In your hands, my fellow citizens

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. 

Draiman officially running for mayor of Los Angeles - 2013

YJ Draiman officially running for mayor of LA - 2013

Press release – January 25, 2011

YJ Draiman officially running for mayor of Los Angeles - 2013

"I want to fight for a better future for all the people of Los Angeles, and that's why today I'm announcing my candidacy for mayor," Draiman said.

I decided to run for Mayor of Los Angeles. Before I could make that commitment, I needed to free up the time required to do the job right.  Therefore, I decided to devote full time to the job of Mayor.

I am motivated by the wish to serve the Los Angeles community and protect our quality of life.  I have the skill, experience, long time community involvement and personal commitment to lead the city.  I will work hard to preserve residents’ priorities and the city’s coffers, during the difficult financial times ahead.  Some of my more specific goals are encouraging economic vitality, preserving and improving the City infrastructure, protecting the quality of our neighborhoods, supporting our open space and bicycle trails programs, working with the Neighborhood Councils and the Chamber to encourage local, innovative green businesses, and proper Urban Planning for Los Angeles, among others.

I previously ran for City Council in District 12.

I decided that to do the job right I must run for Mayor.

I am an Energy/Utility Auditor/Consultant for over 20 years.

I am married to a darling wife, we have two grown children – my oldest son is David Draiman a famous Rock Star with a Band by the name Disturbed, my younger son is a Psychologist doing research.

I am looking forward to being elected and serving the people of the City of Los Angeles.

We must work together as a cohesive force to improve our city.

“Transparency and accountability is my motto”

YJ Draiman for Mayor – 2013

WEB:  http://www.draimanformayor.org/

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

A happy life? Isn't that what we all want? So, presumably, we have a clear idea of what happiness is. Surely it's obvious, you may say: happiness is having everything you want. And since what you want costs money, it would follow that money is the password to happiness. So the happy man must be the one who earns the most money: the brilliant businessman, the top executive, the go-getter. Surely he's got all it takes for a happy life. What else is there? At any rate, that is what the successful people of this world tell us. They praise ambition up to the skies, and how they look down on the lazy one (good-for-nothing) who seems to lack this quality.

But if we are to go into this matter properly, we had better ask ourselves whether we have ever actually seen a happy man. If we ask other people whether they have ever met or seen happy people, they are sure to answer, "Of course we have." And we may be inclined to think the same way ourselves. Of course--we tell ourselves-- there may be rich people who are unhappy, but in the main, surely, riches and happiness are identical.
Anyway, these people look happy enough. When we see their palatial homes, their dinner parties, their servants, their chauffeured limousines, their pockets lined with money and precious stones, we are forced to conclude that--unless disaster strikes--they are the happy ones.
But this answer would be extremely superficial. If we want to go into the matter systematically, there is only one way to do it. We must go among people and ask them about themselves. It is no good asking one person about the other; we must ask each one how he himself really feels; then we might get closer to the truth. What do we find?

ASKING THE PEOPLE

Let us start by asking the rich--those who have more money than they know what to do with, who live in mansions and travel in the most expensive cars. What do they tell us if we can get them to talk with complete honesty and frankness? When it comes to the point, they will all let out the secret: they are not happy. They may have achieved wealth and riches in a strictly limited and limiting sense, but when it comes to happiness--they are still very far away.
Jealousies and lusts disturb their peace of mind; domestic troubles are rife; their wives are bored, their spoiled children grow away from them; their sons are insolent, their daughters rebel; they suffer endless troubles of this sort. And don't think that these troubles are incidental. Nothing of the kind; all of them develop from the situation of affluence itself. "No one dies with half his desires fulfilled''; so, dissatisfaction and frustration are the lot of even the richest person. We won't find happiness here.
Let us try asking others. Perhaps the middle-income bracket? These people generally work very hard and long hours for their money. Let's find out from them if they have somehow hit on the secret of happiness. But when we investigate, we find something very surprising.
They work hard all their lives, often getting stomach ulcers in the process, but they never seem to find time to enjoy their money. During their working years, they are always busy preparing for happiness. However, when their working life is over, they find they are too old; the zest has gone out of life, and they cannot enjoy their leisure. They did nothing in their lives but work and, without a day's work to do; they can hardly find any point in living. So when are they happy? Never.
Perhaps we'll find happiness if we go further down the social scale. Let's ask the workers. They work hard day by day, and sometimes nights, for their weekly wages. But they are never satisfied because they feel that they are getting a raw deal; they are missing out on all the good things of life. They feel they are being exploited by the rich. They--the workers--produce the wealth, but they are not allowed to enjoy it. Others rob them of the fruit of their labors. Is this happiness?
Surely not.
Where, then, do we find happiness in this world of ours? This was our question, and we found no answer. It seems we can hear only an echo resounding from all the world--"A happy life? There is no such thing!" This would seem to be an established conclusion, confirmed and re-confirmed whichever way we look at the problem.

FINDING A REMEDY

But then we have to ask: Why should God have created such a great and wonderful world so that everybody in it, everybody without exception, should live in misery and anguish? This cannot be the case either. There must be a way out. There must be some way of repairing this terrible misfortune which has befallen the whole of mankind. We must search for the remedy; we must find the key to happiness. We can be sure that God, the source of all goodness, must have provided the world with a way to happiness; it is only up to us to find it. But before we can find the remedy, we shall have to diagnose the disease. What is this epidemic disease, of world proportions, that robs us of all happiness in life?
The Bible, have already told us the answer. It is stated clearly, "Jealousy, lust and status-seeking remove man from the world." (1) The world, as God made it, is a happy one. It is we who have removed ourselves from the world of happiness to the world of suffering by means of these three evil desires. So we only have to run away from jealousy, lust and prestige--that is, to banish them from our hearts--in order to transform the world into one brimming over with happiness from end to end. Then, we will find that we shall not only have happiness, we shall have riches, too.
The Bible say: "Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion." (3) They do not say that he is also rich; they do not say he is very rich; they simply say "He is rich"--period! The fact is that one who is not satisfied with his portion in life-- whatever it may be--is not only not happy; he is not rich. In material terms he may have millions in the bank, but he is not rich; he is poor.
What does being poor mean? It means not having what you need. If a person wants and needs something that he does not have, he is poor, however much he may have in the bank. We shall find, in fact, that the so-called "rich" man is much worse off than the "poor" one because his ambitions and needs are so much greater.
The poor man's needs are easily satisfied, but the rich man's desires and prestige-seeking are never gratified; they can never be gratified, because satisfying one need only leads to the next, ad infinitum. If we look at each of them as he sees himself--not as the poor man views the rich--we shall see that they are both very badly off; they both live miserable and frustrated lives; but, if anything, it is the "rich" man who is worse off than the "poor." But the one who has conquered his lusts, who makes do with a minimum and is happy with his lot--the one who needs nothing that he does not have--he is the rich man. No one else in the world is rich but he.

DIRECTING ONE'S AMBITIONS

Who is this man? Let us take a closer look at him. We said he has banished desires and ambitions from his heart. Does that mean that he is a weak-kneed person, without energy, without "drive"? Is that what we call life? Is he like an old man, with no goals, no desires, with all his vital energy spent? Could this be what we mean by a happy life?
No! Certainly not! Nothing could be further from the truth. What we mean is this:
There is no happiness in the world in material things; there is. Only happiness in spiritual concerns. The one who enjoys a rich spiritual life is happy. There is no other kind of happiness in existence.
We see this in individuals who understand Bible. Those fortunate people who devote their whole mind and desire, enthusiasm and ambition, to the pursuit of Bible and wisdom--they experience what true happiness means in this world. We are not talking about the world to come; we are talking about this world--here and now. Of course, there is no happiness without goals, drive, and ambition; indeed, these things are life itself. But it all depends on what the goals are; to what ends the drive and ambition are directed.
Happiness is when the goals are attainable, when they depend on no one else for their fulfillment, when they are independent of those self-frustrating urges called jealousy and status-seeking. When can that be? Only when the ambition flows from love of Bible, love of wisdom, love of admonishment -- the desire for true ethical living.
This kind of ambition can be realized by ourselves alone. The more energy, the more drive, we put into attaining these goals, and the happier we shall be. We shall be the happy ones of this world. This is the meaning of the Bible, "This is the way of Bible: You will eat bread and salt and drink water by the measure and make the floor your bed--and labor in the Bible"--that is, if you are ready to do all this because of your tremendous enthusiasm for Bible; if all the things that the world holds dear mean nothing to you because the only thing that matters to you is your progress in Bible, then--"happy are you in this world." (4) You are the happy one in this world; you, and nobody else. This is the Bible-truth about happiness.

My name is YJ Draiman and I am running for Mayor of LA

My name is YJ Draiman and I am running for Mayor of LA 

Our current economic crisis is the number one concern of every American. It is time we exercise our constitutional right.

It is a government by the people for the people.  It makes no difference whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or any other political affiliation. It is time America’s citizens take control of their destiny and country starting from the city government to the county, state and the federal government. All elected officials must be accountable to their community and its residents. Our current budget crisis was brought about by the current administration – do you want this to continue and lose city services. I am a soldier in the battle to restore fiscal sanity for our district and our city, improve the economic well being of the district and the welfare of all residents.

Capitalism has not failed. The people in charge of the economy have failed Capitalism!!!!! Capitalism has been hijacked by career politicians, who disguise themselves as representatives of the people.

Enough is enough; we need to replace as many incumbents as possible, the changing of the guards must be implemented and the political machine dismantled, business as usual must stop here and now, government treasury should not be the personal piggy bank of the politicians.

We need new representatives in our government, representatives whose allegiance is to the residents of their district, representatives who care about Los Angeles surviving the current economic crisis and becoming better for it.

We must reduce big government - The bigger the government the less efficient it is.

Our energy consumption is growing rapidly; we must produce a hundred percent of our energy needs in our own country.

We have the manpower and technology, let us utilize it.

We must encourage new businesses, create more jobs and stabilize the economy.

Government cannot create jobs. Government should be reduced by at least fifty percent, streamline government, enact laws, rules, regulations and taxation that are friendly to small business. Encourage investment in our economy and workforce.

This economic crisis is a national emergency.

People are losing their jobs and homes, and we must establish a mechanism similar to the Manhattan project of World War 2, with an all out genuine national effort to resolve the current economic crisis which threatens to destroy our country.

Transparency and accountability is my motto

YJ Draiman for Mayor of LA

(March 5, 2013 Election)

Contact:  yjdraiman@yjdraiman.org   818-366-6999

Yehuda J Draiman For Mayor of Los Angeles

YJ Draiman for Mayor of Los Angeles

(March 5, 2013 Election)

Contact:  yjdraiman@yjdraiman.org   818-366-6999

  “A vote for DRAIMAN is a vote for you”

Current Elected Member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council with the goal of  

active public service to make the Valley a safer and better place to live, work, and raise a family.

     “Transparency and accountability is my motto”

Decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world for many generations into the future. Ensuring that decisions being made about our energy, water, and natural resources are sustainable is central to this belief.  This also applies to political, financial and economic decisions that affect/obligates current and future generations.