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It’s Time to Abolish Columbus Day

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By Bill Bigelow / Common Dreams

Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop.

Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as “well made and of very good intelligence,” and recommended to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that taxing slave shipments could help pay for supplies needed in the Indies.

A year later, Columbus intensified his efforts to enslave Indigenous people in the Caribbean. He ordered 1,600 Taínos rounded up—people whom Columbus had earlier described as “so full of love and without greed”—and had 550 of the “best males and females,” according to one witness, Michele de Cuneo, chained and sent as slaves to Spain. “Of the rest who were left,” de Cuneo writes, “the announcement went around that whoever wanted them could take as many as he pleased; and this was done.”   [Read more…]

Charger Stadium Deal Could Be Key in Block vs Atkins Senate Contest

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By Doug Porter

New polling from the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group indicates increased voter awareness of Assemblywoman Toni Atkins willingness to ease environmental challenges to a proposed publicly subsidized NFL stadium in San Diego may be her Achilles heel.

The September 24-26 survey of a representative sample of 401 likely 39th Senate district primary voters was, according to a summary issued by Hart Research, fully representative of the district by geography, inclusive of variables such as race and partisanship, and has a margin of error of ±5.0 percentage points.

The summary indicated Atkins name recognition and favorability rating are higher among voters on first blush. When voters were presented with positive, similarly long descriptions of both candidates, incumbent Senator Marty Block gained ground. A shorter comparative description mentioning Atkins’s willingness to ease CEQA challenges to the proposed NFL stadium, voter preferences shifted to give Block a 46-to-35 advantage over Atkins.   [Read more…]

SANDAG, Water Agencies Faith Based Planning

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By Doug Porter

Two incredulous tales about the agencies entrusted to look out for the public good opting for short-sighted policies grabbed my attention this morning. Apparently climate change is a mere bureaucratic hurdle and the drought is soon to be forgotten. I guess we just gotta have faith, baby.

Our regional transportation planners are set to approve a proposal no better than the one already rejected by the courts for failing to meet state-mandated greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to the group that took them to court in the first place.

Ten local water agencies are, according to a story in Voice of San Diego, questioning state regulators about the need to continue restrictions on water use. They’re banking on a return to normalcy with the advent of El Nino conditions this winter, and are apparently ignorant of long term trends due to climate change.   [Read more…]

Do All “Black Lives Matter?”

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By Ernie McCray

Damn. One day I’m writing a piece concerning discrimination against lesbians and gays, making a pitch for us to let the now proverbial Adam and Steve or Alanna and Eve feel at ease in just being themselves.

And the very next day, to my dismay, I hear of a little 5-year-old black girl who is kicked out of a school, the Mt. Erie Christian Academy, because she has two moms.

Whoa, right back where I started from. Another story about “beliefs.” Christian beliefs. But I just have to say I can’t see Christ turning some child away from a school with some lame excuse like “The Bible says homosexuality is a sin,” making that little girl, in essence, a victim of her mothers’ sins.   [Read more…]

Oregon College Massacre, More Gun Nut Excuses

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By Doug Porter

A very disturbed 26-year-old man killed nine people and injured seven others at a community college in Oregon on October 1st. He was killed in a gunfight with police officers responding to 911 calls.

The President made his 15th appearance to address the nation following a mass shooting. He was obviously very angry and frustrated.

The blowback from the right edge of the flat-earthers was, as usual, both ignorant and infuriating.   [Read more…]

School Board Trustee Praised, Defended and Investigated, All in a Day at San Diego Unified

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By Doug Porter

School Board Trustee Marne Foster is at the center of several controversies in the San Diego Unified School District. A meeting of the trustees yesterday featured numerous TV trucks lined up outside, partisans and opponents inside, along with three distinct actions and enough drama for a cable mini-series.

Documents released by the district answered many questions raised concerning the School of Creative and Performing Arts, at the center of the current controversy. Responding to charges that Trustee Foster had intervened in school affairs on behalf of her son, the district’s documents amounted to a master class in how to respond to a political controversy: hit’em [critics] hard and hit ‘em long. This situation is far from resolved, however.

Also, the school board authorized an investigation into Trustee Foster’s involvement in a fundraiser on behalf of her son’s college fund and a claim filed against the district allegedly by the child’s father. And they passed a resolution praising Foster for her work promoting equity in the district.  Confused yet? It is complicated, to be sure.   [Read more…]

DeMaio-Reed Pension Measure Flops, For Now

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By Doug Porter

Former City Councilman Carl DeMaio, along with former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, are headed back to the drawing board, following the failure of their latest pension “reform” ballot proposal to gain traction in California.

DeMaio and Reed were hoping to attract funding and political support for a pension reform initiative involving voter approval for each and every future plan throughout the state, negating what is now part of the collective bargaining process.

The California Republican Party failed to endorse the measure during its Anaheim convention last weekend. DeMaio and Reed cried foul last month after the State Attorney General’s office gave the proposed reforms ballot language not to their liking.   [Read more…]

“Blueprints to Freedom” Made Bayard Rustin Come Alive

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By Ernie McCray

I saw “Blueprints to Freedom: an Ode to Bayard Rustin,” at the La Jolla Playhouse a week ago.

I was never so ready for a play to begin as I was that night because Bayard is a huge hero of mine, someone, whose memory, I’ve cherished for a long time.

To me, he was about as outstanding a human being as anyone could be. Ghandi, personified. So tirelessly alive and brilliant and loving and wise, a master as to how to organize, able to gather what he called “angelic troublemakers” together against all kinds of odds, in all kinds of weather. He brought us the moment when Martin envisioned a world, aloud, where “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”   [Read more…]

Another Chapter in Escondido’s History of Hatred

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By Don Greene / Escondido Democrats

The racial history of Escondido is long and filled with many stories of hatred. In 2004 the council followed the lead of Marie Waldron and called for a state-wide immigration police force. In 2006 the council approved an ordinance that required landlords to only rent to US citizens. Since then, we have had street parking restrictions, garage conversion crackdowns, police checkpoints, the only known hand-in-hand relationship between our police force and ICE, and, most recently, the denial of a company to open a housing complex for unaccompanied minors emigrating from Latin America.

One would think, that after more than a decade of racially divisive policies and practices, people who work for Escondido would be more sensitive to the impression that their actions give to the population.

Unfortunately there continue to be those who either don’t care what impression their actions make, or don’t think about their actions at all.   [Read more…]

Ceremony Marks ‘A National Treasure in the Barrio’ Standing Tall at City Hall

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Photos and Story by Miguel Cid

On September 16th, City Hall’s Administration Building lobby doors opened and Barrio Logan’s 45 year old Chicano Park pillars, murals and all, stood tall on display— well, four foot tall replicas did, that is.

The pillars and artwork by members of the Barrio Logan community (names of artists and contributors below), part of “A National Treasure in the Barrio” art show, curated by Chicano Park muralist Victor Ochoa and co-curator Claudia Portillo, will be on display at City Hall until September 19th.

The replicas of the muralists’ work may be small in comparison to the pillars located in historic Chicano Park, but the artwork on display still holds the weight of the resistance to forces of the 60’s, 70’s, and prior to present—the fight and struggle to create a park—and the beauty of people coming together and forming a community with a new identity of the times—a Chicano identity.   [Read more…]

Standing Tall on the Football Field (of Life)

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By Richard Lawrence

Last week I sat and watched San Diego State’s football team beat USD 37-3.

In the second half, a freshman quarterback named Lawrence entered the game and lead the team down the field to its only score–a field goal.

I am tickled pink (a really difficult thing for an African-American to do) to testify to the thrill of watching my grandson face the much larger and mightier SDSU squad and stand tall. It was, however, a stand that he did not take alone. The entire USD team and coaching staff should be applauded for preparing the players to tackle (sorry) a nearly impossible challenge with such enormous pride and determination.   [Read more…]

GOP Candidate Proposes Abolishing the National Labor Relations Board

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By Doug Porter

Republican Scott Walker’s idea for turning around his diminishing poll numbers is to go big with his anti-union cred.

At a speech in Los Vegas, the Wisconsin Governor proposed scrapping the National Labor Relations Board, making right-to-work the default national standard for workplaces, eliminating public employee unions, restricting automatic withdrawal of dues, and forbidding union organizers to access employees personal information.  

In other words, he’s declared war. In the perfect world of Scott Walker, the US economy as far as employees are concerned would completely revert to the 1880’s. Yes, indeedy, get your beggars cups ready to catch whatever crumbs fall off the corporate tables.   [Read more…]

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