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Jerry Brown’s Moment Arrives with the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris

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By Keith Fowler / SD350.org 

On the eve of a critical UN global climate summit in Paris in December, Governor Jerry Brown, a self-described environmentalist and green economy advocate, needs to bring California’s economic policies into alignment with his strong climate change statements.

Governor Brown has been sending citizens mixed messages.  Despite signing an Executive Order earlier this year calling for a reduction in California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, he continues to refuse to place a state moratorium on the dangerous practice of fracking. Despite declaring at the Vatican in July of this year that climate change is serious enough to be “about extinction,” Governor Brown still accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Big Oil, an industry that continues on its mission to extract and emit every last barrel of oil regardless of ecological consequences.

President Obama’s invitation to the governor to join him as part of the U.S. delegation traveling to Paris offers Brown the opportunity for bold action. Obama’s recent decisions to halt further construction on the Keystone XL pipeline and to attend the Paris conference are both evidence of his desire to be seen as a promoter of green, clean energy and climate change mitigation. For Brown the same opportunity beckons.   [Read more…]

New Private Security Patrol Alarms OBceans

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By Daniel /OB Rag

Though not widely discussed, the presence of a new security force in Ocean Beach has some OBceans alarmed.

National Public Safety has been retained by the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association to “keep Ocean Beach family-friendly by enhancing public safety in specific geographical locations” … this after the OBMA dumped Elite Services USA (the red shirts) for general ineffectiveness.

As a security force, neither outfit has much leeway to effect actual change in terms of cleaning up the streets. Security guards in California are private citizens, and have no powers of arrest beyond that of any other private citizen and they’ve no power to temporarily detain anyone [editor: although they can make “citizen’s arrest” and detain someone until police arrive – much like supermarket security can do].   [Read more…]

What to Do About a School Named After Robert E. Lee?

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By Lucas O’Connor

I’m not from San Diego.

I grew up in Arlington, Virginia, surrounded by the Lee-Custis Mansion, Lee Highway, Washington-Lee High School, and Jefferson Davis Highway. A place where schools and streets co-mingle presidents and traitors. Raised in a house a mile and a half from the intersection of Lee Highway and Lincoln Street with no apparent embarrassment or irony. Maybe it’s a perfect metaphor.

I know a little bit about what it means to be raised as though the Confederacy is an awkward family footnote we try not to bring up at Thanksgiving, even in an otherwise liberal bastion like Arlington (Obama twice won by 40 points there). I know growing up that way warps you. There’s no way around it. When these people are not only normalized, but memorialized, it’s a struggle to grasp the enormity of what they did.   [Read more…]

Can BikeSD Make a Dent in Income Inequality through Advocacy and Embracing Equity?

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By Sam Ollinger / BikeSD

Last year, Councilmember David Alvarez appointed me to represent his council district, District 8, at the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee. It was an incredible honor and a challenge, because I live in Council District 9, not 8. In an attempt to understand the district, the needs of the community, and the challenges I would be dealing with, I met with one of Alvarez’s staffers for coffee one morning.

At the meeting, the staffer told me, in no uncertain terms, that bike infrastructure was not necessarily a priority for the district. I was a bit blindsided and it has taken me almost an entire year to understand what she meant when she gave me the low-down on District 8. This post is an attempt to explain that understanding.   [Read more…]

#MillionStudentMarch and the Soul of Higher Education

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By Andrew J. Mackay

The Million Student March emerges from a long-running crisis. A public good, an educated citizenry, is being misclassified as a private luxury in the name of profit. It emerges from growing mass resistance to what higher education has become- expensive, corporatized, exploitative.

115 marches are planned for this Thursday, November 12. They span the entire country, from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa to Montclair High School in New Jersey. Institutions private and public, small and large, famous and obscure.   [Read more…]

My First Tour of the US/Mexico Border

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By ChaKiara Tucker

On October 24th, I woke up at 7:00 am and brushed my teeth. As I stood in the mirror executing my morning routine, my mind raced with thoughts about my plans for the day. I, ChaKiara Tucker, a black woman from the most southern parts of the U.S., was going on my first tour of the United States/Mexico Border. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement, I was afraid.

Would they shoot me on sight because of the hue of my skin? Would I be stopped and have my constitutional rights snatched from me? Am I coming back home? 

Questions that may seem farfetched to others were running a marathon through my head.   [Read more…]

How TV Weather Reporters are Aiding and Abetting Climate Change Eco-collapse

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By Bill Adams /SanDiegoUrbdezine.com

On June 2, 2015, San Diego’s independent TV station KUSI set aside a segment of their weather report to editorialize about climate change.  The message: climate change is minimal and natural – not man made.  The message was delivered by Mark Mathis, KUSI’s weather reporter who has an A.S. degree in meteorology.  Mr. Mathis based his argument primarily on the two following assumptions:

1) That climate change science relies largely on recent weather events and that these events have historical precedent.

2) That there has been no climate change since 1998.

A quick fact-check rebuts Mathis’s claim regarding climate stasis since 1998, as discussed in Forbes, hardly a left-biased media outlet.  And of course, while recent weather events are consistent with climate change predictions, they do not form the basis for those predictions.  (See also Bill Moyer’s excellent Eight Pseudoscientific Climate Claims Debunked by Real Scientists.)   [Read more…]

Nana: Remembering an Island Girl

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By Olympia Andrade Beltrán

Brown skinned and beautiful,
Island girl the youngest of six.
Inner fire bursting forth from dimpled smiles.
Her Island rises up from the streets of Sherman Heights,
a great temple where love and family are revered.
Ancient smells of chocolate and roasted chiles
mixed with silky ballads of Jorge Negrete
coloring her walk to Stockton Elementary school
with piñata vibrant flair.
Obsidian hair, wild and unruly,
whips behind her as she defies gender stereotypes
with a line drive to center field.
Playground boys high five her when the game is over,
despite sideways glances from starch pressed girls
tightly clutching their school books.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: A Halloween Horror Story

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By Matt Valenti

I trust, Dear Reader, that you will forgive me if the tale I am about to repeat frightens you more than it ought, but this is a tale that insists upon being told.

Though I had good reason to doubt the veracity of the story when first I heard it, nevertheless, it has left me with a sensation of nagging anxiety that, like a perverted old roommate from college who has overstayed his welcome on your sofa bed, simply won’t go away.

Therefore, I beg of you, by all means keep this story well hidden away from the eyes and ears of the more impressionable and naïve among us in this fair city of San Diego—including small children, foreign tourists, and members of the city council.   [Read more…]

The Story of BikeSD : A Labor of Love

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By Sam Ollinger / BikeSD

In early 2009, three strangers met on a bicycle ride and began talking about the lack of a cohesive gathering space to talk about bicycling issues. These strangers (Will Karstens, Thom Bahde and me, Samantha Ollinger) went on to found BikeSD.org – a blog that would serve as a single source of news about bicycling in San Diego. Little did I know that BikeSD the blog would eventually turn into one of San Diego’s largest independent member based advocacy organizations.
  [Read more…]

Reflections on Palestine: Symbols of Homeland

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By Pedro Rios

As I traveled throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, it was evident to me that life under Israeli occupation means that Palestinians must live under a constant stage of siege.  Israeli military and police forces use violence to enforce apartheid-style policies to control every aspect of Palestinian life. I heard many stories about how the Israeli government flagrantly violates international human rights conventions and agreements, and witnessed examples of how Palestinians live with unreasonable restrictions that are meant to humiliate and demean an entire people.

In spite of this, there were natural resources that have become symbols in Palestinian life that call for a dignified homeland. These symbols – water, olive trees, and cactus plants – all are palpable objects that transcend the callousness of occupation because they represent long-lasting survival, in spite of what appears to be a permanent occupation. Below, I offer my brief reflections on each.  I believe they each merit a more just and thorough contemplation for what they’ve come to mean to Palestinians.   [Read more…]

Day of the Dead: When Indigenous Practices Meet Spiritual Traditions

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By Antonieta Mercado

The Day of the Dead celebration is a syncretic mix of Latin American indigenous practices and Catholic spiritual tradition. Families in many Latin American countries and U.S. communities honor the spirit of the dead as the ancestors did by creating altars or ofrendas (offerings), placing favorite foods, photos, special bread (“pan de muerto”) and other items associated with the ones who are gone.  

The traditional cempazúchitl or zempoalxóchitl flower (marigold) that is used in altars symbolizes the color of death (yellow) for many indigenous groups, such as the Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Nahua. It is believed that the yellow color of the flower can be seen by the dead, so its petals are placed forming a road directing the souls to the altar. Abundant marigolds are placed in different forms, either as an arch, or in flower vases around the altar.

European colonization also brought religious syncretism to this custom, and placed the current celebration on November 1st, to honor the souls of dead children, and on November 2nd to honor the adults who had passed. November 2nd is also All Saints Day in the Catholic Tradition. Pre-Colonial festivities honoring the dead used to last from one to three months, depending on the particular group or region. For example, the Nahua, Totonaca, and Maya, believed that the dead would go to the underworld or Mictlán region to meet Mictlantehcutli, the dual male/female deity of death.   [Read more…]

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