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Readers Write: The Right Wing’s Sudden Love for France

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By Daniel Smiechowski

How soon we forget. Let truth be told in no uncertain terms and straight as an arrow.

Flashback to the dark days of late 2002 and early 2003 when “Bring em on,” and “Shock and awe” were all the rage. Americans rallied in the streets like a swarm of locusts in the Western Sahara. Down with the French pansies they chanted while pouring French wine down the gutter.

Former French President Jacques Chirac had admonished President Bush not to invade Iraq and called his decision the worst foreign policy blunder in all of America’s history.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: All I Want For 2015 Is a Better NFL

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By Raul Carranza

One of my earliest memories is from my Dad taking me to the hotel where the Broncos were staying for the ’97 Super Bowl. He is a lifelong Broncos fan and was probably hoping that his adorable disabled son would get him a few autographs from the players.

I was too young to really get the magnitude of the event. Everything I knew about football came from my Dad and I was excited because he was excited.

We weren’t the only people trying to get autographs, but, sure enough, we were able to cut to the front of many lines and get time with a bunch of the players and coaches. We even got to take a picture with the Head Coach, Mike Shanahan. Then my Dad tried to get us to meet John Elway, which not even my wheelchair could penetrate the posse surrounding him. Still, we were happy because we got to see the back of his head … in person.   [Read more…]

Remembering Peter “Pete” Chacon, June 10, 1925 to Dec. 14, 2014

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Educator, Activist, California State Assemblyman 1970-1992

By Paul Chacon

Peter Chacon served in the California State Legislature from 1970 until his retirement in 1992 representing the urban core of San Diego. Upon his election, he became only the second Latino legislator elected to State of California public office in the past (100) years. Together with Alex Garcia, they formed the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a membership of just two.

Peter was born in Phoenix, Arizona on June 10, 1925 to Severita and Petronilo Chacon. His father had served as a commander in Poncho Villa’s revolutionary army and he passed on to his family the passion and determination to fight for what they believe in and to defend the rights of those who can’t defend themselves.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: Conflict and Order, Society’s Pressure Cooker

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By Daniel J. Smiechowski

The recent social unrest in a place called America is as old as time itself. Racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri on the heels of the Michael Brown shooting by a white police officer spilled onto the streets of San Diego, the results of a tea pot left unattended.

Many Clairemont folks missed the point in railing against the protesters. A small group of UCSD Students who chose to block the north bound lanes of Interstate 5 were signaled out as being highly disruptive. Geeze, is that not the point? Are we not blinded in not seeing the forest for the trees?
  [Read more…]

Readers Write: The High Cost of Torture

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By Richard Blankenburg/Quixotic Tales

Today, I am reading about the United States of America sadistically torturing their prisoners of war, during the Afghan and Iraqi Wars. These wars began without a Declaration of War by Congress during the administration of President George W. Bush 2001-2009.

These are two wars that as a patriotic American citizen I refused to support because neither sovereign nation, Afghanistan nor Iraq, was responsible for the terrorist bin Laden’s heinous attack on America, nor did either sovereign nation represent a threat to the United States of America and also because bin Laden was a citizen of Saudi Arabia.

Personally, I had two grandsons serving in combat in Afghanistan; I am proud of their service to their nation, despite my opposition to these wars.

That said, I was intrigued by this article regarding the American sadistic torture of prisoners of war since 2001, in violation of International Law that was approved as treaty by the U.S. Government and by the U.S. Congress.   [Read more…]

Who is Mike McCoy?

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

Eye on the Locals: In the micro-world of our communities, many people dedicate their lives to bettering our neighborhoods and end up bettering the world. Mike McCoy of Imperial Beach is heralded as the individual who helped save the largest coastal wetland in Southern California. Here is his story:

Mike McCoy grew up in Boulder, Colorado and came to San Diego in 1970, the year he graduated veterinarian school and got an internship at the San Diego Zoo. While going to vet school, he worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and it qualified him to land that particular internship. It was the first long extended internship they offered at the zoo.

It was here that he met his wife, Patricia McCoy, an Englishwoman from London who fled to the countryside during the WWII bombings. She eventually became a city council member in Imperial Beach and they both were avid environmental activists.   [Read more…]

Neil Shigley’s Portraits: The Importance of Capturing the Light on the Face

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The character and nobility in the daily struggles of homeless San Diegans

By Taylor Scalise, Filmmaker and Neil Shigley, Artist 

Neil Shigley has been involved in printmaking for many years, first beginning while in art school at San Diego State University and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

He is also a painter, sculptor, illustrator and currently teaches art at San Diego State University.  But printmaking is a medium that continues to capture his imagination and passion.  His subjects are homeless people living on the streets near his studio in San Diego.

Their daily struggle to survive has given them the character and nobility that could not be earned in another way.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Canvass for a Cause–A Cause to Support

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Strictly radical, always queer

By Anna Prouty

Canvass for a Cause was founded in 2009 as a queer canvassing organization focused on marriage equality. It quickly grew into the intersectional queer safe space and radical activism community it is now. In the five years CFAC has been out on the streets, we have worked on issues from banning “Pray the Gay Away” therapy for minors in California to ensuring patients maintain safe access to medical cannabis to, most recently, helping to pass Prop 47.

Our activists are on the street every day changing hearts and minds and educating the public on issues from anti-bullying legislation to the prison-industrial complex. One in every four non-supporters who meet our activists have changed their viewpoint to the side of justice and equality. It is those face-to-face conversations where true change occurs. Without them, every new law passed is just a piece of paper.   [Read more…]

What to Do When Black Friday Isn’t Your Thing

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By Debbie Forward

Black Friday Walmart Actions in the San Diego Area

Grossmont 11am– 8820 Grossmont Blvd, La Mesa
Aero 10am– 3382 Murphy Canyon Rd, SD
Logan 10am– 2121 Imperial Ave, SD

If you’re one of the humans who believe holidays are for friends and families, nobody should be forced to work on Thanksgiving Day, and you steer away from the shopping masses on Black Friday, well, here’s something worthy of your consideration.

Thousands of people like you are signing up to join peaceful demonstrations at hundreds of Walmarts across the country to support the stores’ employees in their quest for decent working conditions. Some of those rallies are already planned in San Diego County. Even in North County. Gasp.   [Read more…]

Video of Nov. 25 City Heights Rally to Demand Justice for Michael Brown

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By Anna Prouty

On Tuesday, hundreds of activists in San Diego rallied in City Heights to demand justice for Michael Brown and all victims of police brutality and institutionalized racism. The rally started at the City Heights Performance Annex and continued in a march down University Avenue.

Protesters marched down the south-bound I-15 ramp where they were blocked by police before turning back and taking the freeway from the north-bound entrance. Hundreds stood on the freeway and blocked traffic for over twenty minutes.
  [Read more…]

Feinstein Delays Controversial Drought Legislation Until Next Year

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By Dan Bacher

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced on November 20 that she has abandoned the secret negotiations to craft a controversial drought relief bill this year, but said she will try to pass the legislation next year.

The delay is a victory by a coalition of fishing groups, environmentalists, Indian Tribes and family farmers who organized an action alert campaign over the past week to defeat the bill. They said the bill would amount to a water bailout for corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that would devastate salmon and other fisheries and family farms.

“Over the past several weeks I have been working closely with members of the California delegation who expressed interest in reaching a bipartisan agreement on legislation to address California’s drought crisis without violating the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act or biological opinions,” said Feinstein in a statement. “Although we have made progress, it has become clear that we will be unable to present an agreed-upon proposal before Congress adjourns this year.”   [Read more…]

National Bicycle Tourism Conference Kicked Off in San Diego

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By Dave Rice

The four-day-long National Bicycle Tourism Conference kicked off in San Diego on Wednesday, November 5, with conference organizers hoping to highlight the region as an increasingly bike-friendly locale for residents and visitors alike. This is the first in the conference’s 25 years of operation that San Diego was selected to host.

Prior to the start of the conference, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition staged a five-mile tour encompassing portions of downtown and Coronado, meant to highlight the nearly-complete Bayshore Bikeway, a 24-mile loop around the bay that’s been under development since 1976, as well as various other improvements that resulted in Coronado being named in 2013 to a nationwide list of certified “bike friendly” city.

The tour kicked off in front of the county administration building, where Supervisor Greg Cox greeted a handful of cycling activists, local media, and national cycling press, offering encouragement for completion of the Bikeway and adoption of more cyclist-friendly policies countywide.   [Read more…]

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