This just in … Howard “Take-the-Buck” McKeon is selling his home in the SCV. This is like getting rid of 60 billboards at once, or TimBen not speaking for 30 minutes on each subject at a council meeting, or the “No on S” folks making civil comments about what I write. This is big. B-I-G – BIG.

It looks like our first mayor is leaving town. Well, he hasn’t lived in Santa Clarita for quite a while. The home he is selling is on the West Ranch side of the 5, outside of city limits. It might explain why he didn’t seem to care about our problems with Cemex.

I wonder what he is going to do? Rumor has it that he is going to become a lobbyist for some defense-related company back in Washington. Some wag (not me) suggested he might become a parking attendant at the Venetian in Las Vegas. I don’t know. He’ll have a decent retirement, and I’m sure he is qualified to do something.

Don’t know what that “something” is, since outside of his time in the government, the business he managed went bankrupt. (His one qualification for chairman of the House Armed Services Committee: Spend money you don’t have until none of us has any.)

This news comes just one day after the election. His favored minion, Tony Strickland, was stomped in the election, so I wonder how viable he’ll be back there since he won’t have an “in” from our district – his old one. Will he go see his replacement as a lobbyist?

Not having “Take-the-Buck” around isn’t going to be so bad. It looks like we’re going to have a congressman who will truly respond to the needs of District 25. Not with pork, but with hard work and dedication to us – and not to big corporations like Cemex.

An era is over. The new guy is coming in. Time to change the guard. Only this time, we aren’t going to hang signs on the paseo overpasses saying, “Thank you, Buck.”

Enough of that – and enough of billboards, because we have some other real problems in our valley. Problems like the Chiquita Canyon Landfill spreading to become the largest dump in the United States. There is the drought and the biased regulations about chloride in our treated water.

I was asked one time about Santa Clarita wanting to annex Castaic. I don’t see it happening. The city cannot afford it. Streets need upgrades, and extending other services would be far too expensive. Had Castaic been included at city formation time, it might have been possible. Not now.

I don’t see the West Side becoming a part of Santa Clarita any time soon, either. Just changing the Stevenson Ranch street signs back to McBean Parkway would be expensive. I do so hope they like digital billboards. Next logical place to put them, and the Los Angeles County Planning Commission isn’t known for stopping projects that have little impact in their opinion. Someday we’ll see a sign installed. I’m sure it will go well with the lights at Magic Mountain.

We have lots of problems. We also have lots of solutions. The citizens here in the SCV have a lot of ideas and, as with the billboard issue, they have many ways to express those solutions. Not just on the usual social media sites like Facebook, but at City Council meetings and by direct communication with the city. Calling your council members and maybe an email or a thousand works, too.

Have any of all y’all ever been to Hyde Park in London? There is a spot there called Speakers Corner where you can place a podium (used to be a wooden soap box) on the ground and stand on it to speak on any subject you care to discuss. Maybe a few feet away another person is speaking on the same subject, but directly opposed to what you’re saying. Which one is the “blocker”? Just a thought from observations in our Mother Country.

Here in the U.S.A., Congress is so formal when in session. Gone are the days of catcalls, duels and even fights on the floor of either the Senate or the House. Tune into C-SPAN and watch the segment called, “Questions for the Prime Minister.” There they yell and jeer. Here in Santa Clarita we wave our hands.

Sorry. I don’t understand the hand waving. Since the cameras don’t show the audience during meetings in council chambers, we are often left wondering what the folks are doing. At least with applause, you got a feeling for the “action.” Not applauding is a little like having our very own “blocker” in a City Council or Planning Commission meeting. Dare we say, “First Amendment”?

Now I know that during the rather contentious billboard ordinance meetings, the noise from all of the clapping was a little long and loud. SO WHAT? We’re Americans – loud, boisterous and often obnoxious, but we will express ourselves in our way. If folks don’t like it, too bad.

I was invited to go with some of the “No on S” folks to a meeting of the Metro board. Seems like the gentleman was concerned that with the Edwards signs being removed, Metro would go broke. Well, Metro may well go broke – but not from a lack of billboard revenue. They also wanted to ask again about the “blockers” hired by Allvision.

Sorry, I cannot accept the invitation. I think the folks getting paid to gather signatures and those trying to block them are like the folks on boxes at Speakers Corner in London. The method used to exercise the right to speak was different, but it was all part of the First Amendment.

Anytime a right is in any way infringed, it is a right refused. That isn’t up to City Council, Metro, the “No on S” folks, the state Legislature, Congress or the president. It is those certain “inalienable” rights that are from the Creator, and nothing stands in the way.

So next time I’m at a City Council or Planning Commission meeting wearing my cowboy outfit – including boots and leather vest, with Stetson, too – I shall applaud or wave my hands or do anything I deem appropriate for what is being said. Unless really moved, I shall refrain from using the phrase, “Yippee-ki-yay” or something like that.

Sure is fun being rebellious. Come join in the fun.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].