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The Starting Line – Looking Back on When San Diego Said ‘No’ to Honoring Martin Luther King

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The year was 1986, and San Diego, like much of the nation, was swept up in a national discussion about a new holiday commemorating MLK’s contribution to US history. Legislation (signed three years earlier) making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday was going into effect, and many cities around the country were honoring the slain civil rights leader by naming streets and buildings after him.

It seemed like a no-brainer for the San Diego City Council, then led by Mayor Maureen O’Connor. After some deliberation they announced that Market Street would be renamed Martin Luther King Way.

The reaction of merchants along Market Street, spurred on by developers eyeing redevelopment possibilities, was strongly negative. Claiming that they’d been excluded from the decision making process, they organized the Keep Market Street Initiative Committee and delivered nearly eighty thousand signatures to the city clerk, a move that put the question, eventually known as Proposition F, on the November ballot.

Black community leaders felt that the impetus behind the campaign was racism, pure and simple.
  [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: What does Martin Luther King mean to you?

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On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day [in 2013] I attended the All People Celebration that took place at the San Diego Public Market here in Barrio Logan. With the event taking place in my neighborhood I wanted to put together a column that somehow related to MLK. Since every news media outlet in San Diego was covering the event I knew I had to think up a different approach than the rest of them. So, as I walked the two blocks from my apartment to the location of the celebration I decided that I would ask as many people as I could recognize a single question: What does Martin Luther King represent to you? These are their thoughtful responses.

“Non violent change. We gotta be a better society.”
– Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego

“To me it’s about service to others. How are you doing something to make the world better? How are you part of making the world better. You do that by being in service. In my case, as a public servant, days like this make you feel good. It’s what you work for. It’s what you strive for.”
David Alvarez, San Diego City Councilman District 8 

And more than a dozen other San Diegans chime in….come on inside!   [Read more…]

Can National Grassroots Push Depose the ‘Billion Dollar Democracy’?

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Elections are now awash in unregulated money and ruled by the nation’s wealthiest, but can a grassroots effort stem the assault on democracy?

By Jon Queally, Common Dreams

A new report released Thursday puts an exclamation point on the outlandish and outweighed influence that wealthy individuals and corporations have in a post-Citizens United world by showing that a mere 32 wealthy donors—with an average gift of almost $10 million each—gave as much money to largely unregulated Super PACs in 2012 than all the country’s individual small donors gave to the Obama and Romney campaigns combined.

And though the 2012 election is behind us, many activists—now equipped with the experience of what a modern democracy controlled by millionaires and billionaires looks like—are hoping that fundamental changes can be made to correct the corrosive impact of shadow money and undue influence.

As the new report by U.S. PIRG and Demos, “Billion-Dollar Democracy,” shows, those 32 multi-million dollar gifts, in essence, outweighed the collective voice of 3.7 million individuals who gave individual and transparent campaign contributions to the candidate of their choice. Moreover, most did so under a veil of secrecy using shadow non-profit groups and shell corporations created specifically to launder political giving by masking the identities of financial sources.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – 24 Things San Diegans Can Do to Honor the Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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“The time is always right to do what’s right.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

It has been twenty seven years since the first federal holiday marking the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King was observed. Like all good things, establishment of this commemorative day didn’t come without a serious effort. It wasn’t officially observed in all 50 states until 2000.

The movement for a holiday honoring Dr. King began as a union demand in contract negotiations. Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill four days after the assassination in 1968 to make the slain leader’s birthday a national holiday.

The bill would likely have died in committee, and stayed buried, had it not been for thousands of working-class Americans–most of them black, but also white, Asian and Latino–who risked their jobs over the next fifteen years to demand the right to honor a man they viewed as a working-class hero.

For those of us lucky enough to be able to celebrate holidays, this coming weekend is (or should be) different. I’ve combed through local listings in an attempt to create a comprehensive and easy to use guide for people who wish to honor the memory of Dr. King through community service and celebrations. There are activities listed here for people spanning all levels of physical ability, age and political persuasion. You can sign up for many of them with a mere click of the mouse.   [Read more…]

What Would We Do Without Wishful Thinking?

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In last week’s column I noted how the tax increases on the 1% included in the “fiscal cliff” deal amounted to little more than the political equivalent of a love tap for the rich because upper income tax rates remain much closer to their historic lows than to their mid-twentieth century highs.  This is disheartening because, as the political narrative shifts toward some form of austerity in the name of deficit reduction, our country’s historically high level of economic inequality remains deeply entrenched and there simply will not be enough revenue to engage in a robust progressive program centered around “nation building at home” as President Obama likes to say.

In sum, the unemployment crisis and other key social and economic needs will take a back seat to deficit reduction and the battles will not be about whether an austerity agenda is the right course for America but rather what form of austerity program we should pursue.  While there is an impressive list of eloquent critics (from Paul Krugman and Robert Reich to Joseph Stiglitz and Bernie Sanders) bemoaning this wrong-headed approach, we seem destined to ignore them and head down a road that spares the comfortable while further burdening the afflicted.   In elite opinion circles, it’s a bipartisan consensus.   Sure the wing nuts on the right are crazy but the even the Democrats are largely wedded to the gospel of Simpson-Bowles.

But isn’t this bitter medicine that will make us all better in the long run?  No, it’s bad policy that amounts to a not too-thinly-veiled class war.    [Read more…]

Showdown at San Onofre: Why the Nuclear Industry May Be Dealt a Big Blow

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By Harvey Wasserman / Alternet

Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement aimed at eradicating nuclear power.

They sit in a seismic zone vulnerable to tsunamis. Faulty steam generators have forced them shut for nearly a year.

A powerful “No Nukes” movement wants them to stay that way. If they win, the shutdown of America’s 104 licensed reactors will seriously accelerate.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: January Happenings in Barrio Logan and Beyond

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Sometimes I take for granted the things that are happening in my barrio and the surrounding areas. I consider myself lucky to live in a community that cherishes culture in all it’s varied forms. I have Chicano Park, The Roots Factory, The Spot Barrio Logan and The Voz Alta Project all within two blocks of my apartment. My community is a living creature, alive and vibrant, with culture oozing out of it’s streets and alleys like sweat from a worker’s brow. For the most part I know what is going on around here.

Because I usually know the haps in Logan I sometimes fail to realize that others may not know what’s going on. Therefore as a service to not only my community but also the greater San Diego community at large I will regularly compile a list of cultural and activism related events that will be taking place. This list will not only feature events taking place in Barrio Logan and the rest of the Historic Barrio District but events elsewhere in San Diego that I think readers of this column and San Diego Free Press should consider attending. Most will be hosted by the places I normally frequent (and places I should frequent normally) and many will be related to Chicanismo, Native issues, lefty causes and other stuff that I’m down for. Please support these grassroots cultural happenings, spaces and organizations by attending their events and, if so inclined, throw a few bucks their way.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Hunger Coalition: Working to End Hunger

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By Brigitte Taylor

The San Diego Hunger Coalition (“SDHC”) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving access to and participation in federal food programs. They educate and advocate on the local, state and national levels with a vision of extinguishing hunger and malnutrition within the County.

In light of the flurry of charitable acts that traditionally emphasize holiday giving, I wanted to explore what we can do on an ongoing basis to assist local food and nourishment-related programs any time of the year.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: US Supreme Court to Take Up Gay Marriage March 26-27

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Agence France-Presse

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 26 and 27 on the sensitive topic of gay marriage, one of the thorniest social disputes in modern America.

Same-sex marriage is currently barred by a federal law, yet legal in nine states and the capital, Washington.

The court’s announcement last month that it would take up the issue received cheers from opponents and advocates of the practice alike, who said a ruling by the justices could help settle the topic.   [Read more…]

Why I Became a Volunteer Coordinator for the 2013 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count

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I didn’t expect my life to change as a result of my research for articles about homelessness for The Huffington Post. But that’s exactly what happened.

In the course of my research, I contacted several lead agencies of Continuums of Care (CoCs) in California to learn about their responsibilities.

As you may know, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires each Continuum of Care (CoC), a group of service providers with a lead agency, to conduct a biennial Count during the last ten days of January, of homeless people living within its geographical area. Some CoCs, including the one in San Diego, California, conduct their Counts annually even though they are not required by HUD to do so.

  [Read more…]

Day of Service, Filner Speech on Tap for MLK Day

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The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council has announced plans for its annual “Day of Service” honoring the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King.  Volunteers are being encouraged to participate in a neighborhood clean-up project at Parkside Park (map) on Monday, January 21st from 10 am until noon.  Here’s the link to the Facebook signup page.

Alliance San Diego has announced that Mayor Bob Filner will be the keynote speaker for the 25th annual All People’s Celebration of Dr. King’s birthday.  Filner will address this year’s theme, The Art of Change. Mayor Filner first became an agent of change at the young age of 18 when he boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled through the Deep South as one of the Freedom Riders challenging racial segregation.   [Read more…]

Grassroots Democracy Takes Patience at the Ocean Beach Planning Board

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The meeting room at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center was quickly filling up last Wednesday night, the 2nd of January, as the monthly meeting of the Board was about to begin. No “OB-time” here, as the Chair, Jane Gawronski, gaveled the meeting to order right at 6:00 pm. In the audience was a “who’s-who” of the community’s merchant establishment and friends, and it included the heads of the OB Town Council; the merchants’ group, the Mainstreet Association; the local non-profit OB Community Development Corporation.

  [Read more…]

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