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1968: A Year of Loss and Hope

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1968. A year of loss and hope for me.

One of my losses was my marriage which, after years of rough waters, sunk like the Titanic, unsaveable, destined for a rocky shore.

But one thing I had going for me in my depression was the love of the beautiful young people in my sixth grade class, the fun I had learning with them: writing poetry and prose with them; giving life to characters and situations in social studies with them; playing with numbers in a variety of ways, questioning current events everyday…

Did those young people ever keep alive what little hope I had for anything. They inspired me to “Keep the Faith,” to resist the madness in the war in Vietnam, to forever be “Black and Proud!” and willing to say it out loud.

But sometimes, that year, my personal life would just be too much to bear.
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Authoritarianism Thrives on Demoralization: How to Fight Trump and Stay Psychologically Healthy

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My daughter was a newborn when Donald Trump was elected. On Election Day, I dressed her in a pantsuit, covered her in feminist stickers, and ensured she saw me voting. We took lots of pictures. I wanted her to know she was part of the moment in history when the first woman president was elected. So waking up to a Trump president hit me hard. I feared for my daughter’s future, and for my own.

Like all traumas, eventually this one began to feel normal. Trump has changed our sense of what we can expect little by little, horror by horror. But this week was especially bad. This was the first week that I felt as horrible as I did following the election. This month was the first time I thought that my fears about the end of democracy might really come to fruition. I envisioned a world without abortion rights. I thought about what might happen to my daughter if a pregnancy ever threatens her life. I wondered if my OB might be willing to write me a “just in case” abortion pill prescription.

My friends who have always lived in fear—black mothers who worry if their sons will come home, trans folx who wonder if their mere existence will get them killed, immigrants who worry they too might one day be ripped from their children—repeatedly emphasize to me how enraging it is to see white privileged liberals only now becoming worried about democracy.   [Read more…]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez On Her Win And ‘The Start Of A Movement’ | Video Worth Watching

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All In’s Chris Hayes interviews Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her campaign and her win.   [Read more…]

Immigration and Family Separation: 9 Facts vs. Fiction

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By Michelle Martin, PhD Cal State Fullerton / Reposted from Facebook

Have you heard that children were separated from their parents under Obama & Clinton? Then, you need a little Facts vs Myths lesson. Michelle Martin, PhD Cal State Fullerton summed up the most important FACTS:

There is so much misinformation out there about the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy that requires criminal prosecution, which then warrants the separating of parents and children at the border. Before responding to a post defending this policy, please do your research…As a professor at a local Cal State, I research and write about these issues, so here, I’ll make it easier for you:

Myth: This is not a new policy and was practiced under Obama and Clinton. – FALSE.

The policy to separate parents and children is new and was instituted on April 6, 2018. It was the brainchild of John Kelly and Stephen Miller to serve as a deterrent for undocumented immigration, approved by Trump, and adopted by Sessions. Prior administrations detained migrant families, but didn’t have a practice of forcibly separating parents from their children unless the adults were deemed unfit.   [Read more…]

San Diego Needs a Citizen Commission on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs

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By Rebecca Paida

The saying goes, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu! This statement suggests that advocacy by supporters is essential but that lived experiences also matter. If people with first-hand experiences of a particular phenomenon are not part of decision making processes, then they will likely get left out. For many underrepresented and under-served populations, including refugees and immigrants in the San Diego region, this is a reality that they must confront. While some residents actively participate in civic discourse at the community level, that is the extent of their contributions. This is in part because they have little or no opportunities to affect policies at the City level and beyond, due to a lack of inclusion.

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Lost in Pursuit of the American Dream | Dear Ohio, Part 7

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It would be simple if we could think of Ohio – or any of our 50 states – as composed of only two sets of citizens: those who know the truth and those who don’t. But we Americans are all more alike than different. And we cannot sever our fortunes from each other.

Nevertheless, our ignorance of each other is killing us. Lost in our illusion of perfect “American Independence” – that fictional state in which we thrive without help from anyone else – we have one mantra: Every man for himself. (Or every woman.) We have neither the inclination nor the time to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before we judge them unworthy and leave them behind altogether.

Rich or poor, white or not, religious or non-religious, voters or non-voters, whatever our differences, we are we and they are they. They made their bed; they can lie in it. Of course, if they are rich or famous, we want to know what kind of sheets they have, the types of food they are served in bed, the fabric of their night clothes, and with whom they sleep. If they are poor, sick, elderly, refugees, homeless, hungry or struggling in any way that requires the help of someone else to survive, we advise them to take personal responsibility for their predicament.

We cannot be our brother’s keeper while we are lost in our own pursuit of the rapidly disappearing American Dream.   [Read more…]

How Progressives Win: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Video Worth Watching

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I’m tired of hearing the “Democrats don’t stand for anything.” refrain. As The Nation notes, Ocasio’s campaign boldly called for “a federal jobs guarantee, a national $15 minimum wage, expanded Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, 100 percent renewable energy by 2035, immigration reform, and the abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Her YouTube web page adds “We can do it now, and we can do it without corporate money.” She just won her primary campaign, defeating a corporate Democrat entrenched in the position for 20 years who raised over $3 million (only $26,496 of it from small individual donations) for his campaign compared to Ocasio’s $300,000 ($208,000 from donations of $200 or less).   [Read more…]

Fear Mongering 101: MS-13 as the New ISIS

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Are you afraid yet? The Central American gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is everywhere in the news. They have officially replaced Al Qaeda and ISIS as the new poster children for why Americans need to live in fear.

Lately, I’ve seen what I thought were otherwise sane people mouthing government gibberish in social media about this group.

Don’t get me wrong. This gang and gangs, in general, are not nice people. They commit crimes to support their activities and are capable of extreme violence. But the narrative of MS-13 as a reason for more border security or immigrant roundups is severely lacking in substance.   [Read more…]

Lemon Grove Oral History Project: Lemon Grove Incident

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History and historical background of the 1931 court case on desegregation and the first successful challenge on segregation in the nation

By John Valdez / Lemon Grove Oral History Project

In 1930, a small rural community in the county of San Diego, California, called Lemon Grove was home to a hundred or more Mexican-American families. These families were mostly situated on Olive and North Avenue Streets near the central avenue called Broadway. The only elementary school was called Golden Avenue School and it’s there that this story begins.

The Lemon Grove School Board members voted to build a separate school on Olive Street for the 75 Mexican-American students who were attending the Golden Avenue School. As the Spanish speaking members of this quiet community became aware of the board’s decision to remodel an existing barn-like structure for all the Spanish speaking students, thereby creating a separate school for them, the families of these children dissented.   [Read more…]

MJ Hegar for Texas – Doors | Video Worth Watching

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Here’s a kick-ass campaign spot. Air Force combat veteran M. J. Hegar is a Democrat running for office in Texas’ deep red 31st Congressional District and this campaign ad explains how doors play a pivotal role in her journey. For those who thought first female fighter pilot Amy McGrath’s campaign ad was inspiring and impressive, Hegar’s ad takes it to the next level.   [Read more…]

The ‘Fundamental Decency’ of Japanese Internment | More Video Worth Watching

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Putting a happy face on human misery. We’ve been here before. Remember how this turned out: litigation, legislation—the Civil Liberties Act of 1988—authorizing reparation payments to Japanese Americans who had been interned, eventually totaling nearly 1.6 billion, that began in 1990, with the last payment occurring in February 1999.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s June Primary: Winners, Losers, Winners Who Lost, and a Flip Flopping DA

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We’re a couple of weeks past the June primary. While there has been no change in those claiming victory, there are bits and pieces of data emerging worthy of further analysis.

First up: Voter turnout. The depressing numbers bandied about (I saw one guesstimate as low as 19%) in the days following the election just weren’t correct.

In the 2014 primary election, 27% of voters cast ballots. This time around, the number is 39%, according to the County Registrar of Voters. Not great, but I’ll take it for now. There are 15,000 ballots still to be counted.   [Read more…]

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