San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Standing Rock Thanksgiving Pilgrimage – A First Hand Account

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By Maria Brown / UrbDeZine

When we are little, we are taught that Thanksgiving is a commemoration of the first meal the Pilgrims and Indians shared. It is a story of strangers working together to survive that first harsh winter in a foreign place, our Native brothers and sisters helping us with their knowledge of the land.

While the origin remains disputed, the “Day of Thanksgiving” was made official in 1637 by Governor John Winthrop. The day was to celebrate white men coming back safely from conquering the Pequot people in Mystic, Connecticut where they had slaughtered upwards of 700 indigenous men, women, and children.

Native Americans mourn this day not only for the repeated massacres and injustices taken against their people since colonization, but also as the loss of their sovereignty.

With the No Dakota Access Pipeline water protectors in the news and images of peaceful Native Americans contending with police brutality, including the use of dogs and water cannons, thousands of us pilgrims could not sit idly by.

We took to the roads departing from a hot and sunny San Diego with the back of our camper proudly displaying a fist clutching flowers with NO DAPL painted underneath. The entire driver’s side stated, STAND WITH STANDING ROCK in tall red and black letters. We were headed to North Dakota.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Next Christmas

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Next holiday season
bells will be ringing:

Tongues hammering
sunken cheeks

Hands
stripped to bones
peeling for handouts from thieves   [Read more…]

Connections Have Gaps

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By Bob Dorn

Some six weeks ago I had my first grand mal seizure. In its aftermath I’ve read only enough about the brain’s temporal lobe, and its neurons and mitochondria to be able to say epilepsy remains a bit of a mystery.

Mystery’s not a word doctors like to combine with illness. After all, there are causes and effects. Modest physicians will go so far as to say we don’t know enough to name the cause and the mechanism that delivers the startling effects of these convulsive explosions.

I went to black immediately after some fascinating warning signs (about which, later). I knew nothing once I was down on the living room floor, gurgling and grimacing, my whole body stiffening. “A man will do that” I joked from the hospital bed, inspiring a laugh from my beloved wife, who’d witnessed the horror from its start.   [Read more…]

Tamales for the Holidays: Ancira and El Ruisenor

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By Barbara Zaragoza

Happy Holidays from North of the Fence! And you know what that means for the South Bay: TAMALES!

It’s hard these days to go anywhere South of the I-54 without someone telling me that they are making hundreds of tamales for friends and family. It’s a Christmas tradition. Granted, most people want to make them at home with many family members participating. But if you’ve got too many things to do before Christmas Day, where can you buy the best tamales?

Tamales Ancira is my #1 pick for the best tamales in San Diego Count. They create a taste bud delight that lets you go back in time over 8,000 years ago when the Mayans and Aztecs made these delectable gems. This small restaurant, located on in western Chula Vista on Main Street, has the largest number of flavors I’ve ever found. They make their tamales fresh and by hand everyday. You can choose from beef, pork, chicken, cheese and jalapeno, picadillo, chicharron, sweet corn, beans & cheese, pineapple, nuts and raisins.
  [Read more…]

Trying to Climb Back to the Mountain Top

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On the Sunday before the election I felt so good, sitting on a rock at Mt. Palomar in the sun. The day before I had gone on an invigorating hike as woodpeckers stored acorns and wasps and gnats and flies flitted about with critters unseen on the run.

I was on the top of the world, my usual self, full of humor, and get up and go.

Election night came along and after the results were in I had evolved into somebody I didn’t recognize. It seemed as though I had been shot with a taser gun that had been designed to take down a Tyrannosaurus Rex.   [Read more…]

The Real Cause of Climate Change: Deforestation!

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By Chuck Burr / The Feed Magazine

It occurred to me what the biggest contributor to climate change was while teaching a unit in our Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course. The greatest driver of climate change or global warming is not fossil fuel greenhouse gases!

I was teaching a permaculture course unit called, “Trees and Their Energy Systems” AKA “We love trees!”. Our PDC course is held late July in southern Oregon where summer temperatures average the mid 90s˚F (35˚C). We teach under two large willow trees to avoid the direct heat of the sun. Its cool and comfortable in the shade under the old trees. If you step out into the direct sun, temperatures jump 12–15˚F .

Then it dawned on me. All 20 students could smoke cigarettes, run their cars and have a camp fire and temperatures would not change. But step into the direct sun from under the shade of mature trees and the temperature rises immediately and significantly. It feels warmer, the soil is warmer and drier with less biology.(1)   [Read more…]

Did You Wake Up this AM in a Warm Home? Thousands of San Diegans Didn’t

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The first of two storms expected to move through the San Diego region this week arrived last night with steady moderate rainfall here in City Heights.

It was sixty degrees on the porch at 6:00 am this morning. The cats had taken shelter there and were curled up in loosely strewn bedding. I was still bed warm and savoring the first cup of coffee. Then I remembered this:   [Read more…]

The Benefits of Community Choice Energy and How California Utilities Aim to Block Them

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By Tyson Siegele / SD350.org

In California, the fight is on between renewable energy advocates and the old guard electric utilities. All across California, cities and counties have been moving to implement Community Choice programs because they provide cheaper, cleaner, locally generated electricity. In fact these programs are so good, the utilities hope you never hear about them.

Before we get to the conflict and intrigue, let’s look at the basics of this new approach to buying electricity. Community Choice Energy (CCE), also known as Community Choice Aggregation, is a way for cities, counties or regions in California to look out for their own energy interests, a hybrid between regulated and deregulated electricity supply. The local utility still provides all of the billing services and infrastructure to supply electricity to the point of use, but they are no longer responsible for selecting the electricity supplier. Instead, the community chooses its energy supplier. Possibly the best part of a Community Choice Energy program is that it allows us choice.   [Read more…]

Ilyse Hogue on Our DNC Chair

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Ilyse Hogue / Medium

There’s nothing quite so unglamorous as announcing you are not doing something. So I won’t bury the lede: I am not running for DNC Chair this year.

In speaking with leaders and party members over the last month, it’s become clear we have two mutually-reinforcing needs. First, the Democratic Party faces a historic challenge — to build an inclusive, durable, fifty-state electoral infrastructure to support not just one candidate or constituency in the next election cycle, but all democratic-minded people for years to come. This means growing and optimizing a big organization, tackling everything from digital infrastructure to branding to local best-practice sharing. This infrastructure is all critical to building power, and it can’t live anywhere but the party itself.
  [Read more…]

It’s Official : America Is in Distress – Place Your Flag Stamp Upside Down

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With the Electoral College vote on December 19th confirming Donald Trump as the next president, it is now official that the United States of America is in distress.

We are calling on our readers and supporters to do something every day to signify this distress.

And one of these things can be as small as placing your American flag stamps upside down every time you mail something.

The upside down American flag is a time-honored tradition of demonstrating in a small way that the country is in trouble, in distress.   [Read more…]

Oklahoma Residents Taking Action Against Frackers But Is It To No Avail?

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Earthquake Capital of US

We have written previously about the fact that Oklahoma is now the earthquake capital of the US. It seems forcing all the waste products from fracking down deep wells has disturbed the earth enough to cause a lot of earthquakes there. In addition to jolting the nerves of Oklahomans, it is destroying their property. In 2014, there were over twice as many earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma as in California, making Oklahoma the most seismically active state in the contiguous United States by a substantial margin.

Residents of the town of Pawnee, which has suffered the most earthquakes, have filed a class action lawsuit against 27 energy companies. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money for property damage plus emotional distress. The lawsuit claims that companies are showing “reckless disregard for public or private safety.”   [Read more…]

Makeda “Dread” Cheatom: Nurturing Immigrant Art and Giving Back

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The founder of the World Beat Center in Balboa Park is now embarking on a new venture. In collaboration with other local and international artists, they have opened an art and cultural center, Casa del Tunel, right across the border in Tijuana. Like the World Beat Center, Casa del Tunel will be a place where people of many different cultures can come together to teach, perform, and present traditional forms of art to the world. There will be exhibits and art, dance, and music classes. It will be a binational and multinational collaboration. Enrique Chiu, a well-known local artist, is the art director and Wilner Metelus, a Haitian from Mexico City, will collaborate with them.

Casa del Tunel is also a place for Makeda to engage in her philanthropic side as she envisions it as a place to help support the Haitian and African refugees who have been arriving in Tijuana. She hopes to provide jobs, guidance, and promote their art.

  [Read more…]

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