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Archives for May 2014

My Sister’s Voice

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By Ernie McCray

Alexis Dixon, a friend of mine, recently emailed me that he was working on a new project and I’m already hyped because I remember the last project which was the first of the “Notes to Our Sons and Daughters” series.

That was a wonderful evening, with a beautiful collection of photographs so I’d say the next show, “My Sister’s Voice,” is a must go for anyone who can go.

 This stylized black and white international photographic collection is unveiled to us by Alexis and the Center for Community Solutions (CCS) which provides prevention and intervention services for violence and abuse.   [Read more…]

Howard the Homeless

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By Bob Dorn

About 50 feet away, at another bench, a metals guy with two giant white bags calls out, as I take a rest, “Can you play something.”

It’s not exactly a question, but it’s no insult either. It is an interruption, but then so is the trumpet played in the park.

I was doing exercises, at length, three of them: a sounding of all tones on the horn, from a wobbly low F that’s nearly false on up to high C; about 20 odd fingering combinations down in the lower range that are to the fingers what tongue twisters are to the tongue; and II-V-I chord progressions in all 12 keys.

They’re meant to defeat the sometime player. I know I’ll never be able to execute them flawlessly.   [Read more…]

The Isla Vista Shooting, #YesAllWomen and Misogyny Writ Large

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Margaret Atwood famously said that men’s greatest fear is that women will laugh at them, while women’s greatest fear is that men will kill them. Misogyny and male entitlement are sustained acts of aggression against women that everyone should be invested in opposing. –Clementine Ford

By Doug Porter

Today’s column will be focused on media coverage of–and some observations about– the shooting Friday night in Isla Vista.

The coverage was predictable, ala: “a mentally disturbed young man went on a shooting spree. It seems as though he had some sort of problem with women.” A worldwide reaction via social media kept the “problem with women” part of the media equation from becoming an afterthought.

The Associated Press account featured in UT-San Diego got around to mentioning the “some problems with women” part about 10 paragraphs down, in keeping with the “if it bleeds, it leads” media mantra.   [Read more…]

Memorial Day: Remembering 70 U.S. Wars, Big and Small

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By Clancy Sigal / Alternet

Except for mourning family members and Boy Scouts loyally placing tiny flags on veterans’ gravestones, hardly anyone knows anything about Memorial Day except that it’s a day off. It’s the saddest of the military holidays, invented after the Civil War, supposed to help us honor, or at least pause to remember, all the American dead from all  our wars. That’s a lot of men and some women to remember going back, well, how far?

Big and small, we’ve “done” about 70 wars starting with the mid-18th century so-called French and Indian wars where George Washington was bloodied and when we got our first taste of industrially massacring Native Americans, mainly Ojibwas and Algonquins who sided with the French against our British masters.

Before penicillin, it’s hard to get an accurate sum total figure of all those combat deaths because so many men died of disease and what was later called shell shock.   [Read more…]

Stanford University Divests From Fossil Fuel Stocks

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By John Lawrence

Stanford University has decided to divest its $18.7 billion endowment from coal stocks in response to a student led movement – Fossil Free Stanford. This is part of a larger movement among students to get their colleges and universities to get rid of fossil fuel stocks. Fossil Free Stanford petitioned the university last year to divest from 200 fossil-fuel extraction companies as part of a national divestment campaign.

In their wisdom the Stanford Trustees limited their divestment activities to 100 fossil fuel corporations. Evidently, divesting of stocks in 200 companies was considered to be a little bit too extreme.

Surprisingly, Stanford, home to the right wing Hoover Institute, acceded to most of the students’ demands. The Hoover Institute is a think tank closely associated with Republican politicians and Presidents who have derived many of their policies from Hoover fellows including Condoleeza Rice who gave some intellectual credibility to George W Bush’s lies which enabled him to invade Iraq.

  [Read more…]

San Diego City Works Press Calls for Submissions for Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana

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By Jim Miller

San Diego City Works Press is soon approaching its 10-year anniversary. SDCWP is run by a 100% non-profit collective and is the only small literary press in San Diego that focuses primarily on the publication of local writers with an emphasis on our region that moves beyond the postcard version of our reality.

In an era where commercial forces and hegemonic instrumentality are drowning out what remains of literary culture, we have persisted against the odds. We invite all interested parties to be a part of our beautifully useless endeavor.

To celebrate our anniversary, we are putting together a second edition of our first anthology, Sunshine/Noir II. All local writers are encouraged to submit work for consideration.   [Read more…]

Man Can’t Live on Cabbage Alone

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Americans need credible nutrition advice they can trust, not a choice between quacks and “experts” sold out to junk food companies.

By Jill Richardson / OtherWords

I ran into an acquaintance recently and he told me he’d started seeing a new nutrition expert. “You know what?” he said, “It turns out I’m gluten intolerant.”

OK. Him and everyone else. I told him I was glad he found an expert who could help him.

A week later I saw him again. “I went back to the nutritionist,” he said. “I can’t have nightshades either.” That means no more potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, or eggplant.
  [Read more…]

Poll Shows Latinos Do Not Support the War on Drugs

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Latino community most disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs and unprecedented levels of incarceration

By Phillip Smith / Drug War Chronicles

A bill that would significantly reform California’s drug sentencing laws is poised for approval in the state Senate, and a new poll showing strong support for sentencing reform among Latino voters could help push it over the top.

Senate Bill 1010, the Fair Sentencing Act, would equalize the penalties for sale of crack and powder cocaine. Under current California law, crack offenses are treated more harshly than powder cocaine offenses. The bill would also equalize probation requirements and asset forfeiture rules for offenses involving the two forms of the same drug.

Sponsored by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), the bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee last month and the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. It now heads for the Senate floor. It needs to pass in its chamber of origin this month or it dies.

The bill is supported by dozens of community, religious, civil liberty, civil rights, drug reform, and other groups. It is opposed by the California Narcotics Officers Association and the California Police Chiefs Association.   [Read more…]

Poem: White Like Us

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All the salons in the city couldn’t perm that culture out of her hair

By Raymond R. Beltran

When I was young, I thought I was white,
my skin being much lighter
when I stood next to a black boy,
and we all spoke English
unable to grasp culture.
English, Spanglish, Caló, Spanish,
The transition has been devastating.
Pocho! They used to scream.
Standing there, speechless,
I thought I would cut out my tongue.   [Read more…]

CA Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Fracking Moratorium Bill 

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“The costs to people, homes and the environment remain unacceptably high, but we now also know that the projected economic benefits are only a small fraction of what the oil industry has been touting.” 

By Dan Bacher / DailyKos

In spite of the millions spent by Big Oil on lobbying in Sacramento every year, the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday voted 4 to 2 to approve a bill, SB 1132, to place a moratorium on fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in the state.

SB 1132, authored by Senators Holly Mitchell and Mark Leno, now moves to a vote on the Senate floor. Senators Gaines and Walters voted against the bill while Senators De León, Padilla, Hill and Steinberg voted to advance the bill to the floor.

The bill moved forward the same week that the U.S. Energy Administration reduced its previous estimate of recoverable oil in California by 96 percent.   [Read more…]

A History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: The Construction of a Community Oven

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SDFP exclusive series The History of Neighborhood House: From 1918 to the occupation in 1972

By Maria E. Garcia

In the 1930’s many of the homes around Neighborhood House did not have the facilities for the women to bake. Mr. Tijerina, an unemployed baker who lived at 4650 Cersa Street, volunteered his services. He reconstructed an oven in the yard at Neighborhood House. With the help of other men in the neighborhood, they dismantled an oven, which had been used in an old bake house near Neighborhood House. The bricks from the oven were donated by Mrs. P.J. Benbough. The only cost to Neighborhood House was twenty-five cents for a bar of angle iron that was used over the oven door.

The oven offered the women opportunity to bake and to once again gather and socialize and in today’s parlance, network.   [Read more…]

San Diego Free Press Contributor Update: Recognition and the Continued Pursuit of Justice

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Karen Kenyon, Richard Juarez, Will Falk, Sam Ollinger, Ishmael von Heindrick-Barnes, Frank Gormlie and Brent Beltrán

By staff

San Diego Free Press contributors and editors are involved in myriad activities beyond writing articles for this site. We would be remiss if we don’t mention some of those activities that have occurred this month.   [Read more…]

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