Madness
to take a direct flight
into the storm
Submit my body
to random searches for poetry
as if metal detectors
read metaphor [Read more…]
Gold Mountain Sisters
By Grace Yee / Women’s Museum of California
I grew up in New Zealand, the southernmost white settler post on the Pacific Rim – a place known by my forebears as the “New Gold Mountain” 新金山.
In the 1860s, my great-great-grandfather left his home in Toi Shan 台山 county in Kwangtung (now Guangdong) Province, South China to work on the North American railroads. He died in 1874, when the ship he was returning home in was ambushed by pirates in Hong Kong harbour.
His eldest son, my great-grandfather, unable to enter the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, ventured to New Zealand in 1884, where he established a laundry business in the capital city of Wellington. His only son, my grandfather, founded a bank, a whisky distillery, a grocery business and a pharmacy, and raised a family of five sons, of whom my father was the third. I treasure this family history, for it affirms my Chinese New Zealand origins, but I have long wondered why my foremothers don’t feature in this narrative. [Read more…]
Progressive Calendar for San Diego February 3-13, 2017
Activism works, particularly when it is on many levels. Demonstrations, teach-ins, forums, phone and letter writing campaigns all have cumulative effect. And while not every battle can be won –Trump will get most of his cabinet– they effectively shift public opinion and the tone of media coverage.
It took sixteen months for the Watergate scandal to convince 40% of Americans of the need to impeach President Nixon. Donald Trump made it in less than two weeks. [Read more…]
School Children Afraid in South Bay, Disrespect Felt by Much of Mexico
Children in South Bay school districts have expressed fears ever since Donald Trump was elected President. Superintendent Francisco Escobedo of the Chula Vista Elementary School District wrote to parents across the district telling them that their elementary schools were safe areas for students of all citizenship situations.
“I received an email … from a teacher, thanking me for that letter that helped her talk to her child and ease his fear, because he came to school crying,” Escobedo said. “He came to school in fear that someone will come and remove him from the classroom.”
The district is one of California’s most diverse with 68 percent of students Hispanic and 35 percent are learning English. [Read more…]
Frederick Douglass Opens Twitter Account and Trolls Trump
While Mike Pence decided to recognize Black History Month by honoring a white man, Donald Trump was busy vaguely listing the few black people he’s heard of throughout his 70-plus years of ignorant life in a zero-hearted attempt to care about anyone other than himself.
One such man was Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave turned abolitionist, author, suffragist, editor and diplomat. Here’s what Trump said:
“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.” [Read more…]
Climate Change: No One Is Exempt
Luckier Americans are insulated from many everyday worries, like struggling to pay the rent or mortgage on time. Some even enjoy life in gated communities, fine dining and first-class travel. But, just as money is no guarantee of happiness, neither is it assurance of protection against all of the frightening impacts of unchecked global warming.
2016 was the third straight year that the Earth’s temperature was the hottest on record. Contrary to what one might hear in politicized discourse, climate scientists are nearly unanimous in concluding climate change is happening and is the result of burning fossil fuels for energy. [Read more…]
ACLU Files Demands for Documents on Trump’s Muslim Ban
Press release provided by Edward Sifuentes / ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today with its local U.S. Customs and Border Protection office to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the president’s Muslim ban, acting in violation of federal courts that ordered a stay on the ban’s implementation.
The filing today is part of a coordinated effort from 50 ACLU affiliates, which filed 18 FOIAs with CBP field offices and its headquarters spanning over 55 international airports across the country. [Read more…]
Trump Kicks Off Black History Month By Suspending Investigations of White Supremacists
Or, As the World Spins, Day 12
I’m suffering from Post Traumatic Trump Disorder.
Jon Stewart called what’s going on “vicious chaos” recently and I have to agree. So today’s column is just a list of all things I wish I could write about but can’t figure out which one is most deserving.
So, since I last looked, the President of the United States has… [Read more…]
Prominent Democrats, Community Activists Call on Labor Leader Kasparian to Stand Down
Four years after the Bob Filner scandal, little has changed with the leadership culture in the centers of power on the left in San Diego–namely labor and the Democratic party.
The enablers and apologists for workplace sexual improprieties, gender discrimination, and retaliation continue to use the political clout and cash flow of their organizations as a shield, preventing them from answering for their behavior or learning from their mistakes.
Engaged women are leading the resistance to what portends to be an era of oppression and repression. They can’t fight the good fight locally or nationally if women within this movement are subjugated by abusive men in powerful positions. They cannot be expected to roll up their sleeves to make changes only to realize the institutional power they need amounts to more of the same. [Read more…]
The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: The Not-So-Great Depression and WW II Come to Logan Heights – Part I
The Mexican Repatriation and hard times
Editor Note: “Build a wall” and “Send them all back” have become the mantra of the Trump campaign and Republican party. This is not the first time in our history that racism and xenophobia have threatened our democracy and the lives of our citizenry.
Between 1929 and 1944, over two million people of Mexican descent were repatriated to Mexico. Sixty percent of these individuals, 1.1 million, were American citizens. This encore presentation of Maria Garcia’s article originally published in 2015 provides insight into how this policy affected the lives of people living in San Diego at the time.
As William Faulkner observed “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” [Read more…]
I Do Not Remember Ever Being this Depressed Over the Results of an Election as this One.
I Do Not Remember …
In all of the years I have voted – and I have voted in 31 scheduled elections plus special elections – ever being as depressed over the results of an election as I am of this one. I do not ever remember the feelings of despair every time the candidate of my choosing lost. I do not remember the tremendous depression that I feel now; the feeling of helplessness; the feeling of doom. [Read more…]
One-Third of Working Age Families in San Diego Can’t Make Ends Meet
Latest data shows more than 1 million people living in families with incomes too low for expenses
Center on Policy Initiatives
A new report from the Center on Policy Initiatives finds that a third (33%) of all household in San Diego County have incomes below the level needed to cover basic living expenses.
Women and children are most impacted, largely because employed women throughout the county earn 74 cents for every $1 paid to men. Among households headed by single mothers, 69% have incomes below the bare-bones level known as the Self-Sufficiency Standard. [Read more…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 203
- 204
- 205
- 206
- 207
- …
- 747
- Next Page »
