Readers Write

Thumbnail image for Readers Write: My Take on the Gun Debate

Readers Write: My Take on the Gun Debate

by Source 05.07.2013 Readers Write

Eds Note: This was sent to us as a comment on John Lawrence’s piece Two Year Old Girl Shot and Killed by Five Year Old Brother Wielding ‘My First Gun’.  It was on the long side for a comment, so, with the author’s permission, we are publishing it here.

By Paul Broadway

I know that a young child was killed. I hold the parents accountable, that being said, I know the gun control issue is a divisive and polarizing issue in America. I believe that this divisiveness and polarity is due to the fact that our country has a “Gun Culture” that is based in our laws and traditions. I also believe that the gun violence in America is directly associated with our business, media, and political system and not the product of the actual guns that are available to the American people.

The reason that I believe this?

Let’s take a look at the National Rifle Association. The NRA was once an honorable organization that trained youth organizations and police departments in firearm safety, marksmanship, and responsible gun use.

Today, the NRA is a political shill for any private interest that contributes to their organization. I go to the San Diego Police Range on a regular basis to practice my pistol and revolver skills. I don’t see much good the NRA is doing for the citizens of San Diego at the San Diego Police Range.

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This is Your Captain Speaking

by Source 03.31.2013 Readers Write

By Dave Beekman

Fast Forward to year 2025… You have purchased a ‘Business Class’ ticket and are flying at 35,000 feet in a pressurized cabin and in need of a stiff drink since you heard the last announcement from your ‘Captain’… actually a ‘surrogate’ Captain as the real person flying your plane with 150 souls on board is actually sitting in an overstuffed Executive chair… one hand on the A-300 Airbus joystick and the other helping her 5 year old child with cursive writing homework… one eye on the flat screen monitor showing the progress of your plane since the Low Fuel light went on and the other… a mess the kid has made of his lunch….

Yep… It’s “Bring Your Kid To Work Week” and Captain ‘Flo’ (last names not revealed due to personal liability concerns) is ‘multi tasking’ if you want to call it that…

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Neighborhood Solar Power

by Source 03.29.2013 Business

By Jay Powell 

Last week state Public Utilities Commissioners at a March 21 hearing threw down the gauntlet. Declaring that the sun don’t always shine and we have to guarantee reliable power for SDGE customers, they said San Diego had two, maybe three years to convince them not to let SDGE charge its customers for two new proposed gas-fired “peaker” power plants.

Peaking power is needed usually on the hottest days when air conditioners and other appliances and equipment are cranked up full. This is, of course when solar photovoltaic panels are at their optimum output. But there is a purported catch. SDGE and conventional power plant developers claim that there is a lag time in the late afternoon when solar generators output is waning, but peak loads continue to require more electricity. That is one of their key arguments for a new kind of peaker plant that best runs in an “intermittent mode”. They even claim that these plants are essential to promote more renewable energy.

So what is it going to take to meet this challenge? First, we are going to have to recognize that the deck is heavily stacked in favor of SDGE and conventional power plant developers. In spite of the promise and demonstrated potential of solar energy and energy efficiency, the current energy supply paradigm favors building more power plants and more transmission lines. The regulatory framework is set to reward that kind of system. Since the PUC is required to provide the investor owned utilities (IOUs) like SDGE a guaranteed rate of return on their asset base, the more they build and own, the more they make.

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Thumbnail image for Hotel Pharaohs, please break matzah with us

Hotel Pharaohs, please break matzah with us

by Source 03.25.2013 Activism

By Rabbi Laurie Coskey

My grandmother had two seasons, each lasting half a year: Before Passover and After Passover.

For Jewish families, the festival of Passover is the biggest holiday of our year. The dinner is planned for months, with exotic dishes from the Old Country (wherever that may be) made only for the holy day.  And always, the story of the Exodus is recited around the holiday table.

The story of Passover recounts the hard labor endured by the biblical slaves during the time of the tyrant King Pharaoh – who oppressed them through inhumane working conditions and retaliation for their smallest complaint – and ends with their subsequent liberation.  It’s a good story.

Today, the story applies here in San Diego to employees of the Pharaoh-like hotel management company, HEI… 

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Readers Write: San Diego Community and Workers Stand Up and Speak Out Against Walmart

by Source 11.27.2012 Activism

This article was submitted to us via our Facebook Page.

On Friday, November 23, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, community members and workers protested outside of several Wal-Mart locations throughout the country.

In San Diego the community focused on ten locations including one located in the College Grove shopping center.  As shoppers came into the store community members greeted them with stickers for shoppers to wear inside the store that read “We Support Wal-Mart Workers”.  Many of the community were very supportive and one shopper said “she would wear the sticker proudly and ask management why they retaliated against it’s own employees”.

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Labor Council Head Lorena Gonzalez: ‘San Diego Progressives Have a Lot to Be Thankful For’

by Source 11.15.2012 Activism

Passage of Prop 30, Defeat of Prop 32 and Bilbray, Filner and Roberts Victories All Are Cause to Celebrate

By Lorena Gonzalez

San Diego’s progressive community has a lot to be thankful for this November. We passed Proposition 30, defeated Proposition 32, took down Brian Bilbray and elected Bob Filner our next mayor! And for good measure, we elected Dave Roberts as the first Democrat and first fresh blood of any kind on the county Board of Supervisors in two decades.

In the process, we swept through dozens of school board and city council races across the region and elected leaders like Dr. Shirley Weber to continue the good work in Sacramento – now with a supermajority that has the ability to break the stranglehold of Grover Norquist’s no-tax pledge.

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