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Remembering the Real Martin Luther King Jr. Without Apologies

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As we celebrate the rich legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am drawn back to my favorite speech of his, “Where Do We Go From Here?”. This was Dr. King’s last address as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, given toward to end of his life in 1967. It outlines two core principles of King’s unfulfilled legacy that united the questions of racial injustice with those of economic inequality and rampant militarism. It was a deep, radical interrogation of the underpinnings of American society and it still resonates today.

When dealing with the issue of poverty, King notes that, “We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” For Dr. King, this meant looking at the entire society and asking questions about “the economic system [and] the broader distribution of wealth.” It meant thinking about “the restructuring of the whole of American society.”   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: Loyola University Students Experience the Community that is Chicano Park

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On a cold, blustery day in Barrio Logan’s Chicano Park my toddler son Dino and I had the opportunity to connect with some college students from Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland who were in San Diego for their annual Project Mexico trip. Project Mexico is a program of the university’s Center for Community Service and Justice.

The Center’s website states that Project Mexico provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to immerse themselves in a 10-day intense service and educational exchange with the peoples and communities of Mexicali and San Diego. During their stay in Mexico students participate in community directed projects and engage in cultural and social activities and education programs that address topics such as immigration, the environment, human rights and political and economic issues.   [Read more…]

Obama Calls for Assault Weapons Ban; Chastises Congress for Serving Gun Lobby

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By Adele M. Stan / Alternet

President Barack Obama [on Wednesday] took to the White House podium to deliver a strongly worded statement calling on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, to limit sales of magazines to those that contain no more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and to close a loophole in the law governing gun sales that allows purchasers of weapons at gun shows to skip the background check required for gun purchases in retail establishments.

Then he walked over to a small desk and signed executive orders that he said would provide greater resources for school safety, educate mental health workers on their options in reporting threats, and one that directed the Centers for Disease Control to conduct research into the causes of gun violence. All told, Obama’s plan includes 23 executive actions.   [Read more…]

Filner Throws Cold Water Over San Diego Budget Surplus Expectations

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Mayor Sanders’ $12 million budget surplus projection did not account for looming realities.

Last year Jerry Sanders stood in front of the cameras and gave us a bit of great news: After years of crippling budget deficits, the City of San Diego would be running a $12 million budget surplus in 2014. Our problems are solved! All Hail Jerry Sanders, the savior of San Diego!

Filner, on Tuesday night, took the wind right out of those sails. He said those projected budget surpluses could actually be as much as a $40 million budget deficit, despite all of the austerity measures enacted during the Sanders administration.

Yeah, sure, we’ve heard all this before from Filner. But this was different. This was no longer a campaign talking point or rhetoric. He’s now the mayor, and this was the State of the City Address. This was for real.

Although he never mentioned Sanders by name, he accused his predecessor of some shady accounting tricks in order to protect his mayoral legacy; of fudging the numbers so that he could say he left behind the first budget surplus in recent memory. Filner accused Sanders of deliberately misleading San Diego taxpayers.   [Read more…]

Taking On the Government Tyranny Gun Control Prophecy

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By Doug Porter It’s about time somebody took on the tinfoil set and their arguments about tyranny coming soon to the US of A.  John Stewart did so last night. My favorite part was where Stewart said conservatives appeared to be “confusing tyranny with the unpleasant burning sensation of losing democratic elections.” Watch. The Daily Show with […]

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 – Shooting Down False Arguments About Gun Control, Starting With the UT-San Diego Editorial Board

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Clearly these guys at UT-San Diego can’t read. The local daily runs an editorial on gun laws and can’t even get their facts straight. Why? Because they obviously can’t comprehend a simple press release.

Here’s what the UT-San Diego said, trying to shore up their gun control arguments with numbers:

While a new Gallup poll shows support for tougher gun laws has increased to 38 percent, the same poll shows 48 percent of Americans like laws as they are or want them loosened.

Except that’s NOT what the Gallup poll said.   [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…]

A Different View of San Diego’s State of the City Event

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When I received my invitation to attend the “State of the City” address I was really jazzed. I had attended a fund raiser for Filner a few weeks before the election and enjoyed talking to him and having my picture taken with him. (I still think it is the best picture he has ever taken!) I met Bob Filner many years ago – many times – when I was a teacher, an administrator and an assistant professor. I was always impressed with him, even though at times I thought he was gruff.

When I called my publisher today and asked if any other reporters were covering the ceremony, I was told that Andy Cohen would be there. So I decided that since Andy was such a great reporter I would have to go about my article differently than planned. Imagine my surprise when I saw Ernie McCray in the audience and found that Andy had driven with Brittany, another reporter. That really meant that I could not approach my article as a “reporters report.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Doctor, Doctor! Give Me the News! Mayor Bob’s Cure for the Urban Blues

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There were a flock of SD Free Press writers at the Balboa Theater last night for Mayor Bob Filner’s first State of the City speech. I’m sure that we’ll provide a variety of viewpoints and plenty of detail as the week goes on. So I’ll skip the details in my report this morning.

I chose to understand Dr. Bob’s speech as a healing moment. He reached out. He promised progress. He didn’t demonize anybody or incite fear to talk about hard choices.

Filner’s metaphor of the City as a healing patient was spot on. What impressed me most was his bedside manner. Bob Filner didn’t have to share the spotlight with Nathan Fletcher, the City Council, the first lady, and the citizens he honored for their public service last night.

But he did. Together, San Diegans can build a great future. Divided, we’ll be going nowhere.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Life in the Slow Lane: San Diegans Spend More Time on the Road than Angelenos

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The Equinox Center, a local think tank focusing on quality of life issues, is expected to release its 2013 Quality of Life Dashboard report for the region on Thursday, January, 17th. A sneak peak at this year’s findings, first reported by Michael Chen of 10News, gives a glimpse into the realities of San Diego from behind the wheel.

The Sustainable San Diego Blog reports on their findings:

 **On average we travel more miles every day than the average Californian.

(San Diego numbers remain higher than Los Angeles County’s, at an average of 12.8 miles per day compared to 10.7 in LA.  More residents of LA take public transit (6.2%) to commute to work compared to San Diego (3.0%)).

**After 4 years of decline, the average San Diegan now spends nearly 40 hours per year sitting in traffic – that’s a full work week.

BREAKING NEWS: Official Drinking Game for State of the City address by Mayor available here. Remember, it’s a school night. (h/t @RachelLaing)   [Read more…]

Filner Farts at the Cotillion

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Can the Voice of San Diego “Tame” the Mayor?  

By Bob Dorn

“He’s abrasive, aggressive, impolitic, caustic, truculent, brash…” That’s from the second sentence Liam Dillon wrote for the Voice of San Diego of July 30.  The first  sentence was,  “Bob Filner stabs you in the front and stabs you in the back.”

The U-T characterized Mayor Bob Filner on October 27, just before the election, as “Brash. Abrasive. Combative.”

The next day, the LA Times more equitably described both Filner and his opponent, Carl DeMaio, as “abrasive personalities.”

Among the self-styled responsible press of San Diego, things calmed down a bit after Filner won the election early in November.  But the honeymoon lasted less than three weeks when, on Nov. 21, VOSD was back at it, calling Filner “loud, abrasive and about as liberal as you can get without running an LGBT studies department.”   [Read more…]

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