2007 May June

Because People Matter Progressive News and Views

May / June 2007

If you want BPM to SURVIVE and THRIVE, you need to SUBSCRIBE!! By Jeanie Keltner As so often, it’s the good news and the bad news. The bad news is that BPM almost had a financial meltdown. Facing the full court press of the Bushies and their endless wars on people and the law, we got so caught up doing the news that we didn’t do the money enough. We were like the frog in the pot on the stove, almost boiled by imperceptibly rising printing and mailing costs. I say almost because many of BPM’s core supporters came through and helped us jump out of the deadly pot. Their generosity created the cushion that gives us time to get the 300 NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS that will restore us to financial health.

CAN WE DO IT?

I feel certain now that readers are alerted to BPM ‘s $$ situation, you will respond. Maybe you’ve just taken us for granted (or for granite, as a student once wrote). However, faced with the possibility of losing BPM, I believe even folks who don’t ordinarily think of themselves as financial supporters will see that that $20 billwhich might buy a CD or a movie and a big popcorn-can go a lot farther and deeper if it keeps BPM on the streets bringing more people the crucial news that the big media ignores or distorts. You can pick up the paper for free of course. But we need you to subscribe. Because BPM doesn’t just preach to the choir. Our biggest brag and our primary focus is the boxes and racks and stacks of FREE BPM s around town (and in libraries and prisons too). For the last 15 years, amazingly, a few hundred subscribers have enabled BPM to put out 15–18,000 papers every two months—to reach folks who’ve been turned off to politics by the triviality, shallowness, distortions, disinformation and outright lies of the corporate media-and to present ways to engage and get involved. To inspire maximum generosity, I want to pass on some very good news that shows the power and importance of independent media—all those little outlets

Inside this issue:

Editorial.............................................. 2 BPM in Utne Reader.......................... 2 Virginia Tech Shootings...................... 2 Health Care for All.............................. 3 Impeachment....................................... 3 American World Service Corps.......... 4 Poem: Unclean.................................... 4 Cucapa peace camp in Mexico............ 5 Peace in the Precincts......................... 6 Poem: Painting in the Mail................ 6 Local media......................................... 7 Film Review: Salud!........................... 7 SCUSD School closings...................... 8 School segregation returns.................. 8 WMIs found at CSUS........................ 9 CSUS Faculty Referendum................ 9 Book: Conservative Nanny State...... 10 Book: Working Toward Whiteness.... 10 Media Clipped................................... 11 Air America Gone............................. 12 Jailed grandmother............................ 12 Peace Action...................................... 13 Middle East Milestones?.................. 14 Calendar............................................ 15

scrabbled together by groups and individuals on their own time—and often on their own dime, too. After 9-11 when Bush first declared eternal war, I knew his high poll numbers were temporary. I knew none of us who were meeting during those fraught days to try to stop the oncoming disaster would go over to the Bush side. And I also knew that many from the pro-war side would come to join us. Even at those first post-9-11 vigils at 16th and J, with cars sliding by in silent, dark hostility, I knew that the day would come when we’d stand with our signs amid a constant blare of honks for peace. And it has! It was a matter of getting the info out. The people of this country have turned profoundly against the war. And it’s certainly not from any info they’ve gotten from the big corporate media. This huge shift against the war was created by persistent and sometimes heroic actions by many thousands of activists— and by the independent people’s media—like BPM—that put their stories out. (And of course the worldwide web, which connected us all.)

But there’s even better news.

The English visionary, William Blake, wrote, “You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” I’ve hoped from the start that the Bush regime’s bald-faced lies, distortions, and billion dollar corruptions are so over the top that people would see through not only this war but war in general. And that, too, has happened. In spite of the best military propaganda system in history-a corporate media which enthusiastically backed the war and ignored dissenting voices and the peace movement from the start, people now say overwhelmingly that war is not the answer. Public Agenda’s study, Anguish Over Iraq Shakes Public’s Faith in Military Solutions, probes much deeper than typical polls, examining core beliefs about America’s role in the world. In a list of proposals for strengthening our nation’s security, “attacking countries that develop weapons of mass destruction” ranked at the very bottom (17%)—compared to 63% for improving intelligence operations and 55% for becoming less energy dependent. Eighty-two percent say the world has become more

“This huge shift against the war was created by persistent and sometimes heroic actions by many thousands of activists—and by the independent people’s media—like BPM—that put their stories out.” dangerous for the US and its people, and 70% say the US has been too quick to resort to war. On fighting terrorism, 67% say we should emphasize more diplomatic and economic methods, while only 27% call for more military effort. In dealing with Iran, for example, support for possible military action is in the single digits—8% (www. publicagenda.org/CFPI4 ). This is an amazing shift in the public mind, and BPM is part of the independent information web of people’s media that has enabled it . BPM is an all-volunteer operation. The paper is almost completely written, put together, and put out for free—and we’re happy to do it. Printing and mailing costs up to now have been covered by subs, donations, ads, and fundraisers.

With 300 NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS BPM ‘s present and future will be assured. Won’t you help?

It’s true, 300 sounds like a lot. But just since I started this piece I’ve run into four people who took out subscriptions on the spot—two with generous additional gifts! So that’s only 296 to go! Help us! Especially now at this critical time. Media is everything; it’s what creates the public mind (and heart); as well as the very reality of the world in the public mind. Without true info there’s no democracy. Keep BPM going: to borrow KPFA radio’s slogan, it’s news you can use for a change! Jeanie Keltner is BPM editor at-large.

Help keep BPM on the streets: Subscribe today! With a small number of subscribers, we’ve been reaching 15,000 readers, including mailing free copies to prisoners around the country. We need 300 new subscribers to keep doing it. (Ooops! We’re also raising our subscription price for the first time in 15 years. But remember, you’re helping make BPM available to dozens of other readers, all over Sacramento, and from Chico to Nevada City.) If you’re pencil-challenged, email us: [email protected] . See pages 4, 10 and 16 for additional volunteer opportunities. We appreciate your support! Please fill out the form and mail to:

BPM, 403 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95814  This is a great paper! I’ll gladly subscribe for a mere $20.  WOW! You sound desperate! I’m enclosing $ extra to help out!  This is my opportunity to break into journalism and help get the truth out! I’ll help: Writing, Editing, Distributing, Proofreading, Anything! Name........................................................................................................................ Address.................................................................................................................... City............................... Zip........................ Phone.................................................. Email........................................................................................................................

 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

People Matter

Editorial

Published Bi-Monthly by the Sacramento Community for Peace & Justice P.O. Box 162998, Sacramento, CA 95816 (Use addresses below for correspondence)

Schools and Students

because

Volume 16, Number 3

Editorial Group: Jacqueline Diaz, JoAnn Fuller, Seth Sandronsky Coordinating Editor for this Issue: Seth Sandronsky Editor-at-Large: Jeanie Keltner Design and Layout: Ellen Schwartz Calendar Editor: Chris Bond Advertising and Business Manager: Edwina White Distribution Manager: Paulette Cuilla Subscription Manager: Kate Kennedy

How to Reach Us: Subscriptions, letters, punditry: 403 21st Street Sacramento, CA 95814 444-3203

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HAVE A storY? We start planning the next issue of BPM the day the current issue hits the streets. Let us know by e-mail as soon as you have an idea for a story so we can consider it early in the process.

HAVE SOME time? (HA HA HA!) Well, you might have, and BPM always needs help with big and small tasks. Call 444-3203.

Copy Deadlines: For the July/Aug., 2007 Issue: Articles: June 1, 2007 Calendar Items: June. 10, 2007 Cultural events welcome! For details, see our new website, www.bpmnews.org Because People Matter is an allvolunteer endeavor to present alternative, progressive news and views in Sacramento. We invite and welcome your responses. To discuss a proposed article, or help distribute the paper, inquire about ad rates, or help out in some other way, call or write using the phone number and address listed under ”How to Reach Us” above. Please reproduce from any of the written contents, but do credit the author and BPM. BPM is printed by Herburger Publications, Inc. 585-5533.

On the cover Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader and BPM Editor Jeanie Keltner pose with a copy of our paper. Academy Awardwinning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and author and broadcast journalist Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) can count on BPM and our readers to get the truth out.

attends public schools, as do the vast bulk of youth under the age of 18. What challenges do students face in public schools, and why? The center spread of the paper focuses on parts of this education situation. Heidi McLean looks at the closing of neighborhood schools in the capital city. A mother of two and spokesperson for the Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education, her informative article is a must-read. Paolo Bassi analyzes school segregation in Sacramento and around the US. A local attorney, he sheds light on the whys and wherefores of this trend. Jeff Lustig, a professor of government at CSU Sacramento, has a funny take

on a serious matter in higher education. Hint: high-tech learning is less than meets the eye. In an April referendum, nearly four of every five CSUS faculty who voted expressed no confidence in school President Gonzalez. Professor of sociology Kevin Wehr explains why. As always, BPM brings you a mix of progressive articles by local writers on Sacramento, California, US and world affairs. We also have poetry, and book and film reviews for your reading enjoyment. And don’t forget BPM’s calendar page of upcoming local events in May and June. On behalf of the people who bring you the paper every two months, please send a BPM subscription or three to co-workers, family members or friends. They just might like to read such news and views. Onward. Seth Sandronsky is a BPM co-editor.

Responding to the Virginia Tech Shootings

All e-mail correspondence: bpmnews@nicetechnology. com

Send an e-mail with “calendar item” in the subject line. Make it short, and in this order, please: Day, Date. Name of event. Description (1-2 lines). Time. Location. INFO: phone#; e-mail.

“What challenges do students face in public schools, and why?”

re you a regular or occasional reader of Because People Matter? And what do you think of this all-volunteer paper? Your replies matter to us who produce and distribute Sacramento’s progressive paper. By progressive I mean the view that policies must first and foremost meet all people’s basic needs in health care, jobs, schools and other areas of life. Speaking of needs, what are BPM’s? First, we need readers. And as you read in Jeanie Keltner’s front-page appeal, we face a money problem. Of course BPM is not alone there. Many young adults, the so-called “Generation Next” between the ages of 18 and 25, scramble to make ends meet on their paychecks. The majority of this new generation also

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Seth Sandronsky, Coordinating Editor for This Issue

Mental illness and violence By Ralph E. Nelson Jr., MD

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he National Alliance on Mental Illness California extends its sympathy to all the families who have lost loved ones in the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. NAMI California is a grassroots organization of families and individuals whose lives have been affected by serious mental illness. We understand the need for compassion and support in times of mourning following any tragedy and loss. When senseless acts of violence occur in our society, it allows all of us time for reflection on the nature of mental illnesses—what they are and what they are not— with regard to symptoms, treatment and risks of violence. In our experience, most people with a serious mental illness are more often the victims of violence rather than perpetrators. This is borne out by consistent research findings by the US Surgeon General and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH researchers found that the odds of violence are often governed by factors other than psychotic symptoms. For example, violence was associated with young individuals who have been victimized, physically or sexually; or have co-occurring substance abuse. News reports state

“When senseless acts of violence occur in our society, it allows all of us time for reflection on the nature of mental illnesses—what they are and what they are not.”

that Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter at Virginia Tech, had been frequently bullied by others for his foreign heritage, his shyness, his speech and English language difficulties. Ultimately, no one may be able to understand the motivations and actions of someone who commits premeditated murder. More importantly, we must as a community continue to understand the needs of people who have been victims in the past and to ensure that those with serious mental illness receive proper care in a time when services for them are being eliminated all around us. This includes both voluntary and involuntary services and supports when they are needed, whether or not the mentally ill individual realizes the necessity. Many cases similar to this one have the common pattern of “no follow-up” care after hospitalization. We advocate for lives of quality and respect, without discrimination and stigma, and we advance education and support for families who bravely continue their lives in the face of greatly

misunderstood mental illnesses and brain diseases. It is our mission to ensure the facts concerning the connection between mental illness and violence are fostered with accuracy with the American public. Ultimately the treatment and care for mentally ill individuals depends on it. This can be a matter of life and death. Ralph E. Nelson Jr., MD is president of NAMI California.

Sources:

US Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health (1999) www.surgeongeneral. gov/library/mentalhealth. National Institute of Mental Health (2006) www.nimh.nih.gov/press/schizophreniaviolence. cfm. Contact Annie Breault Darling, advocate for offenders with mental illness at breault55@ yahoo.com or 821-4165.

BPM on Utne’s E-stand By Charlene Jones

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ecause People Matter made the shelf at Utne Magazine in March this year. Noted for its love of the best in independent media, the left-leaning bimonthly publication keeps a watchful eye on the American social and political landscape as a leading digest of alternative news and reviews. On March 16, it chose to highlight Sacramento’s all volunteer community newspaper in “From the Stacks,” the magazine’s weekly Web page file of notable publications that land in Utne’s library from around the country. Listed in the company of Foreign Policy magazine, a multilingual literary journal and the Ozarks Mountaineer, BPM’s March/April issue was described as a progressive newsletter from the Sacramento community for peace and justice, dealing largely with feminist issues. While not necessarily focused on a feminist agenda— though peace and social justice struggles have long been shouldered by women—BPM honored March’s Women’s History Month by featuring articles on topics generally characterized by women’s activism. What is particularly pleasing about Utne’s recognition of this issue of BPM

is its citing of articles by Renee D. Covey and Amreet Sandhu, two young contributors, new to the paper. From a “steady flow of 1,500 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines and other lively dispatches” seldom found on corporate franchise racks, Utne Magazine recaps publications that present viewpoints missing from the mainstream. The magazine’s acknowledgment of BPM in an increasingly vibrant landscape of independent media may inspire devotees of alternative views and news to support Sacramento’s own bimonthly publication. If you read BPM on occasion, consider a contribution to sustaining its ongoing work. If you pick it up routinely, please send in a subscription. In the 16th year of publication, BPM continues to provide its readers and its community with progressive thinking, writing, reporting and opinion. The importance of independent community media only grows. Be a part of it. Visit Utne at www.utne.com. Charlene Jones is a member of the Sacramento Media Group.

www.utne.com

Subscribe to BPM! Already a subscriber? Buy a subscription to BPM for a friend or family member! Fill out the coupon on page 1.

www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 

Unimpeachable Reasons for Impeachment Why the wager must match the stakes By Tom King

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et’s get this meditation underway by first thinking of reasons not to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. I’ll kick-start with the ones I’ve observed in circulation: It is looking backward when we should be dealing with problems aplenty now facing us. One, with only a slender majority in Congress, the Republican resistance could never be overcome. Two, the process would take so long that even if success were possible, the duo’s term in office would have ended before they could be rendered accountable. And three in a sweeping response to all this foot-dragging, I’ll treat you to an analogy. A man returns home from his late shift to find his apartment ablaze. Knowing his wife and only son are inside, he runs toward the inferno, despite a nearby fireman’s attempts to stop him. Never mind whether Joe becomes a flaming casualty or a hero, the point has been made: When enough is at stake in a venture, the odds against simply don’t matter in the decision of whether to act. This, we may say, is a principle of nature. Now let us see how it applies to impeachment at this moment in history. American reporter Sherwood Ross reels off 18 justifications for impeachment in his February 2007 piece, written for Permalink, entitled, “America! If You Will Not Impeach This Tyrant, Who Will You Impeach?” I pause to choose from his smorgasbord the ones I feel are powerfully paramount: “for violating ... the International Convention against torture; ... for usurping the power to imprison people arbitrarily for indefinite periods by making himself judge and jury; ... for ... reinitiating a nuclear arms race in defiance of the nuclear arms treaty; ... for using illegal weapons against Iraq such as white phosphorus, depleted uranium ammunition and a new type of napalm ... ” But the double-barreled reason that most of us would like these men impeached is for initiat-

ing, unprecedented even in our nation’s heinous foreign policy, preemptive warfare, and “... violating the Genocide Convention by turning Iraq into a charnel house ... ” Perhaps those grounds make enough of a case. But I propose to move to the clincher—the long view of history. The 17th and 18th centuries were a gestation period of great philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke. While Hobbes viewed the state of nature as one of perpetual war, and wished to disarm men, Rousseau and Locke wished to free men from institutional excesses. But their quest was the same—examining the theory of social contract, by which mankind surrenders certain freedoms in exchange for protection from savagery, man against himself. They were weighing the potential of civilization, the wager that by adjusting its controls just the right way, mankind might raise society to a higher standard than found in the state of nature. Have we evolved to a more civilized state of what characterized us at the dawn of history? Many will deny it. The strongest evidence offered by these somber observers is war, and how throughout the 20th and 21st century it continues to be used by the strong to exploit the weak, and by the privileged to repress the poor. This pessimism can be repudiated by a single boon that emerged from Western civilization: the concept of the rule of law. By this is meant the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed and duly sanctioned laws. Certainly those brainy thinkers of the 17th and 18th century did not invent it. At its peak, the ancient city of Athens boasted democracy. Even after it was engulfed by the might-makes-right primitivism of the Roman Empire, the Athenian ideals survived. They were reborn in the visionary enterprise of those we refer to as our Founding Fathers. In the three-century span between the Georges—George Washington and George W.

“When enough is at stake in a venture, the odds against simply don’t matter in the decision of whether to act.”

Bush—we see the one great and final wager against the savagery that lurks in the heart of man. The US Constitution introduces the concept of checks and balances, embraced by Locke, whereby power might be counterbalanced if not disarmed. Contrarily, what we presently observe in these United States is a coup d’etat representing a receding to that primitive condition of humankind where the “rights of man” are abrogated. Where we find ourselves in April 2007 is not in a republic, but in a dictatorship. Our Constitution is scuttled, no more than a “goddamned piece of paper.” The rule of law is a dead letter. Does anyone suppose that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s band-aids will heal us? Shambling somnambulists, we have sleepwalked into enormous damage. In our carelessness we have mislaid the preciously unique dream that set us apart in all history—the experiment of mandating the will of a people. We shall not recover that dream by simply recycling despots in 2008. If we are to restore what is lost, we must bring the traitors of the rule of law to justice, no matter how long it takes. Let us seek impeachment regardless of the time limits left in the Bush term in the White House. For whether Bush and Cheney are held accountable in or out of office, they are war criminals: thieves who have stolen our legacy; monsters of such magnitude that if we allow them to die of natural causes in their beds, our cowardly complacency must lose us all the chips, terminating for good and all the great wager of our democratic dream.

Sacramento Progressive Events Calendar on the Web

www.sacleft.org Labor, Peace, Environment, Human Rights, Solidarity… Send calendar items to Gail Ryall,gryall @cwnet.com.

Tom King is the leader of the Peace Pyramid, a Sacramento suburban grassroots group promoting a cabinet-level Department of Peace.

Fixing California’s broken healthcare system SB 840 comes up again By Jeanie Keltner

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tate Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s healthcare reform bill, SB 840, passed both houses of the care providers, hospitals and pharmacies as priCalifornia Legislature last year, only to be vate, competitive businesses. vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Moving A companion bill, SB 1014, details fundagain through the Legislature, this desperately ing. SB 840 will draw in current local, county, needed bill provides comprehensive medical, and state medical care spending and will replace dental, vision, all premiums, co-pays and “SB 840 is the only health hospitalization deductibles paid to insurance and prescripcompanies with one affordable care reform package now tion drug covpremium paid to the system. before lawmakers that erage to every Why should insurance compaCalifornia includes clear information nies siphon off 25% or so of our resident. This health care dollar? about how the plan would is made pos“The angels are in the sible through details, ” says Senator Kuehl. “SB be paid for.” a streamlined 1014, the funding bill, demonclaims and strates concretely how SB 840 reimbursement system that saves billions in really can provide comprehensive coverage to administrative costs. With SB 840, California each Californian while guaranteeing our right to will use its purchasing power to negotiate bulk choose our doctors and control costs. This is the rates for prescription drugs and such medical only health care reform proposal out there, with equipment as wheelchairs, thus saving additional numbers in black and white, which offers genuine billions. affordability, shared responsibility and consumer Folks who fear “socialized” medicine should empowerment along with quality coverage.” note that SB 840 preserves the status of healthUnder this plan, most individuals and busi-

nesses that now buy health coverage would receive substantial savings and a higher level of coverage. Full coverage, for everyone, for everything, forever, for less payment! It’s not too early to tell the governor you want SB 840. It will take a few minutes to get through, but dial 445 2841 extension 2. Jeanie Keltner is BPM editor at-large.

Place an ad for your business or nonprofit group: Business card size ads only $40 (or $30 if run in multiple issues). Call 446-2844 for more info.

 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Helping All Humanity

The American World Service Corps By Tom King

“If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning” runs the paean to freedom Peter, Paul and Mary sang back in the ‘60s. Well, it seems that former President Jimmy Carter found his hammer. Dwayne Hunn attests to the fact. Dwayne revisited haunts he had served as a young man in the Peace Corps. In Sri Lanka, Fiji and Georgia, he worked with Carter and other Americans on building projects with Habitat for Humanity. Dwayne, the executive director of People’s Lobby and of the American World Service Corps, has regaled groups such as Freedom From War and the Peace Pyramid in the Sacramento vicinity with many uplifting stories. The tales he tells end with a gladdening close: whole villages of folks come to view Americans not as an army of occupation and exploitation, but instead as ministering angels. Unfortunately, such US service to the world is feebly staffed now. The Peace Corps, for instance, while still in operation, has a serving base of only around 7,000, compared to 15,000plus it had only a few years after President John F. Kennedy and his vision were taken from us. History leaves us Kennedy’s immortal summons, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” From the ashes of this all but forgotten idealism rises the phoenix of Dwayne’s dream and mission—American World Service Corps proposals in Congress, to build a volunteer service corps of one million can-do Americans. These proposals would engage already existing core organizations such as the Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, etc., asking not simply what we can do for our country, but what we can do for the world. You’re invited to dream along with Dwayne. Imagine military service being only one of many ways youth, baby boomers and some retirees might serve their country and all humanity.

Think of quelling terrorism through our friendly acts instead of creating terrorists with our violence. Imagine legions of the peaceful and productive going forth to assist with the next disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, a tsunami, or an African genocide. Imagine standing tall again as Americans!

“Our payback then comes from the satisfaction we feel in having helped those less fortunate than ourselves.” One then poses the inevitable rejoinder, “What’s in it for me?” Sadly, we live in times when JFK’s summons seems to have been ditched for consumers’ dreams. Perhaps only imagination and education can save us: the imagination that comes from educating ourselves in the classroom of world needs. Our payback then comes from the satisfaction we feel in having helped those less fortunate than ourselves. But you need not sign up for far-flung assignments around the globe to help. Go to www.worldservicecorps.us and read the text of the citizen-initiated World Service Corps bills proposed in Congress. Sign the petition to encourage congressional co-sponsors to introduce and pass this legislation. Even with that signature you’ll feel the tonic of world service in your blood. Tom King is the leader of the Peace Pyramid, a Sacramento suburban grassroots group promoting a cabinet-level Department of Peace.

Place an ad for your business or nonprofit group: Business card size ads only $40 (or $30 if run in multiple issues). Call 446-2844 for more info.

Unclean There are car bombs in Baghdad almost everyday now. Fifteen people blown up here, thirty there. You lose count of the shredded children, the maimed grandmothers. You go about your life; it’s the other side of the whole world. Here, it’s Wednesday, the trash truck comes tomorrow. You think you might be depressed about something, but what is it? In Baghdad, in a junkyard, a man hoses blood and bits of flesh from a ruined bus. From far down the littered street he hears a woman sobbing. James Lee Jobe All Good Things - James Lee Jobe ~beat your swords into ploughshares~ http://jamesleejobe.livejournal.com/

Bugged by high gas prices? No problem! BPM has a volunteer job you can do from home. You don’t need a car, a computer or even much time: we need someone to update the local group meetings and radio programs listed in our paper. Call Ellen at 369-5510 for details.

www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 

Defending Indigenous Fishing Rights

Zapatistas, US and Mexican activists create camp in Colorado delta By Dan Bacher

have been doing for 9,000 years,” said Marcos, quoted by Brenda Norrell. “They called for rom February 26 to May 2007, the Cucapa this camp in defense of nature so they can fish Tribe in El Mayor, Baja California, orgawithout detentions or being put in jail” www. nized an historic bi-national Zapatista narconews.com/Issue45/article2623.html. peace camp to defend their fishing rights against For thousands of years, the Cucapa people harassment by the Mexican government on the lived on land surrounding the Colorado River Colorado River Delta. and the delta where it empties into the Sea of The idea originated during a visit to El Cortez, surviving off native fish and plants. Mayor by Subcomandante Marcos, spokesman However, as agribusiness and thirsty cities in for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, California and Arizona diverted the entire flow of during the Zapatista “Otra Campana” (Other the Colorado without regard for the indigenous Campaign) in October 2006. The Zapatistas, a people below the US-Mexico border, catches of group of Mayan rebels from the Lacandon Forest corvina, totuava (a giant sea bass-like fish that is in Chiapas, rose up in arms against the Mexican now protected) and other species declined. government on January 1, 1994, the day that The massive water diversions and corporate North American Free Trade Agreement went into commercial fishing fleets caused the fishery and effect. ecosystem to decline. Meanwhile, corporate“We have decided to send an urgent message funded US conservation groups like Conservato the Mexicans and Chicanos north of the Rio tion International and the World Wildlife Fund Grande to come in order to maximize the numurged the Mexican government to declare the ber of people here, create a safe space, and protect traditional area of the Cucapa and Kiliwa people the Cucapa and Kiliwa community during the the “Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of Califishing season,” said Marcos. fornia.” This declaration was made “in the public The 304-member Cucapa said the camp interest” in June 1993. aimed to “help reestablish “Since 77% of the the networks and relations people who live in and that existed before borders around the reserve rely separated families and on fishing for their livelicommunities, and to help hoods, it is unclear which expose these atrocities to public interest the fisha world that has avoided ing ban in the protected looking at the price of area serves,” said Kristin its excess, comfort and Bricker www.narconews. luxury.” com/Issue43/ article2205. After a slow start, the html. momentum built in March The Cucapa and Killias the Cucapa and supwa point out that it is in porters constructed the camp, secured buyers for their very best interest to protect the endangered the fish (corvina), purchased a refrigerated trailer species they rely upon for their livelihood and and netted fish in a “marine protected area” they want very much to be custodians of the river (MPA) in defiance of federal fishing regulations. and its fish as they have been for generations. “The camp is almost over, but the main goal They were not responsible for the over- fishing, of the Cucapa – to fish without government even though they bear the brunt of its conseharassment was achieved,” explained Cesar quences, according to Bricker. Soriano from LA’s Banda Martes, a group of Hopefully, the success of this camp will send young activists and artists who meet regularly at a strong message to the Mexican government the Eastside Café there to work with the Zapatista and US “conservation” groups that so called “bioOtra Campana and establish working relations reserves” and MPAs cannot be imposed upon across borders. Armed federal soldiers have indigenous people and other family fishermen patrolled the reserve and accosted fishermen without resistance. since the protected area was established. In OctoThe problem faced by the Cucapa in Mexico ber, the community had 30 outstanding warrants parallels the situation in California, where wellfor “illegal” fishing in their attempt to practice funded “conservation” groups, in collusion with the same traditions as their ancestors. a Republican governor, are attempting to kick “The camp also achieved its second goal, to recreational anglers and family commercial organize direct support from people from both fishermen off the water through the institution sides of the border,” said Soriano. At different of “marine protected areas.” This has been done points during the camp, activist groups from even though massive de facto reserves and some Mexico City, Australia, El Salvador and American of the strictest fishing regulations in the world are Indian nations, as well as from San Diego and already in place. Los Angeles, showed solidarity and organized The MPAs constitute a major case of ‘green fundraisers and caravans for the Cucapa. washing.’ In this way, the corporate interests “The Cucapa are doing the same thing they responsible for fishery declines—habitat destruction, water quality decline and global warming— avoid accountability. Just as the Cucapa and other tribes have been completely excluded by conservation groups and the Mexican government from input into establishing bio-reserves, California Indian tribes have also been excluded from the process pushing through the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, established by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. His Members of the Cucupa Fishing Cooperative prepare boats for a day of purpose was to set up fishing on the Colorado River Delta. Photo by Joel Garcia. a network of MPAs

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“For thousands of years, the Cucapa people lived on land surrounding the Colorado River, surviving off native fish and plants.”

Members of Zapatista Peace Camp clean corvina (a delicious saltwater fish) before selling the fish. Photo by Joel Garcia.

along the California coast. And just as the Colorado River Delta ecosystem has been destroyed by water diversions and pollution, the California Delta, which sustains a wide variety of California coastal species, is threatened by a food chain collapse caused by massive increases in water diversions of state and federal governments. For more info about the Cucapa Camp: http://detodos- paratodos.blogspot.com/ Dan Bacher is a writer, alternative journalist and satirical songwriter in Sacramento.

CAAC Goes to the Movies

Almost Every Month The Central America Action Committee shows interesting and informative videos on social justice, labor struggles, and so much more! Call to see what’s playing this month… WE ALSO HAVE A VIDEO LIBRARY YOU CAN CHECK OUT. 1640 9th Ave (east off Land Park Dr) INFO: 446-3304

Cucupa tribe members fish for corvina on the Colorado River Delta. Photo by Joel Garcia.

Pangas like this one, located on the shore of the Zapatista Camp, are used by the Cucapa and other indigenous people to fish for corvina and other species on the Colorado Delta and throughout the Sea of Cortez. Photo by Joel Garcia.

 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Sacramento’s Peace in the Precincts Group backs “nonviolent security” at home and abroad

By Glenda Marsh

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hat does Martin Luther King, Jr.’s practice of nonviolence and the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone’s strategies of tying together candidates, grassroots community organizations, and progressive policies have to do with the peace movement and our efforts to end the war and occupation of Iraq? Plenty. These two strategies together will help broaden and strengthen our movement to democratize our national security and foreign policy, the two least democratically formed policies in our country.

“Members have proposed to Matsui policies for the US to leave Iraq, and back sovereignty, reconstruction, and safety for Iraqis.” Locally, community members are putting these two strategies, important parts of our American heritage, into action through Peace in the Precincts. Peace in the Precincts was founded in Minnesota as the next logical step to building the movement for progressive peace and security policies, or as the group likes to call it, “nonviolent security.” The Sacramento Chapter was founded by community members two years ago and now has over 500 members. Peace in the Precincts continues to implement three linked activities: community and network building, grassroots policymaking, and election participation. For example, organizing neighbors in Sacramento neighborhoods built a network that has successfully lobbied Rep. Doris Matsui to support several Iraq and Iran-related bills in Congress, support US withdrawal from Iraq, and discourage US invasion of Iran.

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Because People’s Healthcare Matters We do what we do...

Primary Care by providers who look at the whole person Non-drug treatment for ADD and ADHD MDs and FNP, trained and experienced Natural options (homeopathy, herbs, vitamins) in treating acute and chronic illness Iscador (Mistletoe) for Cancer Therapies: spirit and art for healing

Raphael House

Multidisciplinary Complementary Medicine 7953 California Avenue Fair Oaks CA 95628 (916) 967 8250 [email protected]

Peace in the Precincts has a grassroots-generated Peace Platform with five principles for nonviolent security: economic justice, domestic needs, weapon nonproliferation, international cooperation and the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Based on these principles, community members have proposed to Matsui policies for the US to leave Iraq, and back sovereignty, reconstruction, and safety for Iraqis. Peace in the Precincts members worked on the 2006 campaign in California’s 3rd Congressional District, where Bill Durston challenged incumbent Republican Dan Lungren. This created a new network of people in the 3rd District that continues to exist today. The group is working hard to expose Lungren as out of tune with district constituents, and to reach out to find more concerned community members to work with. Peace in the Precincts hopes to launch a “Talking Community” speaker series in the 3rd District to share progressive ideas and approaches to tackling issues ranging from national security, health care, and global warming, to job benefits for hotel workers. Peace in the Precincts also wishes to work with local organizations registering new voters in the 3rd District to ensure that we have the votes to elect progressive candidates at any level of government. A friend in rural Calaveras County said, “I’m tired of losing; I want to win.” These are the critical elements of movement building, leading us to winning. We need your help with outreach in Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove, and with finding health care or other local community-based organizations, like PTAs, for our Talking Community speakers to address.

If you would like to get involved, contact Peace in the Precincts Chairwoman Glenda Marsh at: [email protected] or 452-4801.

Painting in the Mail You send a painting in the mail, the brown paper wrapping crinkling off in Mama’s hands, It is 1969 and you are fighting diseases by finding them in the blood of the dying, fighting soldiers. Your painting is of four red stockings over a fireplace, our home—one stocking has no name, my sister yet to be born, but in this time, the mail and baby have been delivered. “Claire,” I want to scrawl on the red stocking. Aunt Gretchen collected your check at the army depot and we watched a funeral on TV. Aunt Gretchen said, “he was a good man he was the President’s brother.” I was too young to know my aunt was a Republican and that everybody loved Bobby Kennedy. There would be other family occasions without you, they kept you moving in the army and in business, but your painting is a holiday and you will be coming home. Frank D. Graham http://people.tribe.net/graham

Let your representatives know what you think! Toll-free line to the Capitol Switchboard for House & Senate: 1-800-828-0498 Representative Matsui

Web site: www.house.gov/matsui E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 222 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-0505 Phone: (202) 225-7163 Fax: (202) 225-0566 Main District Office: 501 I St., Ste. 12-600 Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: (916) 498-5600 Fax: (916) 444-6117

Representative Doolittle

Web site: www.house.gov/doolittle E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 2410 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-0504 Phone: (202) 225-2511 Fax: (202) 225-5444 Main District Office: 4230 Douglas Blvd., Ste. 200 Granite Bay, CA 95746 Phone: (916) 786-5560 Fax: (916) 786-6364

Representative Lungren

Web site: www.house.gov/lungren E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 2448 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-0503 Phone: (202) 225-5716 Fax: (202) 226-1298 Main District Office: 11246 Gold Express Dr., Ste. 101 Gold River, CA 95670 Phone: (916) 859-9906 Fax: (916) 859-9976

Representative Thompson

Web site: mikethompson.house.gov E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 231 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-0501 Phone: (202) 225-3311 Fax: (202) 225-4335 District office: 712 Main St., Ste. 1 Woodland, CA 95695 Phone: (530) 662-5272 Fax: (530) 662-5163

Senator Boxer

Web site: boxer.senate.gov E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510-0505 Phone: (202) 224-3553 Fax: (415) 956-6701 District Office: 501 I St., Ste. 7-600 Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: (916) 448-2787 Fax: (916) 448-2563

Senator Feinstein

Web site: feinstein.senate.gov E-mail: Contact via form on web site Washington Office: 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510-0504 Phone: (202) 224-3841 Fax: (202) 228-3954 Main District Office: One Post St., #2450 San Francisco, CA 94104 Phone: (415) 393-0707 Fax: (415) 393-0710

www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 

Because Media Matters

News with a space for you By Ron Cooper

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ake up, please! Media issues really do matter. Nothing is more important than media in shaping the public mind. Yet many are still not aware of its enormous influence. Sacramento Media Group The Sacramento Media Group is focusing on just that. A local sub-set of California Common Cause, SMG meets monthly at Access Sacramento, 4623 T St. Common Cause advocates for ethical and fair elections and active participation of all eligible citizens. Since media coverage is so important in elections, fair treatment of all candidates is fundamental to our democracy. SMG is currently writing a report on how local TV stations covered the 2006 elections. It includes station visits with general managers and news directors, feedback on what’s inside the public records each station must maintain, and an estimate of how much money stations made on the election process (lots!). The big commercial media need to know that we the people are watching and listening critically, and SMG invites you to help with this very important project. Please join our Media Matters Presentation Team that visits local schools and colleges to develop awareness of the many ways media matters.

award a contract establishing free wireless Internet Wi-Fi service to all homes within the city limits. Many thousands of homes are either not connected to the Internet or don’t have a computer. The Wi-Fi effort will help bridge what is called the “digital divide.” The Nonprofit Resource Center and Access Sacramento are circulating a computer survey. Seven public meetings have been held over the past 12 months with 40 non-profit organizations to gather information for a “Digital Inclusion Vision Statement.” The feedback combined with an analysis of resources granted by winning vendors in other Wi-Fi cities such as Minneapolis and San Francisco, has been presented to the City Council ad hoc Wi-Fi committee. Contact Common Cause if you would like to be involved. The City Council will announce a decision on Wi-Fi contract details in the next two months.

“Get off the couch and get behind the camera—and make your own media.”

Media Edge Media Edge is a local, fast-moving progressive video magazine. It produces great two-hour shows on local and global matters. Congratulations, Media Edge, on your 100th show! Free wireless Internet Service The Sacramento City Council will soon

Telecom deregulation The California Public Utilities Commission will receive new cable television franchise applications but will not be the enforcement agency for recently passed AB 2987 (Núñez & Levine)— thanks to $26 million in lobbying dollars spent by cable and telephone companies, especially AT&T. The bill opens cable delivery of media to telephone companies AT&T and Verizon, and was sold to the state Legislature as a means to lower the cost of cable television via greater competition and less local government regulation. Don’t be surprised if the future of cable resembles the commercial chaos of the cell phone industry. California city and county governments are watching the implementation of the law closely. Expect a series of court cases to follow attempting to clarify what AB 2987 intended to accomplish. Questions being asked include: Will local or

state government enforce the guidelines preventing discrimination of services to low-income neighborhoods or “red-lining?” Will state or local government protect promised funding for public education and government access television? How will cable consumer complaints be handled? Public advocacy groups are watching the impacts of the new rules closely. Access Sacramento Get off the couch and get behind the camera—and make your own media. Access Sacramento offers television and radio production classes and free use of production equipment. Two new classes are looking for attendees: “Digital Storytelling” and “Video Blogging.” Call 4568600 or visit www.accesssacramento.org. At the same Web site, see volunteer opportunities for the “A Place Called Sacramento” film production project in its eighth year. Watch the 10-minute films and join a production team. Lights, camera, and you are in action! IndyMedia SacIndyMedia.org is another way to “become the media.” Publish your stories about the people, places, and issues that bug or inspire you. Go to the Web site, click on the publish button in the upper right hand corner, and follow the simple instructions. If your article is deemed well done and vital, it will “move to the center column” as a searchable database with the powerful Google search engine. SacIndyMedia.org group is also posting stories from Because People Matter. Speak up and others will listen. Ron Cooper is executive director of Access Sacramento, [email protected]. To join the Sacramento Media Group, contact JoAnn Fuller, 443-1792 extension 11 or [email protected]..

Film Review

Cuba’s Health Care

Salud!

Reviewed by Michael Monasky

Connie Field is the director of Salud! Her film focuses on Cuba’s export of medical interns to Gambia, South Africa, Honduras, and Venezuela. They travel to the nations’ barrios, the poorest, most remote, and least medically served communities. Over 10,000 medical students attend classes in Havana at the Escuela Latino Americana Medicina (ELAM). It is the world’s largest medical school. By contrast, the UC Davis Medical School has a total of 400 students, 4% of the ELAM student body. Cuba has a progressively complex, modern health care delivery system. In Field’s film, Cuban

medical interns treat patients in their homes and villages. The interns consult each other to determine accurate diagnoses and refer patients to district clinics and hospitals. They place patients in regional medical centers for specialized treatment, and advanced, state-of-the-art surgical and medical interventions. In early March, Sacramento’s Tower Theatre screened Salud! The audience was a mix of Hollywood celebrities, the state medical association, a legislative leader, policy wonks, and universal health care advocates. Karen Bass, a Democrat who represents LA as the state Assembly majority leader, hosted the film. Actor Danny Glover introduced Salud! “I asked to be here,” he said. Glover recalled his childhood as a son of a postal worker. Kaiser, the HMO giant, met their health care needs. It was, he said, affordable, and taken for granted. Glover compared the Cuban health care system in the film to that in the US. “Cuba spends $400 per person per year on health care versus

$6,000 annually in the US.” All Cubans have health care, unlike all Americans. After the film, I asked Glover about the effects upon ELAM of the US embargo against Cuba. The embargo has cut imported supplies and drugs, he said. Despite the US embargo, Cuba has advanced its pharmaceutical research. Cuba has developed a meningitis B vaccine that the US refuses to import, Glover said. Bass closed the gathering by promoting universal, single payer healthcare to viewers of Salud! The audience, after all, had just seen a film about prevention, not pathology, about patients as people, not customers. “I hope people walk away with a sense of hope,” Bass said. For more information go to www.saludthefilm.net. Michael Monasky has worked in health care for nearly 13 years, and can be reached at [email protected].

 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Closing neighborhood elementary schools Will yours be the next?

By Heidi McLean

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he Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) has yet to officially announce a plan to close small elementary schools. But there are signs that such a plan is afoot. On March 20, the SCUSD Board of Education voted 42 in favor of staff ’s proposal to close one Pocket area school (Bear Flag Elementary) and assign its students to nearby Caroline Wenzel. More Sacramento neighborhood schools may close as SCUSD enrollment continues to decline. Another sign of a “plan” is the current emphasis on the need for elementary schools to “break even.” According to SCUSD budget department staff, small elementary schools cost the district too much money to operate without a minimum enrollment of 500 to 525 students. The blending of Caroline Wenzel and Bear Flag was presented to the Board and at community meetings as a way to save SCUSD money. However, district staff claimed that the amount to be saved was based on the district’s average cost for a teacher, cost for a principal, cost for classified staff, etc., rather than the actual payroll and facility maintenance

cost of Bear Flag. There was also no discussion of the cost of making the Bear Flag facility the interim site for the planned Science and Engineering (small) high school next year. Another indicator that more closures are in the works is district staff ’s dismissive treatment of the following: suggestions to redraw attendance boundaries to level out enrollment for all schools; converting low enrollment K-6 elementary schools to K-8; public questions regarding plans for more small high schools that lack sites; alternatives to closure such as co-locating another program on the campus to either share in the facility costs, or pay rent to help defray Bear Flag’s operating costs. The convoluted logic that the district presented to the public revealed several critical flaws. There is a lack of a consistent evaluation process for determining school viability. Consider this. The district closes elementary schools with 500 students but keeps open four charter small high schools with fewer than 400 students each. Also, there is a lack of a comprehensive long-term plan to address the problem of declining enrollment in the lower grades. And there is a lack of a meaningful process to inform and engage the public. For people interested in preserving their own neigh-

“The district closes elementary schools with 500 students but keeps open four charter small high schools with fewer than 400 students each.”

borhood elementary school with less than 500 students, start preparing now for arbitrary action by the district’s administrators. Otherwise your school and community will be faced with a process that looks and feels like a “done deal,” because district staff will offer no alternatives to closure, will show no interest in parent and community suggestions, and will not care that they have left a trail of frustrated, angry parents and community members. Survey your neighborhood to see how many elementary age children live there and pay attention to home sales. Be prepared! Below is a list of all SCUSD schools with less than 500 students. Some of these schools are filled to capacity. A.M. Winn, Abraham Lincoln, America’s Choice, Camellia, Cesar Chavez, Collis P. Huntington, Crocker/ Riverside, Earl Warren, Ethel Phillips, Father Keith B. Kenny, Freeport, Fruitridge, Genesis High, H.W. Harkness, Health Professions, Hollywood Park, Isador Cohen, James Marshall, Jedediah Smith, John Bidwell, John Cabrillo, John D. Sloat, John F. Morse, Joseph Bonnheim, Kit Carson, Lisbon, Maple, Mark Hopkins, Mark Twain, Met Sacramento Charter High, New Technology High, O.W. Erlewine, Oak Ridge, Phoebe A. Hearst, Pony Express, Sequoia, Susan B. Anthony, Tahoe, Theodore Judah, Thomas Jefferson, Washington, William Land, and Woodbine. Heidi McLean is the spokesperson for the Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education, www. savepublicschools.org

School Segregation Returns The class lines of racial inequality By Paolo Bassi

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n 1954 African-American lawyers and activists (Brown v. Board of Education) forced the US Supreme Court to sit up and concede that “separate but equal” schooling was nothing but legal racial apartheid and anything but equal. The Brown case was only the start. It took decades of litigation and insults for black children to enter white majority schools. Nevertheless, the next 30 years saw a great deal of desegregation. The federal government and the courts supported this. However, that support did not continue. If it had, US public schools would be harmonious and mostly integrated today. Fifty years after the Brown case, studies such as the Harvard University Civil Rights Project, and works by authors such as Jonathan Kozol, an education activist, show segregation increasing rapidly. Precisely because class and racial inequality underlie school segregation, the US political class and its corporate media ignore or confuse it. Issues of race, but especially class, are simply too dangerous and uncomfortable for US politics, which prefers to portray a merit-based vision of society. Even the word “segregated” is replaced with evasive euphemisms such as “mixed,” “urban” or “gritty” to describe black- and Latino-dominated schools. Likewise, federal courts have largely turned their back on school desegregation, also the approach under the Clinton and both Bush White Houses. President George Bush’s approach has been the controversial “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) of January 8, 2002. The NCLB has burdened overworked teachers with time-sapping standardized testing requirements, while ignoring underlying inequality and segregation. Bush’s rationale is that few racial minorities will attend college and that addressing pre-college inequality is not an appropriate policy. Such an approach means that poor and minority children are punished twice—first with a lower standard of education and then greater exclusion from colleges. If this is not class war, then what is it? The attack on public education is really part of a larger ideological shift towards privatization. Private economic choices are valued above collective public choices. If parents with resources deem a school unfit, they pay for a private one. Poor parents simply do not have such choices even within public school districts such as the Sacramento City Unified School District. In the SCUSD, poor students lack the family resources to attend their school of choice, regardless of other administrative hurdles.

According to the 2001 Harvard Civil Rights Project, 70% of black students attend schools where minorities predominate. Latino students are even more segregated. Naturally, whites are also increasingly segregated. On average, whites attend schools where they represent about 80% of the student body. Additionally, as a percentage of enrolled students, whites are decreasing in the public school system, choosing to opt out of it for religious or otherwise private, fee-based schools in whitemajority areas. In effect, public school populations are beginning to resemble their late 1960s racial makeup. Yet social and geographic segregation fail to completely explain why white and non-white children have parted company in such significant numbers. In the SCUSD, blacks and whites each represent about 20% of the total student body. There are schools in poorer areas where there are virtually no white students. Take for example Parkway Elementary School, where blacks and Latinos dominate. They also suffer economic deprivation and have terrifyingly low proficiency rates in English language/arts (around 20%) and science (about 10%). There is little doubt that learning suffers where there is segregation, which usually correlates with greater poverty. At Luther Burbank High School in the SCUSD, blacks and Latinos dominate. However, their proficiency rates are a fraction of that the same racial groups achieve at West Campus High School, which has a more integrated and diverse population. Even if poor students have the grades to make it to a better school, they usually lack the resources to make the transfer. Instead of being a place of refuge and creativity, and simply somewhere to be young, segregated schools come to mirror the society outside. Poor children’s cultural enrichment and childhood disappear. All available data show that poor and minority students do better in racially integrated schools due in part to the greater resources. Our political and economic system fosters inequality in every sphere of life. Thus the lack of educational equality is deliberate and political. If an equally funded education system existed, how could the elites ensure that their children got the start needed to remain elites? This is very rational from a capitalist viewpoint, which cheers competition as a virtue but in reality seeks and

needs to crush it. Likewise, public education is rigged from the start with inequality that harms mainly black and Latino children. The attack on public education is consistent with the attacks on the living standards of working people in America and all over the world. As US workers become more poor and insecure, why should the government make a real investment in educating their children? Perhaps expectations of certain children have to be reduced in order to produce the next generation of docile and hungry entry-level workers and soldiers for future corporate wars. The re-segregation of American public schools is an assault on the destinies of poor and minority children. Fully integrated and equally funded public schools in this country can foster a sense of justice and citizenship among the young. We need a collective political solution now to halt segregation and to dismantle the myth that pre-college inequality can be overcome if just left alone. In a decent society people cannot want one thing for their own children and something inferior for the children of those less advantaged.

“The re-segregation of American public schools is an assault on the destinies of poor and minority children.”

Paolo Bassi is an attorney and writer based in Sacramento.

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www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 

WMIs Found!

CSUS faculty and students at-risk By Jeff Lustig

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eapons of Mass Instruction (WMIs) have been found on the banks of the American River in Northern California. The devices have been stockpiled apparently awaiting installation in the classrooms of CSU Sacramento. Once activated, specialists report, the weapons would be capable of wiping out thousands of independent minds and triggering the Sudden Instant Death of countless new ideas. The devices permit the mass processing of students, the conscription of malleable minds by platoon and regiment and bushel and peck, instead of the old one-on-one give-and-take of the classroom. Weapons-grade material was found: distance learning devices, online teaching, commodified courseware, webcasting and iPod lectures ready to be piped across campus, if not the country. Aristotle may have walked with his students. President Garfield may have thought the ideal education was Williams College President Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student at the other. But that’s old news for current campus chiefs. They seek instruction on the regimental and regimented scale. “Yes, that’s it,” admitted the president of the shocked campus. “Why else would we be letting classrooms go to seed, canceling classes, refusing to replace tenured retirees and goosing-up student/faculty ratios to as much as 27:1 in Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies?” Campus managers acknowledge a little may be lost

in transition. Like classroom dialogue. Student interaction. Writing assignments. Faculty attention to individual students. Tenured faculty themselves. That’s tough, they add, but look what you get in return: huge graduation rates at minimal costs. The university can become a diploma mill. Like the neutron bomb, WMIs will destroy minds but leave property intact. This highlights the real novelty of the new devices. “Mass” refers to not only their means but to their end. For a century American higher education thinkers grappled with the problem of how an institution designed for elites could be reshaped to serve the citizenry at large. How could the fruits of a liberal education—the grasp of history and context, critical cast of mind, broadened horizons and preparation for public life—be imparted to the general population? Now CSU administrators have resolved the problem, by dismissing it. The point of the devices of mass instruction is no longer to prepare people to be members of an informed public but to ease them into life in mass society. That’s why new campus leaders prefer one-way instruction to interactive education, and transmission to communication. The point is not to help students see the big picture, but to know their niche, not to question conventional wisdom, but to accept it, not to judge the authorities but be manipulated by them. These days, the authors of What Business Wants from Higher Education (1998) caution, the development of intellectual autonomy “may…

“Like the neutron bomb, WMIs will destroy minds but leave property intact.”

work against developing the skills” (of “flexibility and teamwork”) employers are seeking. The point, in short, is not to develop citizens but to prepare subjects. “We’re at the cutting edge,” boasted a CSUS official who asked not to be identified. “A lot of folks in the Education Industry have fantasized about WMIs, but only at Sac State, the Baghdaddy of all campuses, are we actually ready to detonate them.” Jeff Lustig is a professor of government at CSU Sacramento.. This article first appeared in The Stinger: www. csusresistance.org/stinger/stinger_march_2007.pdf.

CSUS President Gonzalez Loses Confidence Vote By Kevin Wehr

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aculty have overwhelmingly voted no confidence in CSU Sacramento President Alexander Gonzalez. April’s referendum on him expressed “outrage” and “dismay” over his misplaced priorities, gaining the support of 78% of faculty who voted. CSUS faculty and students have been outraged by many of the president’s actions over the last three years. But his colossal mismanagement of the school budget tops the list. The core problem is increased health and benefit costs associated with salaries, which have gone up for every CSU campus. But Sacramento is the only campus that managed to produce a towering $6.5 million deficit. In the face of this budgetary mess, the president transferred $1.4 million from instruction—the core mission of the university—to other, non-academic divisions. But the budget issue is only the tip of the iceberg. The president has damaged instruction, ignored shared governance, and undermined the mission of public education: • He supported raising student fees which reduces accessibility to the university. • He reduced class offerings and increased class sizes, thus delaying student progress toward graduation and increasing the workload of instructors. • He built administrative and athletic buildings, but no new classroom buildings. • He removed the chickens, our beloved unofficial mascot from campus. • He changed the university’s name against the

expressed will of students and faculty. • He gutted the Multicultural Center and programs for less-prepared students. • Under Gonzalez graduation rates have gone down—now only 44% of students graduate in eight years, with even lower rates for students of color. • Through all this he took an astronomical raise. And his son was hired at a salary higher than most faculty earn. This is a partial list that shows the sources of the faculty’s lack of confidence. The president’s actions amount to an overall program of privatization and corporatization that degrades the quality of instruction and dismantles public education. But where do we go from here? Past university presidents who lost the confidence of faculty have usually resigned, but the referendum cannot require this and Gonzalez has indicated that he will not leave. As well as expressing no confidence, the referendum offers a roadmap for reconciliation by directing the Faculty Senate to identify “specific actions that the president must take” to “restore the quality of the instructional program and the faculty’s confidence in his leadership.” Perhaps the faculty and administration can work towards restoring broken bonds of trust, but the April vote makes it clear that it is Gonzalez who must make the major accommodations.

“Under Gonzalez graduation rates have gone down—now only 44% of students graduate in eight years, with even lower rates for students of color.”

Kevin Wehr is an assistant professor of sociology at CSUS.

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10 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Book Reviews The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer, by Dean Baker (Paperback: Lulu.com. July 26, 2006. 113 pages.) Some of the Places You Can Find BPM Sacramento Area Coffee Works Crest Theater Dimple Records, Arden Wy Dose Coffee Shop Flowers Restaurant Galleria (29th & K) Grinders Hart Senior Center Lido Cafe Light Rail: 65/Folsom 2nd Ave/Freeport Los Jarritos Luna’s Cafe & Juice Bar Mercy Hospital, 40th/J Mother India Restaurant Pancake Circus, 21st/ Broadway Planned Parenthood: Franklin Blvd, Watt Ave., 29th St. Queen of Tarts Quick Market Sacramento Bagel, 47th/H Sacramento Natural Foods Coop Sacramento Public Library (Main & many branches) Starbucks (B'wy & 35th) Taco Loco The Beat Time Tested Books Tower Theater (inside) Tupelo (Elvas & 57th) Underground Books (35th St. near B'way) Weatherstone Coffee

Reviewed by Jacqueline Carrigan, Ph.D.

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espite the dominant belief in the value of the free market, the US government regulates and intervenes in the market in many ways to the benefit of the wealthy and to promote corporate interests. This intervention defines the conservative nanny state, the title of economist Dean Baker’s book. Consider copyright and patent protections that amount to governmentenforced monopolies. Microsoft’s revenue was about $40 billion in 2005, the majority of which resulted from the government-enforced copyright protections on its software. Then there are the government protections afforded to individuals who form corporations. Government regulation of the market results in increased profits for CEOs, shareholders, and other elites, often to the detriment of the average worker. For example, the Federal Reserve Board, of which 5 of 12 members are appointed by the finance industry, serves the wealthy by privileging the fight against inflation over maintenance of low unemployment rates. In a chapter on the government assistance that goes to small businesses, Baker points out that while small business owners like to see themselves as rugged individualists, they are among the prime beneficiaries of the conservative nanny state. He points out that small businesses are responsible for the majority of job destruction in the US, low job security for employees, lower wages, and fewer benefits com-

pared to larger businesses. Yet politicians bless the role of small business in our economy and the government provides numerous subsidies to them. These subsidies include below market interest-rate loans and exemptions from labor and safety standards. Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He offers suggestions for alternatives to current methods of determining CEO pay, supporting creative work (such as more government funding to researchers for developing new medications, with full disclosure of results stipulated) and discouraging tax evasion. The changes he suggests are not revolutionary, but could put US policies more in line with the more worker-friendly policies found in much of Western Europe. While successfully highlighting the many ways in which corporations reap government funds and privileges, Baker overstates the security and privilege of higher income professional workers and neglects to see the corporate drive to use any means necessary to drive down their wages and power (such as the use of HB1 visas). He argues that licensing and immigration restrictions keep out highly trained workers from entering the US. This keeps wages high for highly paid doctors, lawyers, engineers and journalists, and increases the cost of their services to the consumer. If we dropped these protections, wages would drop, services would be cheaper and society would benefit (assuming the capitalist didn’t

“Government regulation of the market results in increased profits for CEOs, shareholders, and other elites, often to the detriment of the average worker.”

take the wage difference as profit). Rather than pointing the finger squarely at the capitalist system, Baker pits workers against each other based on their income and the type of work they perform. He seems torn between a libertarian belief in the virtues of a truly free market, and the desire to create a society that better serves the common worker. The failure to recognize the power differentials between major corporations and small businesses, while exaggerating the power of professional workers is the author’s major failing and limits his ability to suggest meaningful changes that truly would benefit the majority of Americans. Jacqueline Carrigan is an assistant professor of sociology at CSU Sacramento.

Chico Area Davis Bogey’s Books Espresso Cafe Roma Davis Natural Food Coop Newsbeat University Mall Nevada City US Post Office Where would you like to see BPM? Let Paulette Cuilla know, 422-1787.

Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs, by David R. Roediger. (Massachusetts: Basic Books, 2005) Reviewed by Seth Sandronsky

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he upsurge of immigrant workers in the US this spring and last spring were watershed events. In response to them, some activists, politicians and pundits noted that America is a nation of immigrants. Such an assertion conceals more than it reveals. For instance, what does this say about the country’s first inhabitants and enslaved blacks? And what did their historical reality mean for the newcomers who departed Europe between 1890 and 1945 for a kind of freedom in the US? Author and

 



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scholar David R. Roediger delves deeply into the history of the 55-year period that ends with the close of World War II in Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs. Roediger develops the concept of eastern and southern European immigrants as “inbetween people” who occupied an unclear point on a racial spectrum of skin color. One of the fascinating threads he explores is what these immigrants knew about race, and when they knew it. This line of inquiry sets the stage for their US experience over time and between genders during a period of capitalist industrialization. He lays out the scope of his book in the first of its three parts. “Working Toward Whiteness asks what happens when we think of assimilation as whitening as well as Americanizing, and when we view the deeply gendered clash between first-generation immigrant parents and second-generation children as being in part about who commanded

knowledge of the US racial landscape. It seeks to change the whole story of a crucial period in US history without losing track of the wrenching dimensions of race experienced by the new immigrants who were at its center.” Roediger references them in part through the lens of fiction and social science. This is a stimulating process of discovery, thanks to his use of dialectics, or the study of change. In this way, he helps readers to understand how the idea of whiteness developed in the context of white supremacy for the newly arrived and their children. Eastern and southern European immigrants had to wrestle with what black author and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois called the “color line” in the US. That is the racial division which is a part of—not apart from—labor conditions of a market economy. In doing so, Roediger examines the hateful words some whites used to describe Hungarian and other immigrants from the oppressed classes. See Working Toward Whiteness, page 11

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www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 11

Media Clipped

Whitening in the US

I

f being white in America is “normal” then what about everybody else? Before the mass murders at Virginia Tech in April, there was a Salt Lake City shopping mall shooting spree. A woman employee at the shopping mall—where a young gunman maimed and murdered people this February 12—said he appeared to be “an average Joe,” the Associated Press reported the next day. Once again we saw the “white-as-normative” syndrome as pervasive in American life. Inevitably, it seems, whites are shocked to witness insane, homicidal behavior by people who look like them, while appearing to anticipate in advance, anti-social conduct from non-whites. Yes, daily journalism is the first draft of history. Yet the employee’s description of the gunman raises a question. That is, what are the meanings of “average” in the USA? One unstated meaning, I maintain, is that average is a person with white skin. This description fit the Utah killer, an immigrant teen from Bosnia, who was shot dead. His status as a white person upon arrival in the US from his war-torn country was likely never in doubt. This is hardly a new trend nationwide. For perceptive analysis on the roots of this European racial formation upon arrival in the US between 1890 and 1945, see historian David

R. Roediger’s Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs (Basic Books, 2005). In the book, he helps readers to understand how the idea of whiteness developed in the context of white supremacy for those newly arrived from eastern and southern Europe and, later, their children. Contrast the experiences of those European immigrants and their kids to the current era of non-white immigrants fleeing armed conflicts fueled by capitalist imperialism in their homelands (Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America). The latter people do not whiten when they come to the US, as best I can determine. Thus, in the sense of the quote attributed to the witness during the Utah mall shootings, “average” probably does not mean an Asian, black or brown person. This is racial insanity and a taboo topic nationwide and in Sacramento. Therefore, I suggest that a misperception of white skin as being average is embedded in a description of the homicidal male teen. Now let us back up a bit and look at the social context of the Utah bloodletting. This tragic event took place as the US work force is becoming increasingly female and non-white.

“The US has a culture which normalizes whiteness as a standard.”

Working Toward Whiteness Two famous examples of immigrants targeted by such racial bigotry were the executed Italian radicals, Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco. Some racists of the time slurred them as being not-quite-white. This racial language had similarities to popular descriptions of longtime black residents of the US, generations removed from their ancestors’ forced migration from Africa. The book’s strength is its close attention to national and racial identities within the classstructured society of the US. Roediger writes: “The ways in which capital structured workplaces and labor markets contributed to the ideas that competition would be cutthroat and should be racialized.” Capitalism, racism and sexism are intertwined, and are reinforced with state backing. This nexus empowered central and eastern European immigrants’ white-skin privilege. State policy helped them to see and use this as a ticket to private property, a point that Roediger takes pains to explain. The Immigration Act of 1924 and Deportation Act of 1929 were milestones that divided the US working class. These bills fortified whitesonly housing segregation patterns, but only with the consent of second-generation immigrants. Here are the roots of FDR’s New Deal of racialized white nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s, according to Roediger. His narrative of the New Deal runs counter to those who depict it as a

high water mark of US democracy. That stance ignores or minimizes the gendered and racialized roots of FDR’s legislation. A case in point is the barring of domestic and farm workers, mainly brown and black people, from coverage by the Social Security Act of 1935. Later, the GI Bill that made a college education available to five million veterans of the Second World War largely excluded returning African American soldiers. Working Toward Whiteness builds on Roediger’s groundbreaking scholarship in History Against Misery (2005), Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past (2002), Towards the Abolition of Whiteness (1994) and his classic work The Wages of Whiteness (1991). People of all ages and backgrounds inside and outside US borders should read Working Toward Whiteness for the light it casts on the conflicted and conflicting paths (not) taken at critical junctures in the development of the American nation. The material in this compelling book can help to inform a new generation of political activism, part of an emerging US mass movement for social justice. Now, as a century ago, immigrants play a pivotal part. The May Day 2007 rallies for immigrant rights across the country are a current example of that. Seth Sandronsky is a co-editor of Because People Matter.

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continued from p. 10

Seth Sandronsky

For example, the civilian labor force participation of black women age 20 and older rose from 51.5% in 1954 to 64.7% percent in 2006, according to data from the Labor Dept. It is important to note that the labor force participation of white women age 20 and up was 32.8% in 1954 and nearly doubled to 60.1% in 2006. The trend of larger numbers of women workers employed for wages flows from capitalism’s constant drive to increase labor productivity. That is, workers using machinery and technology to produce more and cheaper goods and services for sale in the marketplace. There has been and is no other social system like capitalist production. This system, which constantly changes the way people live and work, can be a bit hard to see in the US, the most market-based society in history. Thus in the world’s third most populous nation, non-white females are average in the sense of their class roles as producers and consumers that mirror millions of white males. To this end, a grass-roots discussion of what constitutes an average American could help to raise people’s political consciousness about their actual places in society. In other words, the Utah tragedy could provide an opportunity for people who live in the US to better see who they really are. Sight unseen is sight not thought. Seth Sandronsky is a co-editor of Because People Matter.

12 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Chico Grandmother Jailed Protested US training of Latin American soldiers By Dan Bacher

A Sacramento Soapbox Progressive Talk Show Access Sacramento, Channel 17 with Jeanie Keltner & Ken Adams. Monday, 8pm, Tuesday noon, Wednesday, 4am. Now in Davis, Channel 15, Tuesday, 7pm.

fter lunching with family and supporters, Cathy Webster of Chico entered the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center on March 21. She had been sentenced to 60 days for a simple trespassing charge at last November’s protest at the US Army’s School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. Webster hugged her daughter, Stephanie Tarrago, and grandchildren, Alicia and Alejandro, before two Sacramento County sheriff ’s deputies escorted the Chico resident into jail. Meanwhile, supporters such as Grandmothers for Peace and other peace advocates, sang “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Down by the Riverside.” Webster had trespassed on the US Army school to protest the military teaching of Latin American soldiers. In the same spirit as the US civil rights movement, she used non-violent civil disobedience to spotlight the school’s teachings,

renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2000. Webster had participated in the annual protest and vigil along with 22,000 others. “The Latin American soldiers trained at the SOA are not defending their countries,” she said. “They return home to kill and torture their own people. The graduates of this school are among the worst human rights violators in Latin America.” The short-term goal of her action and of organizations around the country is to educate the American people about the Army school. It is known as the “School of the Assassins” throughout Latin America. The protesters’ long-term goal is to pressure Congress to pass legislation to de-fund the school and close it permanently. A vote for that in Congress is expected in May. “I stepped onto military property with other protestors and was arrested for trespassing,” Webster said. “I was fully aware of that when I walked onto military property.” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) introduced HR

“As a prisoner of conscience, I am in good company, stretching back centuries.” Cathy Webster, age 62.

1707 on March 27 with 72 original co-sponsors. This new legislation would suspend operations at the SOA/ WHINSEC and investigate torture and human rights abuses associated with the school. Webster went to jail on the eve of the congressional vote for a supplemental funding bill to continue the Iraq war and occupation. “We need to cut the funds so we can stop a war that has been waged without any just cause,” she added. The 62-year-old grandmother was one of six activists incarcerated throughout the country on March 21. This was the first time she had ever been jailed. “I feel no anxiety, other than leaving my family behind, nor shame,” she said. “I do feel resolute in calling people’s attention to what our taxes are paying for, and thus what we as a nation are participating in. As a prisoner of conscience, I am in good company, stretching back centuries.” For more information about efforts to close SOA/WHINSEC, go to the School of the Americas Watch Web site at www.soaw. org or the 1000 Grandmothers Web site at www.1000grandmothers.net. Dan Bacher is a writer, alternative journalist and satirical songwriter in Sacramento.

Coffee from Nicaragua Support Sacramento’s sister city, San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua, by purchasing organic whole bean coffee grown in the rich volcanic soil on the island of Omotepe, Nicaragua. Thanks to the efforts of the Bainbridge-Omotepe Sister Island Association in Washington, we are able to bring you this wonderful medium roast coffee. Your purchase helps the farmers on the island and helps support Sacramento’s long relationship with San Juan de Oriente. All profits go directly back to the Nicaraguan communities. $9.00 a pound. Available in Sacramento at: The Book Collector, 1008 24th St.

Cathy Webster hugs and kisses her granddaughter, Alicia Tarrago, minutes before reporting to the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Facility for her 60 day sentence for “trespassing” at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. Photo Dan Bacher.

Cathy Webster and her daughter, Stephanie Tarrago, at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center before being taken behind bars by Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputies. Photo by Dan Bacher

Air America Gone! By Michael Stavros At a time when our democracy is in serious jeopardy partly because our media has failed us, KCTC radio (1320 AM) tried to justify their decision to remove Air America, Sacramento’s “left channel,” by saying how much the city needs a second all-sports channel. But the reality is that the tremendously popular Air America was filling a much needed service of providing political discussion and expressing viewpoints that have been kept out of

the rest of the mainstream media. I wanted to know what and who was behind this change, so I called The Bee to ask one of their investigative reporters to, you know, investigate. They pointed me to an article by Joe Davidson, Bee staff writer. According to Joe, KCTC ditched Air America to go with continuous ESPN sports programming because: “In short, there are more fans of left-handed pitchers and passers than there are of left-leaning politics.” Where did Joe get his information, and on

what does he base his opinion? Based on the results of the November election, I don’t think Joe is correct—or at least I hope he’s not. If Joe is, what a sad state of affairs we are in, sharing our fate with an apathetic populace during this time of war, death, loss of our rights and economic squeeze. How’s your health insurance? Filled your tank lately? Been to the Middle East lately? How ‘bout them Jayhawks? Michael Stavros is a Sacramento writer.

www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 13

Sacramento Area Peace Action

Palestinians: 41 Years Under Israeli Occupation By Brigitte Jaensch

O

n June 5, 2007, Palestinians will begin their 41st year under what United States ambassador emeritus Ed Peck called a “savage occupation” by Israel. He spoke at McGeorge Law School this February. Every day Palestinian mothers in the Israeli-occupied territories wonder: Can I feed my children today? If I bathe the kids, will we have enough water to drink? What will happen to the children at the Israeli checkpoint between here and school? Will the soldiers invade and ravage our home? Will Israeli bombs or rockets or bullets kill someone in our family today? Israel controls every aspect of life for 4 million Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. In addition to the occupation, Israel has also imposed an embargo for over a year. Almost 2 million innocent Palestinians (80% of the total population), including children, are hungry, the United Nations reports. The West Bank is a closed Israeli military zone. Israel’s apartheid walls enclose Palestinian towns and villages. For the Bethlehem area’s 170,000 residents, there are three gates. Smaller towns like Qalquilya have one gate. “Gate” means checkpoint, which the Israeli soldiers lock shut. The West Bank, cut up by fences and walls into detached towns and villages, is sealed tight! A new restriction makes it illegal for a West Bank Palestinian to ride in a vehicle that has Israeli license plates unless each passenger and driver has a special permit for that particular journey (issued by the Israeli authorities). The penalty for violation? The Palestinian rider gets five years in prison; the driver’s vehicle gets confiscated. Emergency ride to the hospital? The Israelis fouled up the paperwork? No exceptions. Rider and driver are guilty. Complaints can only be filed in person at Israeli police stations inside illegal Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank—off-limits to Palestinians. Fences and walls around the Gaza Strip imprison 1.5 million innocent Palestinians. Its five checkpoints are locked down up to 80% of the time. Gaza is sealed tight! On the ground there are Israeli soldiers in tanks, Humvees and watchtowers. Overhead, there are Israeli war planes, fighter jets and attack helicopters. Israeli gunboats are poised to strike along Gaza’s coast.

to visit her parents and her sister in Jerusalem. Ranim, her father, and brothers (Palestinian IDs) could not. An Israeli wall surrounds Bethlehem now. Another Israeli wall cuts off Jerusalem from the West Bank. Ranim’s mother’s ID isn’t valid in places where Ranim’s and her father’s and brothers’ IDs are valid. And theirs aren’t valid in places where the mother’s ID is valid. Will Ranim’s mother be able to get an ID which lets her stay in Bethlehem with her husband and children? Would that ID mean no more visits with parents and sister? Israel decides.

“Israel controls every aspect of life for 4 million Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

Three Families: Mohammed, 22, lives in Rafah refugee camp (Gaza Strip). For 12 years his father was imprisoned by the Israelis. No charge. His brother, Hassan, 17, chatting with a friend outside a neighbor’s house, was shot by an Israeli sharpshooter. The next day an Israeli bulldozer destroyed the family’s home. To avoid being crushed inside the collapsing house, Mohammed’s mother and sister had to jump from upstairs windows. Their injuries required hospital treatment. Ranim and her family live in Bethlehem. Her father, whose family fled West Jerusalem during the 1948 war in Palestine which created the state of Israel, has a Palestinian identification card (ID.) Her mother, whose East Jerusalem family came under Israeli control when the 1967 war brought East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation, has an Israeli permit residence ID. Ranim and her brothers, born in Bethlehem, have Palestinian IDs. Ranim’s mother (Israeli ID) used to be able

Anita and Ghassan

married 28 years ago while he was a student in her country of Switzerland. They have lived in Ramallah in the West Bank for the last 12 years. Ghassan has a Palestinian ID. Anita, who is Swiss, has a visitor’s permit ID. Every 3 months for the last 12 years she’s gone to Jordan or Lebanon to get her permit renewed, but now the Israelis stamped it “last permit.” If Anita and Ghassan want to continue to live together, will they need to leave Ramallah? Thousands of Palestinians have family members whose “last permit” has expired. This is just another way Israel is forcing Palestinians out of the West Bank. For Palestinians every moment of life is dictated by the state of Israel. The US government supports Israel’s every illegality. Of course, the 41-year occupation is only the most visible Israeli aggression. In 1948, the Israeli military expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land. Although the Palestinians have the legal right to return, for 59 years the state of Israel has forcibly prevented them from going home. Brigitte Jaensch is a civil and human rights advocate.

Resources on Palestine: Institute for Middle East Understanding: www.imeu.net. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: www.wrmea.com. Rafah Today: www.rafahtoday.org. National Council of Arab Americans: www.arab-american.net.

“Handele”, at left,was created by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali about 20 years ago. This eternally-10-year-old Palestinian refugee child symbolizes Palestinian refugees of every age.

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Maggie Coulter The Other Side of Israel by Susan Nathan (Doubleday, 2005, 336 pages). Nathan’s moving and superbly written narrative richly describes life for the approximately 1.2 million indigenous Palestinians who live inside Israel. Though they are legally Israeli citizens, Palestinians are subjected to apartheid-type laws which restrict their ability to own land or housing, move, hold employment, get good education and health care, and manage their daily lives. Born in Britain to Jewish parents, Nathan’s father was an immigrant from South Africa, where his family had gone to escape pogroms (attacks) in Lithuania. She immigrated to Israel in 1999 under Israeli law which allows anyone who was born into or converted to Judaism to live in Israel. Nathan, who experienced prejudice against Jews in Britain and witnessed discrimination against non-whites while living in South Africa, writes poignantly of the mistreatment of Palestinians by the state of Israel. Nathan, who spoke at UC Davis last fall, now lives as part of an Arab family, the only Jew in the Arab town of Tamra. Her book is a must-read to fully understand life under Israeli theocracy.

One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse by Ali Abunimah (Metropolitan Books, 2006, 227 pages). In his book, Palestinian-American Abunimah, co-creator and editor of the Electric Intifada (www.electronicintifada.net), starts with a historical overview to the current situation in Israel-Palestine. He then offers a South Africa-like solution: that all of historic Palestine becomes a democratic secular state that does not discriminate against any of its inhabitants. Realistic but hopeful, Abunimah discusses possible visions for the new one country, a way to foster healing through equality and multi-cultural vibrancy. One country is an idea whose time has come. Maggie Coulter is board president of Sacramento Area Peace Action.

Sacramento Area Peace Action is an all-volunteer organization that works to educate and mobilize the public to promote a non-interventionist and non-nuclear US foreign policy and to promote peace through international and domestic economic, social, and political justice. Join us!

JOIN SACRAMENTO AREA PEACE ACTION Annual dues are $30/individual; $52/family; $15/low income. Name:________________________________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________________ City________________________________________ Zip________________ Phone:___________________________ E-mail:___________________________ ____Here is my additional contribution of $_______. ____Please send me the newsletter only, $10/yr.

Send your check to: Sacramento Area Peace Action (SAPA) 909 12th Street, #118, Sacramento, CA 95814. Or call us! 448-7157, e-mail: [email protected], web: www.sacpeace.org

Peace Action on the Web Keep up to date on peace activism in Sacramento. Check out

www.sacpeace.org.

Capitol Outreach for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty. Third Mondays, 11:30am to 1:30pm. L Street at 11th. We bring petitions, literature and banners. You bring yourselves. Cafe nearby for coffee after the vigil. INFO: 447-7754

14 Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Milestones in the Middle East?

Many local links to the region By Mary Bisharat

M

iddle East milestones are worth noting. Last April, the London Review of Books published “The Israel Lobby” by two respected academics, John Mearsheimer and Steven Wald. In 80 pages (half are notes and sources), they point out the painfully obvious— that there is a pro-Israel lobby in US politics. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) leads this Lobby. Mearsheimer and Wald began a national discussion. It is well worth having for many reasons. Recall the Lobby was overwhelmingly in favor of starting the US war against Iraq. Further, the Lobby is now urging a US attack on Iran. And then there is a milestone concerning the Lobby and the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Consider former President Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster, November 2006). A Nobel Prize winner, he came under swift attack for using the word “apartheid” to describe Israel’s military occupation of Palestine’s West Bank. On his book tour Carter was berated and rudely handled by PBS’ Judy Woodruff, and NPR’s Terry Gross. The NY Times ran a full-page attack ad against him. But Carter kept his cool and stood his ground. He had broken the taboo on using the “a” word in relation to Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Reading Carter’s book, I first wondered what the fuss was about. It read like a personal travelogue with maps. Such may not be the case for other readers. In speaking to the Jewish community, Carter said he chose the book’s title knowing it would be provocative, but would in the long run generate positive discussion. And his book has. Carter confronts the fact that Israeli leaders have carried on a series of unilateral actions which put confiscating land ahead of making peace. The final chapter, “The Wall as a Prison,” lays out the grim truth that Palestinians are surrounded by Israel’s apartheid wall which snakes through Palestinian territory, stealing privatelyowned farmland and controlling the chief aquifer. It is important to note a landmark 14-1 vote of the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the wall violated international law. The vote gave hope to Palestinians. Carter writes: “Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law.” However, he also maintains that Jewish and non-Jewish citizens get equal treatment under Israeli law. This is untrue. Israel has two sets of laws. One law is for Jewish citizens. The other law is for non-Jewish citizens. They are Palestinian Christian and Moslem, about 20% of the population. Israel also has a Law of Return that allows a Jew from anywhere in the world to become a citizen. By contrast, Israel prevents Palestinians living outside Israel from returning to their stolen homes and properties. Carter’s forthright statements have helped to break the taboo of talking about the influence of the Lobby, a loose collection of several dozen American Jewish organizations. The Lobby’s most prominent groups are the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, organized as AIPAC. AIPAC’s policy conference this March drew 6,000 activists to Washington, DC. They heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), John Boehner, minority whip (R), Senator Harry Reid, majority leader (D), plus Sen. Mitch McConnell, minority whip (R). GOP Vice President Richard Cheney gave a talk titled “The United States and Israel: United We Stand.” Several top presidential candidates held receptions. Closer to home, AIPAC also has roots. AIPAC paid for the late Democratic Congressman Robert Matsui and Doris, his wife who

succeeded him in office in March 2005, to visit Israel in 1981. Rabbi Mona Alfi at B’Nai Israel on Riverside Blvd. was a foreign policy analyst for AIPAC. Mort Friedman is a Sacramento lawyer and national board member of AIPAC. State assemblymember Dave Jones (D) and state senator Darrell Steinberg (D), who represent Sacramento constituents, attended AIPAC’s luncheon at the Radisson Hotel this past winter. Despite the power and reach of AIPAC, the Lobby’s efforts to shape US public opinion in favor of Israel’s policies have not succeeded. In December 2006, a United Press/Zogby poll of 6,296 Americans found that 59% believed it was very important to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. A clear majority of respondents, 56%, believed that President Bush should choose the middle ground, or be evenhanded toward both sides. A big majority, 79%, told the pollsters that Palestinians should enjoy equal rights with Israelis. And 64% favored a fully independent state for Palestinians. Surprising results? Perhaps we should not be surprised. The US public by wide margins is out in front of its politicians and government. This is so in spite of the Lobby’s attempts to mute political discussion about Palestinian rights. AIPAC should pay heed to this important milestone. Mary Bisharat is a human rights activist and retired social worker in Sacramento.

“Rabbi Mona Alfi at B’Nai Israel on Riverside Blvd. was a foreign policy analyst for AIPAC.”

Four plays by David Ives Performed by The Short Center Repertory May 11–May 27 The Short Center Repertory, a Sacramentobased theatre company of developmentally disabled actors, presents four plays by David Ives. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, May 11–May 27, 8 pm at California Stage, 1725 25th St. $15 for adults, $10 for people with disabilities. INFO: Jim Anderson 737-2709 or 2052674.

design: Karen Bearson

Fools Foundation Friday Night Video Series: 1025 19th St. Off of K St, between 19th & 20th, next to the back end of Old Spaghetti Factory. Except for Saturday, May 19, admission is $5.00 and show time is 7pm. May 4: Freeway This 1996 low-budget black comedy indie from executive producer Oliver Stone features Reese Witherspoon as the nearly illiterate Vanessa who flees her crack-addicted prostitute mother (Amanda Plummer) and abusive stepfather (Michael T. Weiss) in search of her grandmother. Yep, it’s Little Red Riding Hood all over again, but this time around, the Wolf is a lot worse. May 11 Your Mommy Kills Animals We are extremely excited to bring you an advance look at this new doc from Academy Award winner Curt Johnson. Curt Johnson set out to provide a neutral portrait of the current state of the animal rights movement, inspired by the US government naming animal rights activists as the #1 domestic terrorist threat to our country. May 18 Mojave Phone Booth With 42 official selections and 9 awards to date, this fascinating and well crafted micro-budget narrative finally makes its way to Sacramento! Starring Steve Guttenberg (in a decidedly different performance from his role in the “Police Academy” series), Annabeth Gish (“Mystic Pizza”), and Christine Elise McCarthy (“ER”). In the middle of the Mojave desert rests a phone booth, riddled with bullet holes, and graffiti, but otherwise functioning. Word of the phone booth spread and for years travelers trekked out and camped next to the booth in the hopes that it might suddenly ring. This is the story of four disparate characters whose lives intersect with this mystical outpost, and the common voice they seek on the other end of the line. May 19 Special Saturday screening! Shiny Object, Fools Foundation, and the Sacramento International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival present a fundraiser for Equality California with a screening of “We the People”! This film could not be more timely. At a time when Spain and Canada have embraced the concept and legalized same sex marriages, the United States finds itself teetering on the edge of conflict. “We The People” promotes understanding and compassion. It provides an opportunity to meet same sex couples and their families, with the hope that a greater understanding and acceptance will be born based upon reality not upon political rhetoric. NOTE: doors open at 6:30 PM on this evening. Advance tickets are recommended. Suggested minimum donation for admission is $10.00. (Movies on a Big Screen gift certificates will not be accepted for this event.) May 25: Gothic Forget your backyard beer and bbq this Memorial Day weekend and load up on your favorite opiate for an evening of twisted Ken Russell weirdness! The story is embellished from events which allegedly took place at the Swiss villa of Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) on the night of June 16, 1816 which supposedly ultimately led to the creation of the novel “Frankenstein.” Byron’s guests include poet Percy Shelley (Julian Sands) and his future wife Mary (Natasha Richardson); Mary’s half-sister Claire (Myriam Cyr) and Byron’s leech-happy personal physician Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall). Byron promises them a night of horror like only a mad poet can deliver after partaking of laudanum and other hallucinogens, the guests tell ghost stories while exploring the dark corridors of his home.

New Theater Concept: “The Reality Play” Opens at The Space June 1st. The progressive theater troupe Folktales for a New Tomorrow will present “Dauntless Little John Saves the World”, a new “reality play” at 8:00pm Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from June 1st through June 30th in The Space at 2509 R Street in Sacramento. The play, suitable for mature teens and above, combines elements of farce, melodrama, political satire, improvisation and audience participation in an absurdist comment on the difficulties surrounding activism and apathy in America. INFO: Adam Bearson, abearson@sanjuan. edu or 916-708-4050.

Sacramento Peace Festival

May 20th noon to 6:00 PM William Land Park, corner of Freeport and Sutterville Many speakers and peace organizations, children’s activities, live music, etc. Visit www.sacpeacefest. com for details. Admission is Free!

www.bpmnews.org May / June 2007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 15

May / June Calendar ONGOING EVENTS Mondays

Sacramento Poetry Center hosts poetry readings. 7:30pm. 1631 K St. INFO: 441-7395; w w w. s a c r a m e n t o poetrycenter.org. 1st Mondays

Organic Sacto: Counter ongoing threats to our food. 6:30pm. INFO: www. OrganicSacramento. org. 2nd & 4th MONDAYS

UUSS/SAPA Peace and Sustainability Committee. 6-8pm. INFO: Peace Action, 448-7157. 3rd MONDAYS

Capitol Outreach for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty. 11am –1pm, L Street @ 11th. INFO: 447-7754. 1st TUESDAYS

3rd Thursdays

National Organization for Women (NOW). 7pm. INFO: 443-3470. FRIDAYS

Shiny Object Digital Video/Fools Foundation Film Series. Weekly independent/foreign films, documentaries. 7pm. 1025 19th St. $5. INFO: 484-0747or www.shinyobject.com/screenings. 1st FRIDAYS

Community Contra Dance. 8-11pm; 7:30pm beginners lessons. Clunie Auditorium, McKinley Pk, Alhambra & F. INFO: 641-7781. 2nd Fridays

Dances of Universal Peace. 7:30–9:30pm. Sierra 2 Ctr, 2791- 24th St., Rm. 10. $5–$10. INFO: 361-3153.

Amnesty Int ’l, Davis Chapter Meeting. Int’l House (10 College Park). 7pm. Free Pizza. Invited speakers. INFO: www. humanrights.ucdavis. edu.

3rd FRIDAYS

2nd Tuesdays

1st Saturdays

Gray Panthers. 2–4pm. Hart Senior Ctr., 27th & J St. Info: Joan, 3325980. 4th TUESDAYS

Amnesty Int ’l. 7pm. Sacto. Friends Meeting House, 890-57th St. INFO: 489-2419. 4th Tuesdays

Peace and Justice Films. 7pm. Peace Action office at 909 12th Street. INFO:448-7157. 1st WEDNESDAYS

Peace & Freedom Party. 7pm. INFO: 456-4595. 2nd WEDNESDAYS

Sacto 9/11 Truth:Questioning the “War on Terror.” 6–8pm. Juliana’s Kitchen, 1401 G Street, at 14th. INFO: sac911truth@gmail. com. 372-8433. 2nd & 4th WEDS

Support Group: Incarcerated Loved Ones. 7 p.m., Trinity Cathedral, 2620 Capitol Ave. INFO: Annie, 821-4165. 3rd WEDNESDAYS

CAAC Goes to the Movies. 7:15pm. Info: 4463304. Thursdays

Daddy’s Here (Father Enhancement Program). Men’s support group; info on custody, divorce, raising children. 7-8:30pm. Free! Ctr for Families, 2251 Florin Rd, Ste 102. INFO: terry @fathersandfamilies.com. 424-3237x 205. Thursdays

House of Spoken Words. 7–10pm. Colonial Café, Stockton Blvd. & Broadway. $5. INFO: 3082766.

Progressive Free Thought Exchange. Discuss topics of interest to atheists, agnostics, humanists. INFO: pfxofsac@ prodigy.net. Health Care for All. 10am. Hart Senior Ctr, 27th & J. For universal access to health care. Info: 424-5316. 1st SATURDAYS

Sacramento Area Peace Action Vigil. 11:30am– 1:30pm. Arden and Heritage (entrance to Arden Mall). INFO: 448-7157 2nd & 4th Sats

Community Contra Dance. 8-11pm; 7:30 lessons. YWCA Auditorium, 17th & L Street. INFO: 641-7781 Sundays

Sacto Food Not Bombs. 1:30pm. Come help distribute food at 9th and J Streets. SUNDAYS

Community Debke lessons 3–3:50pm, children and 4– 5pm adults. Yosemite 187, CSUS. Free, open to all ages. Beginner level adults welcome to come to the children’s lessons for extra practice. INFO: ncasac@arab- american. net or sjpsac@gmail. com (530) 902-4000 1st SUNDAYS

PoemSpirits. 6pm. Refreshments and open mic. Free. UUSS, Rm. 7/8, 2425 Sierra Blvd. INFO: 481-3312; 451-1372. 1st Sundays

Zapatista Solidarity Coalition. 10am–noon. 909 12th St. Info: 4433424. 2nd SUNDAYS

Atheists & Other Freethinkers. 2:30pm. Sierra 2 Center, Room 10, 2791 24th St. INFO: 4473589.

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Send calendar items for the July / Aug. 2007 issue to [email protected] by June 10, with “calendar item” in the subject line. Make it short, and in this order, please: Day, Date. Name of event. Description (1-2 lines). Time. Location. Price. INFO: phone#; e-mail. For online calendars of progressive events, go to www.sacleft.org and www.sacpeace.org.

Area codes are 916 except where noted. Friday, May 4 Evening of short stories presented by Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun. The presenting writers will include Juan Carrillo, Dr. Fausto Avendano, Minerva Daniel, Graciela B. Ramirez. 7:30 p.m. at La Raza Galleria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd St. $5 or as you can afford. INFO: Graciela Ramirez, 456-5323

Wednesday, July 4 Afternoon of Friendship. Please join the Sacramento Area Black Caucus, the Black United Fund of Sacramento Valley, the All African Peoples Revolutionary and Central America Action Committee to welcome the Cuban Caravan to Oak Park and Sacramento. 4-6 pm. More details soon. INFO: [email protected].

Saturday, May 5 Writing workshop and potluck presented by Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun. 11 a.m. Location to be announced. INFO: Graciela Ramirez, 456-5323. Saturday, May 5 Lecture. AFRICA presents “The Black Panther Party: Building Grassroots Organizations for Positive Social Change”, by Elaine Brown, author of “A Taste of Power” and former Black Panther. 7P.m., CSUS Redwood Room. $ students, $7 general public. INFO: 760-0273, or [email protected] Sunday, May 6 Poetry. PoemSpirits presents Rhony Bhopla, Bd. member of the Sacramento Poetry Center and founder of ShiluS Publications in Elk Grove. Plus, Tom Goff will present the work of Rabindranath Tagore, 1923 Nobel Prize winner. Also, open mic, bring a poem to share. 6 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Society, 2425 Sierra Blvd. Free. INFO: Tom or Nora, 481-3312; JoAnn, 451-1372. Sunday, May 13 “Syliva”...the Dog! A comedy play about a streetwise mutt, benefit for Happy Tails Animal Sanctuary. 2pm. Chautauqua Playhouse, 5325 Engle Rd., Carmichael. $15. INFO: 320-4254. Saturday May 19 Margo Smith, convenor of Gray Panthers, will show a documentary of her recent trip with women peace advocates to Iran, including a special meeting with the Vice President of Iran. Sponsored by Older Women’s League and Gray Panthers. 10:30 am. Redwood Room, Hart Senior Center, 915 27th St, Sacramento. INFO: 332-5980 Sunday, May 20 Peace Festival. Speakers, live music, childrens’ activities. Noon to 6pm, Land Park at the corner of Sutterville Rd and Freeport Blvd. Free. INFO: Candy Anderson, 455-6312, or www. sacpeacefest.com. Sunday, May 20 Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. 1–2:30pm, Newman Center, 5900 Newman Ct. She will also speak at 3pm at the Peace Festival (see above). INFO: sypeaceact@ jps.net; 448-7157. Thursday, May 31st Sacramento Stonewall Democratic Club Annual Four Freedoms Award Dinner honors State Controller John Chiang, Mayor Heather Fargo, union leader Jay Hansen and Rev. Robyn Hartwig; INFO and tickets; www.sacstonewall.org, info@ sacstonewall.org. Friday, June 8 Lecture. “Take Back America.” Dr Bob Bowman, named America’s top public speaker by the L.A. Times, joined by David Dionisi, author of “American Hiroshima.” 7-9 p.m., Marriot Courtyard Main Ballroom, 4422 Y St, Sacramento. $20 at door, or $15 online at www.teachpeace.com. INFO: David Dionisi, 530-554-7061.

Take Back America Dr Bob Bowman, America’s top public speaker (LA Times), is coming to Sacramento Thursday, June 8. Dr. Bowman is joined by American Hiroshima author Dave Dionisi for a 7–9pm “Take Back America” presentation at the Marriot Courtyard Main Ballroom (4422 Y Street in Sacramento). Tickets: $20 at the door, $15 online at www.teachpeace.com. Proceeds help fund the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Teach Peace Foundation. (www. teachpeace.com)

Poetry events at the Book Collector

1008 24th Street, Sacramento, INFO: 442-9295. www.poems-for-all.com (click “events”)

Kathy Kelly: Witness and resistance to war and occupation May 20, 1-2:30pm Newman Ctr, 5900 Newman Ct.

Three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (formerly Voices in the Wilderness), Kathy Kelly has worked to save the lives of the Iraqi people since the brutal 19902003 blockade of Iraq. Kathy will discuss the consequences of war for Iraqis, for Americans, for the environment and call us into a campaign of sustained resistance. Kathy will also speak at the May 20th Peace Festival at 3pm (see calendar). INFO: Sacramento Area Peace Action, 448-7157; [email protected]; www.sacpeace.org.

Saturday, May 5th, 7:30pm Xico Gonzalez. Wednesday May 9th Ron Tranquilla. Saturday, May 12th, 7:30pm Jacquelyn Schaffer, Robbie Grossklaus Book release party and reading. Wednesday, May 16th, 7:30pm Leah Denboer Memorial Peace Poetry Reading: James Den Boer, Julia Connor, and others. You are welcome to share your own peace poems or reminiscences of Leah Den Boer. Saturday, June 9th, 7:30pm Jonathan Kiefer & Friends Wednesday, June 20th, 7:30pm TOM MINER About the Book Collector: http://www.sacfreepress.com/poems/ blog/2006/05/book-collector.html

The Marxist School of Sacramento P.O.Box 160564 Sacramento, CA 95816 May / June 2007 Activities

Point of View Speaker Series Thursday, May 17: Catherine Hodge McCoid, PhD, speaking on“Eleanor Burke Leacock: an anthropologist looks at race, gender, class and capitalism.” Eleanor Burke Leacock is probably best known for her outstanding introduction to Engels’ Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Dr. McCoid will look at Leacock’s life and work in relation to race, gender, class and capitalism, and will include material from interviews she conducted with Leacock’s colleagues, friends, and family. Sierra 2 Ctr, Green Room, 2791 24th St., 7–9pm

Wednesday, June 13 Workshop. “Copyright and Trademarks,” presented by California Lawyers for the Arts. Artists of all disciplines are encouraged to attend, Guest speaker, atty Mark R. Leonard. 6-8 p.m. at the Pence Gallery, 212 D St,Davis. $5 student/senior members, $10 other members, $20 non-members.INFO: 442-6210, or [email protected]. Topics include: trademarks, ownership and protection of your copyright, work for hire, fair use.

Discussions/Classes

Friday, June 15 Benefit for Lavender Library: KINGS OF DRAG - “He’s So Gay!” Dancing, singing and of course some wild gender-bending. This will be one of the best shows yet, and we have been packin’ the house for over 2 1/2 years now. Tickets $10-$400 for a stageside table. 8:30pm, Clunie Hall at McKinley Park. INFO: www.kingsofdrag.com, [email protected].

Special Event—May 24

June 16-17 Juneteenth - A Celebration of Freedom Weekend, the oldest known celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. William Land Park. INFO: www. discovergold.org or Gary Simon at 808-8983.

June 28

Tuesday, May 8: Eleanor Burke Leacock’s Introduction to Frederick Engels Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. (Check our website for electronic version.) Tuesday, May 22: Frederick Engels Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/index. htm Sierra 2 Ctr, Room 11, 2791 24th St., 7–9pm Thursday, May 24: Michael and Karen Yates, Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist’s Travelogue. Disillusioned with academic life after 32 years teaching economics, Michael Yates took early retirement in 2001. He and his wife hit the road and have been traveling ever since. Told with humor and insight, Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate is both an account of their adventures and a penetrating examination of work and inequality, race and class, alienation and environmental degradation in the small towns and big cities of the contemporary United States. Sierra 2 Ctr, Curtis Hall, 2791 24th St., 7–9pm INFO: www.marxistschool.org; e-mail [email protected]; 799-1354. All activities are free and open to the public.

INSIDE:If you want BPM to SURVIVE and THRIVE, you need to SUBSCRIBE! plus update on SB840—Health Care for All; Unimpeachable reasons for Impeachment; Special education section—public school segregation returns, the student/faculty rebellion at CSUS, public schools vs private charter schools; Film and Book Reviews, Events Calendar and MORE...

Progressive News and Views

Join Amy, Ralph and Michael! Support your local progressive newspaper!

May / June 2007

Because People Matter

Progressive Media Access Sacramento TV Cable Channels 17 and 18 Sacramento Soapbox: Progressive Talk Show w/ Jeanie Keltner & Ken Adams. Mon 8pm, Wed 4am. (In Davis: Channel 15, Tues, 7pm.) Being Gay Today: Thurs 6am, 10pm, Sat 6am. Democracy Now!: Weekdays 6pm, 12midnight, 5am. Media Edge: progressive documentaries, including local productions.Sundays 8–10pm Other sources for Media Edge Davis, Channel 15, Sundays, 8–10pm. Nevada County, Channel 11, Mondays, 10:30pm –12:30am. West Sacramento, Channel 21, Mondays, 9–11pm. Dish Network Satellite TV ▼ Channel 9415, Free Speech TV. Democracy Now!: News and Analysis. Monday–Friday: 8am, 12pm, 7pm ET. ▼ Channel 9410, Link TV Democracy Now!: Monday–Friday, 11am. Mosaic—World News from the Middle East: Tues–Saturday, 4:30am and 10:30am; 4:30pm and 10:30pm. Radio ▼ KVMR 89.5 FM BBC News, M-F 6, 7, 8am; News & Attitude with Travus T. Hipp, M-F 7:30am; KVMR Morning News, M-F 8:05am; Stories & Songs with U. Utah Phillips, Sun 11am; Soundings (Science), Tues noon; Rabble Rousing, Wed noon; Full Logic Reverse, Thu noon; Who Cares? (Health), Fri noon; KVMR Evening News, 6pm daily; Democracy Now!, Mon-Thu 7pm; Women’s Show, Mon 8pm. ▼ KCBL Cable 88.7 FM ▼ KYDS 91.5 FM Saturdays, approx. 3–4 pm., followed by Counter Spin from the media watch group FAIR:

▼ KDVS 90.3 FM Democracy Now!: Mon–Fri noon. Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) Mon–Fri 4:30pm. Printed Matter on the Air (interviews with local writers) alternating with Panic Attack (attorneys and guests discuss what makes people panic): Mon 5pm. Making Contact (int’l radio seeks to create connections): Tue 8am. Proletarian Revolution (focusing on political, social, and economic issues) alternating with The Simple Show (talk show on human rights): Wed 8am. Speaking in Tongues (labor, environmental, social, and political topics. Callers welcome, interviews frequent): Fri 5pm. Memo Durgin and Eddie Salas (Public affairs and music of the Chicano/Mexicano people): Sat 6–8pm. ▼ KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley Democracy Now!: Reports on US and world news. M–F 9am. Living Room: Chris Welch. M–F Noon. Seven Generations: M–F 1pm. New Directions: including visionary astrologer. Thur 2pm. Flashpoints: News and analysis. M–F 5pm. ▼ KSQR 1240 AM (TalkCity Radio Sacramento) Progressive talk radio all day long with Christine Craft, Thom Hartman and others.

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Volunteer!

BPM needs help dropping stacks of BPMs at locations around town. Call Paulette at 422-1787. We always need writers, proofreaders, and new people for the editorial group. Call Jeanie at 444-3203. Bugged by high gas prices? No car? No computer? No problem! We need someone to update the meetings and radio programs listed in BPM. Do it from home! Call Ellen at 369-5510.

BLACK AGENDA REPORT

The weekly magazine of African American political thought and action

www.blackagendareport.com

Incisive. Insightful. Independent radio commentary, twice each week from Black Agenda Report Radio. Freely downloadable broadcast quality MP3 files for radio stations or personal use. The Black Agenda Report is led by Executive Editor Glen Ford Glen Ford is a veteran journalist and seasoned broadcast professional with a career stretching back more than three decades. Ford conceived, co-founded and hosted America’s Black Forum in the early 1980s, and was lead editor, copublisher and founder of the internet magazine Black Commentator, till leaving there to start Black Agenda Report. Ford is based in Jersey City NJ. Managing Editor Bruce Dixon A native Chicagoan living in exile near Atlanta, Bruce Dixon is a longtime and incorrigible activist whose most recent internet home was also Black Commentator.

▼ KCTC 1320 AM (AirAmerica Radio) Progressive talk radio all day long with Randi Rhodes, and others. ▼ KZFR 90.1 FM Chico People Powered Radio! managed and operated by volunteers, provides mostly locally produced and community oriented programs.

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