Editor Note: The Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is much harder and less popular to do than to simply promise it. Republicans were recently confronted by constituents demanding continuation of their ACA healthcare at rallies across the country. This article from the OBRag archives from 2009 is a reminder of the pitched battle that took place in San Diego to support health care reform. Obamacare, which so many loved to hate has suddenly become a program so many now hate to lose. [Read more…]
San Diego’s Women’s March: Part of a World-Wide Human Rights Movement
In 1913, thousands of women took to the streets of Washington DC on the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration calling for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. More than twenty parade floats, nine bands, and four mounted brigades followed activist Inez Milholland riding on a white horse marching from the U.S. Capitol toward the Treasury Building.
Despite physical attacks by angry spectators hospitalizing more than 100 women, the parade, organized by Alice Paul and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, finished the route. [Read more…]
Free College Tuition in New York State? There’s Good News At The State Level
Taking a page out of the Bernie Sanders playbook, Governor Andrew Cuomo, with Bernie Sanders standing by his side, proposed free university tuition in New York state for residents making less than $125,000 a year. New York on the east coast and California on the west are taking the lead in preserving and advancing progressive values in the Trump era which will probably see conservative values extolled at the Federal level. But Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and others will do all they can to block Republican efforts to shred the safety net for poor and middle Americans. Meanwhile, state and local governments in progressive states will do all they can to advance the cause of values that benefit average Americans. [Read more…]
Holocaust Survivor Ruth Sax and “Try to Remember — Never Forget”
By Steven Goldkrantz / San Diego Jewish Journal
Upon meeting Ruth Sax, one finds a woman who is gentle and kind, with a powerful and positive outlook on life. She is very quiet at first but it’s clear that she can see everything, even your soul, before she says anything. In fact, it’s impossible to imagine all of the things her eyes have seen. Hers is a story told with humility and a sense of pride, in that she survived the great tragedy of our time. Ruth Sax is a notable Holocaust contributor to the South Bay community in San Diego, and now her story has been documented by her daughter, Sandra Scheller, in a book entitled, “Try to Remember – Never Forget.” [Read more…]
What Will Happen To Us? A Chicano Perspective on Trump’s Presidency
By Herman Baca / President of the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR)
With Mexicans, Trump declared open war & tagged Chicanos/Latinos/Mexicanos as the U.S.’s, public enemy number one. Using Mexicans as his political piñata, Trump scapegoated & demonized our people to white Americans as criminal “rapists, murderers, and drug dealers.” Repeatedly he called for construction of a wall along the southern border (but not the Canadian northern border) that Mexico supposedly will pay for, and the deportation of 11-12 million mainly Mexicans (8 million) so-called “illegal aliens,” from their ancestral lands. On CBS’s 60 Minutes he bragged he would immediately deport three million “criminal immigrants.” [Read more…]
Women’s March on Washington Include Growing List of Celebrities
Gwen Pierce / The Chocolate Voice Magazine
“Since the election, so many fear that their voices will go unheard,” said Artist Table Chair America Ferrera. “As artists, women, and most importantly dedicated Americans, it is critical that we stand together in solidarity for the protection, dignity and rights of our communities. Immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, racial justice and environmental rights are not special interests, they affect us all and should be every American’s concern.”
There are also 150+ independently organized solidarity marches that are being planned in all 50 states and in 20 countries around the world. Chelsea Handler will helm a march down Main Street in Park City, Utah followed by a rally. [Read more…]
LGBT+ Rights Movement of 1969 and the Women of Stonewall
Adrianah Moreno / Women’s Museum of California Blog
Gay bars in the ‘60s were some of the only places members of the LGBT+ community could go to, and be themselves without guaranteed prosecution, so it makes sense how the LGBT+ movement was ultimately founded right inside one called the Stonewall Inn, located in New York City. Bars like Stonewall were prone to police raids, where cops would shut down the bars for disobeying regulations targeting LGBT+ people. Most raids went down simply, cops would shut the building down and arrest anyone who wasn’t wearing “gender appropriate” clothing or dancing with someone of the same gender – but most raids weren’t like Stonewall. [Read more…]
“How Do I Explain to My Grandchildren that a Dishonest Man Is About to Take Over the Country?”
For the life of me, I cannot understand why there is still going to be an inauguration later this week. The papers regaled us this past weekend – and practically every day – with more and more dishonesty emanating from the President-Elect. The fact checkers are on overload, checking the lies that are being told and yet nothing – absolutely nothing – is being done to prevent this monster from ruining our country. [Read more…]
Resistance is Not Futile: Trump’s Troubles Are Just Beginning
Another would-be Trump administration official fell by the wayside yesterday, as recently exposed serial plagiarist Monica Crowley backed out as senior director of strategic communications at the National Security Council. She joins former CIA Director James Woolsey and Jason Miller on the list of those who didn’t make it to January 20th.
Nominees for various cabinet positions, including Andy Puzder (Labor), Dr. Tom Price (Health & Human Services), Betsy Devos (Education), and Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) are all in for a rough ride as Republicans rush to get as many as possible lined up for quick confirmation votes after Trump’s inauguration.
And then there is the inauguration, which should serve as a warning for just how dysfunctional and sad the next four years will be. Active resistance at each step of the way is our best hope. [Read more…]
A Little Bit of Aristotle’s Philosophy for the Ethically Challenged GOP
Aristotle was of the belief that “Achieving good character is a process of clearing away the obstacles that stand in the way of the full efficacy of the soul.”
He came up with such an ethical notion somewhere between 384-322 B.C.E. And here we are, as a nation, in the 21st Century, facing GOP powers-that-be in Washington D.C. who, instead of seeking ways to ethically tend to our society’s political and social needs, choose to do whatever they desire whenever they please.
“To hell with the rules,” is their operating policy. I mean first the Republican House tries to weaken the power of an office that keeps an eye out for unethical behavior, and now the Republican Senate just bypasses the “background checks” and “ethics clearances” that traditionally a president’s cabinet nominees have had to go through throughout our modern history before they’re even considered for confirmation. [Read more…]
Dissent Is Patriotic. It’s Also a Powerful Antidote to Propaganda.
By Bethany Woolman / Speak Freely / ACLU
“If you’re to be called a communist every time you stand up for basic American rights and freedoms, what’s likely to happen? Will you be silent? And if so, is this what the House Committee on Un-American Activities is really after — a silent, submissive, un-protesting America?” -Ernest Besig, “Operation Correction,” 1961
Fifty-five years ago this January, the ACLU of Northern California was busy filling orders from across the country for copies of its recently produced film, “Operation Correction.” The film was a response to a piece of Red Scare propaganda, “Operation Abolition,” which was produced by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and depicted civil liberties activists in San Francisco as violent “communist agents” bent on destroying the fabric of America.
In those days, the federal government was deeply concerned with the political affiliations of ordinary Americans — if those affiliations were left-leaning. [Read more…]
From the Women’s March on Washington: Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles
The Women’s March on Washington is a women-led movement bringing together people of all genders, ages, races, cultures, political affiliations and backgrounds in our nation’s capital on January 21, 2017, to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and self-determination.
Recognizing that women have intersecting identities and are therefore impacted by a multitude of social justice and human rights issues, we have outlined a representative vision for a government that is based on the principles of liberty and justice for all. As Dr. King said, “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
Our liberation is bound in each other’s. The Women’s March on Washington includes leaders of organizations and communities that have been building the foundation for social progress for generations. We welcome vibrant collaboration and honor the legacy of the movements before us – the suffragists and abolitionists, the Civil Rights Movement, the feminist movement, the American Indian Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Marriage Equality, Black Lives Matter, and more – by employing a decentralized, leader-full structure and focusing on an ambitious, fundamental and comprehensive agenda. [Read more…]
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