EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was written by David A. Lehrer, former Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League; and Vice President Joe R. Hicks, former Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission. They are the president and vice president of Community Advocates, a nonprofit organization that advocates innovative approaches to human relations and race relations in Los Angeles city and county.

Our Tipping Point 

By David A. Lehrer and Joe R. Hicks

Malcolm Gladwell's best seller explores the "tipping point"---that moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, "tips" and spreads like wildfire. 
 
In the past few weeks we have reached a "tipping point" locally. Organizations with normally benign missions and legitimate purposes have abused, misused and /tipped /into malevolence by using their nearly unfettered power to serve their narrow interests. 
 
Public employee unions, which once focused on securing and safeguarding appropriate pay and working conditions for their membership in hostile political climates, have flexed their muscles in strangely inappropriate ways. They have pushed public officials who, for the most part, they had a role in electing or could potentially defeat, to promote lousy public policy that is far afield from the traditional domains of labor-management relations. 
 
It's been a long time coming, but the past few weeks have made clear that unless there are some courageous voices willing to say no to the unions, Lord Acton's admonition about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely will be proven true once again, and at Los Angeles' expense.