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When We Vote, We Win. Will We Vote in San Diego?

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Over one million registered voters in San Diego County can be expected not to vote in the upcoming election. To be precise, the number of ‘not voters’–if turnout is similar to 2014–will be 1,240,981.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, voter turnout in the June 2014 primary was a mere 25% of those who registered. This number is even lower than the national average, which was only 36% of eligible voters actually voting.

Looking at the expected number of voters for San Diego compared to those are eligible to vote is even more depressing: 1,800,933 people will not cast a ballot.   [Read more…]

About That Caravan in Mexico … | Video Worth Watching

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About that caravan in Mexico …

Back on April 1st, Trump tweeted that [it’s] “Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

So who are these people that so terrify Trump? For ten years the organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras has been working with Central American refugees and migrants to provide humanitarian aid. This year one effort Pueblo Sin Fronteras is making is to help the migrants tell their own story. Here is a brief video made several weeks ago at the beginning of April.   [Read more…]

Historic Rallies at Rep. Issa’s Offices to End This Week: A Retrospective

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This IS What Democracy Looks Like

The weekly rallies outside the Vista offices of Congressman Darrell Issa are ending this week on April 24. Organizers say they intend to transfer their efforts into getting out the vote to flip Issa’s seat from a reliably Republican vote to a determined Democratic resister of President Trump’s policies.

Mail-in ballots are due to arrive in two weeks, so activists are moving on to drive up turnout to ensure that at least one Democrat will get through the June 5 primary.

All-too-often we fail to celebrate our successes. Let us not forget what hard work and persistence can accomplish. Following are some my ‘greatest hits” snips from past coverage of the weekly rallies:   [Read more…]

Last Days in Ocean Beach: Reckoning with the Anthropocene

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By Jennifer Cost

I have spent a lot of time in the past thirty years kayaking, hiking, and backpacking in the western United States–in Alaska, the Sierra Nevada, the Lost Coast, the Wind River Range, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Beartooth/Absarokas, the Grand Canyon, the Anza Borrego Desert, and the San Juan part of the Colorado Rockies.

On every backpacking trip for the past twenty years, I have walked through or around larger and larger areas of charred forest, and from most mountaintop views, rust brown swaths of dead conifers cut through the healthier dark green forest of the surrounding mountains.

In the backcountry, I routinely scan the sky for foreboding plumes of smoke, and once a year find myself walking through a smoky haze, wondering if this hike would be my last.  I have always walked out. But for millions more of the world’s species, there is no escape from fire, drought, dying oceans, and epic deluges.   [Read more…]

Putting My Love in Play

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I recently wrote a rhyme about all the love I’ve enjoyed for 80 years, and now I’d like to share how I’ve put that love in play.

Regarding that, I have to say that loving has been easy for me because my life’s work has been dedicated to schools which are perfect places for spreading love.

And my intent, all along, has simply been to make my world more just for all human beings – beginning, in a moment in time, when I was in grade school myself.

I can still picture the day. There was a sweating fan blowing across a little container of water as though that could affect the temperature in a classroom in Tucson, Arizona, the first weeks of school.
  [Read more…]

Supernova Women — Restorative Justice, Legal Weed and the California Cannabis Enterprise | Video Worth Watching

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From the HuffPost YouTube web page:

The Oakland-based collective Supernova Women is working to inform, support, demonstrate and advocate on behalf of communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. Their aim is to push local government to create more opportunities for people of color and those convicted of cannabis-related offenses in the early stages of a booming industry.

  [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: April 15-21

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week contains articles, commentaries, columns, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, cartoonists, at-large contributors, and locally and nationally sourced writers on National Poetry Month, Council Districts 2 & 4, rotten County officials, Last Days in OB, Ernie turning 80, Yasser Murtaja, education fakers, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s feisty, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

On the Nature of Daylight – Max Richter | Video Worth Watching

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So today is a study in contrast when compared to yesterday’s selection. To follow Kendrick Lamar’s powerhouse performance, here is Max Richter’s contemplative and scintillating “On the Nature of Daylight”. I took in the movie Arrival recently and this work featured prominently in the soundtrack. So, breathe deeply and slowly and reflect on the nature of daylight …   [Read more…]

Who Is This Latest Pulitzer Prize Winner, Kendrick Lamar? | Video Worth Watching

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Pulitzer Prizes are awarded for excellence in newspaper journalism, literary achievements and musical composition. Rapper Kendrick Lamar was chosen for this year’s music prize. So who is Kendrick Lamar? First, a bit of an introduction: Kendrick Lamar Visits Mr. Mooney’s Class.

A North Bergen, N.J. high school teacher, Brian Mooney, blog posted on the internet a project that his class created to explore the connections between Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye and Kendrick Lamar’s song “Complexion” from his album To Pimp A Butterfly. The internet posting was incredibly popular and eventually came to the attention of Lamar, motivating him to visit the high school and Mr. Mooney’s class. Highlights from the visit:

And now for the full-on Kendrick Lamar experience from the 2018 60th Grammys, with assists from U2 and Dave Chappelle:   [Read more…]

Can We Have a Conversation About Capitalism Yet? | Progressive Activist Calendar April 20-30, 2018

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Dig deep enough into any of the issues of the day and you’ll find they all have one thing in common: economics. Yes, indeed, money makes the world go around. And the fact is most of us are getting a smaller piece of the economic pie as the years go by.

Our fearless leader’s tax reform package is worthless and 73% of the American people have already figured that out. Take the illusion of empowerment out of all the ‘reforms’ (of either political party) and what’s left is more wealth for the people who already have it

The contemporary conversations starting back in the days of Occupy about the 99% have evolved. Nowadays we speak of economic justice. Generally speaking, these discussions center on the reallocation of government resources to alleviate the most blatant examples of those falling through the so-called safety net.   [Read more…]

Organic Spirituality | Geo-Poetic Spaces

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A mosque
may also be a church
if the beholder’s eyes
can marry minaret to
round-arched windows

If two houses of worship
can grow together

Minds
can mirror architecture   [Read more…]

Tammy Duckworth Makes Senate History (Again)! | Video Worth Watching

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Tammy Duckworth makes Senate history (again)! The Washington Post reports that:

It’s not every day that a 10-day-old infant makes history. But that’s what happened Thursday when Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, newborn daughter of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, was carried onto the Senate floor.
Maile, born April 9, became the first child permitted on the floor of the Senate under a rules change that allows children up to age 1 to accompany their parents to votes.

  [Read more…]

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