of Che which belonged to a signed Alberto Korda portrait that hung in Graham’s office.
When I decided to write my letter of resignation I thought that Che would also have alienated himself from these people who were using the name of a public official for access to sports game tickets, trips abroad, gym memberships, free meals from some of the city’s most expensive restaurants and the list goes on. I thanked them for the opportunity and an education I couldn’t have recieved anywhere else.