Policing Big Brother

By Nigel Medhurst

 

Last spring, KSEE 24 News broadcast a video showing the Fresno police beating Glen Beaty, a homeless man. The video was taken by a neighborhood resident, and it caused a public outcry against police brutality. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer responded quickly by ordering an internal investigation into the assault.

 

The action of a resident observing and recording police activity is a core idea of Copwatch. Copwatch is a community-based design that aims to educate residents in ways to hold police officers accountable for their actions, thereby leading to the police holding themselves more accountable. Copwatching has been used predominantly in poorer neighborhoods where residents are afraid and more police abuse occurs.

 

Lifelong community organizer Gloria Hernandez saw a need for residents of Fresno to be informed about their rights when interacting with the police. She brought in a trainer from Berkeley, where Copwatch was founded, to educate Fresnans on these rights.

 

 

Lonnie Graham was killed by Fresno police officers last month. Officers said they feared

for their lives when they saw Graham step out of a house with a cell phone in his hand.

Graham did not have a weapon.

 

 

The trainer informed residents about their rights when dealing with the police and how to observe and especially record the police when they arrest someone. However, during the process of recording, if a police officer sees a video camera, he/she can sometimes become confrontational. This is where the Copwatch training helps. The resident must maintain his/her position, without getting aggressive or resisting the police. The copwatcher has to be conscious of his/her rights.

 

The resident has a right to observe and videotape the police from a reasonable distance as long as the police are not prevented from doing their job. This is a challenging but crucial aspect of copwatching.

 

When the police know someone is watching, they are apt to change their behavior and reactions. Hernandez recounted an incident during an arrest where a police officer was witnessed allowing his police dog to bite an arrest suspect. Hernandez said the awareness of witnesses caused other police at the scene to file charges against the officer for letting his dog assault a suspect. Hernandez asserted that it was the residents’ presence that pressured the police officers to be accountable.

 

People usually are not comfortable around the police. In Fresno, the numerous cases of abuse and even killings by the police have created a serious aversion to contact with the police. Hernandez explained that “people are afraid of the cops, but the only way to change things is if people pull out their own cameras and video cameras and use them.”

 

Those who retreat to the camouflage and safety of their homes can still copwatch with a new type of copwatcher. Hernandez described them as “undercover copwatchers like Grandmas on patios with video cameras.” These are the everyday residents who police never think twice about, but these “undercover copwatchers” can be quite powerful.

 

The Beaty beating was viewed from afar. When the video was submitted to television stations, there were serious consequences for the police. “We encourage people to do it undercover and bring the video to the nearest TV station,” Hernandez said.

 

A training video at www.youtube.com titled “Copwatch: These Streets Are Watching” illustrates the environment that Copwatch wants to create—one where the police are never sure whether they are being watched. That way, the police will be more inclined not to abuse civilians’ rights.

 

The abuse tends to occur in poorer neighborhoods where residents do not know their legal rights. These residents could never afford to hire lawyers to file charges against the police.

 

There is also an inordinate number of cases of police abuse with minorities. “Blacks represent 9% of the population, but they get involved in police aggression three times as much,” Hernandez said. Combine the lack of political representation with this residual racism and what plays out is an unequal abuse of power in areas inhabited by minorities.

 

“What goes on the west side doesn’t happen in the north,” says Rev. Floyd Harris, an African-American from west Fresno. “We don’t have strong voices in the political arena. The police come out to block parties when the black or brown kids are 6 or 7, and they shoot them in the back when they are young men.”

 

Harris, a church leader in his community, had heard stories of police abuse in his community. It was not until Harris was pulled over and humiliated by being treated as a drug dealer and suspicious character that he understood the allegations against the police. Harris started observing the police and counseling arrest suspects about their legal rights. Harris said, “We felt it was appropriate to arm the residents in Fresno with a way of protecting themselves.”

 

Harris wanted to work with the police but found that the police were unwilling to accept responsibility and address the problematic behavior of some police. “There are good police, but there is a high percent of cops who abuse their authority, and
another segment of police who don’t want to say anything. There is a code of silence.”

 

This code of silence creates an environment that allows some police officers to further abuse power. If a resident cannot report an abusive officer to another officer then more residents become afraid and silenced and, subsequently, more police are able to get away with more abuse.

 

“Relying on the police to police themselves is like placing the fox to guard the henhouse,” Harris said. He started videotaping the police, which he describes as a real weapon. Harris believes that videotaping the police is the only way to protect his neighborhood and hold the police responsible for their actions.

 

 

On October 9 a protest was held in downtown Fresno demanding police accountability. The event, organized by the Brown Berets, was held in front of the jail and police headquarters. This quote by Assata Shakur was on their press release: "It is our duty to fight for our freedom…We’ve got nothing to lose but our chains."

 

Harris rejects any suggestion that he is being aggressive or antagonistic with the police and describes his actions as defensive: “If the police are doing what they are supposed to, then there shouldn’t be any worry about being videotaped. Inequality and racism still exist although people don’t walk around in Klan suits.”

 

This viral process of empowering individuals will eventually grow into empowering neighborhoods. Such a spirit of civic responsibility is exemplified in Josh Cranston, a student at Fresno State. After viewing the Beaty beating on television, he got involved and started copwatching.

 

Cranston videotaped at events like the Mardi Gras celebration in the Tower District, where there was a strong police presence. He encountered resistance to his copwatching. While videotaping the police questioning a homeless man about an open container, an officer patted him down for weapons and began questioning him. Eventually, he was given a ticket for jaywalking. “The police can give you a ticket for anything. It’s just another example of how unethical they are,” Cranston explained.

 

“The police are against transparency and accountability,” says Cranston. However, he is not deterred. Cranston is continuing to copwatch and describes his relationship to the activity as a “philosophy. A way of life. If I see someone being questioned or arrested by the police, then I stand at a distance and observe.”

 

It is important for people to be informed about their rights before they start copwatching. “When people stand up against the police they get harassed. You’re either on their good side or their bad side. If you take on the cops you better be ready,” Hernandez said.

 

She encourages all civilians to be educated about the copwatch model. For example, the police are allowed to pat you down to see if you are armed, but they are not allowed to search you, your vehicle or your residence without your consent. All you have to say is “I do not consent to this search.” Any such search is inadmissible in court.

 

You have a right to ask the police if you are being detained and, if you are not, you can just walk away. You do not have to speak with the police. The police will always work to engage you in a conversation. That is how they collect information and form a case against you.

 

Copwatch suggests being polite when talking with the police and keeping your hands where the police can see them. Never resist, fight or run away from the police because this will allow them to use force to detain you. Speak clearly and respectfully with the police.

 

If an officer acts inappropriately, get his/her badge number and file a report. As Copwatch sees it, people unifying against police abuse will bring about a powerful change.

 

Although contacted several times, Chief Dyer and the Fresno Police Department refused to comment on Copwatch. The police realize that Copwatch will make them more accountable and limit their ability to do what they want. Dyer cannot speak out against Copwatch because he would then be speaking against the residents that he is supposed to serve.

 

As long as a copwatcher does not interfere with police proceedings, the action is within the boundaries of the law. This puts pressure on the police, especially Dyer, to interact with the community. And that is what community organizers such as Harris and Hernandez want. “He [Chief Dyer] has to recognize that this is our community and that he has to deal with us,” Hernandez said.

 

If you want to get involved in Copwatch, visit the C.A.F.E. Infoshop at 935 F St. in Fresno. Learn more about the group at www.berkeleycopwatch.org.

 

****

 

Nigel Medhurst is a freelance writer and photographer in the Fresno area. His email is nigelmedhurst@hotmail.com.

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Will We Have Effective Police Oversight in Fresno?

By Gerry Bill

 

By the time you read these words, the City of Fresno may have just hired someone to head the Office of Independent Review (OIR), an office that is supposed to provide outside oversight of the Fresno Police Department (FPD). As the Community Alliance went to press, the city was in the final stages of the hiring process.

 

Once that person is hired, the next question will be whether he/she can perform the job effectively. The OIR was created by the City Council, at the urging of Mayor Ashley Swearengin, in March. It was the result of a 10-year campaign by the people of Fresno to bring an independent police auditor to Fresno. That effort was spearheaded by the Central California Criminal Justice Committee (CCCJC).

 

The CCCJC is committed to creating a base of support in the community for the OIR. Community support is crucial if the OIR is going to be able to stand up to the FPD and the City of Fresno.

 

The OIR is technically under the city manager’s office. The person will not be an employee of the FPD and will not answer to the police chief. That arrangement is the best of the possible compromises in creating such a position. To have access to police personnel files, the OIR would have to be under an officer of the city who has access to those files. Being under the city manager is the least onerous of the choices available.

 

The downside is that the OIR can be fired at the whim of the city manager, and the police chief could pressure the city manager to do just that if the OIR becomes too critical of the police department. Of course, what is the point of having an OIR if he/she cannot be critical of police actions?

 

Fresno had hired a temporary person to help get the OIR office going. That person was Bob Aaronson, who had been a consultant for the city on this matter back in March and who does part-time police oversight in Santa Cruz and Davis.

 

The CCCJC met several times with Aaronson and found him to be highly competent and knowledgeable about the job. He provided the CCCJC with an understanding of the internal city politics that come about when there is an internal police auditor (or an OIR in our case). He stated that the OIR will be under constant pressure from the police department to side with the police and from the city attorney not to say (or write) anything that could put the city at risk of a lawsuit.

 

Furthermore, Aaronson pointed out that the OIR cannot be effective unless he/she earns the respect of the members of the police department. At the same time, the OIR cannot have any credibility with the public unless he/she is independent enough to stand up to the police department when the officers are clearly in the wrong. It is a fine line that the OIR must tread.

 

Community support for the OIR will make a huge difference. If we do not want the OIR to be fired the first time that he/she takes a stand against the police, it will have to be well-known within City Hall that this person has the confidence of the citizens of Fresno. The only thing that will protect the OIR is if a huge public outcry were to result from a firing.

 

The CCCJC hopes that the person who is hired is someone of high integrity and who is willing to be a truly independent voice. Once the CCCJC is satisfied that the right person is in the job, the next step will be to inform the public about this new office and its operations, raising public awareness and support for the OIR. The more community support the OIR has, the greater the chances of the position becoming a truly independent voice for justice in cases of police abuse.

 

This is one of those situations where we, as citizens, can really make a difference. Just as it is our job as members of the public to make President Barack Obama do the right thing, it is also our job to make the OIR do the right thing. Let’s hold his/her feet to the fire and see what happens.

 

*****

 

Gerry Bill is emeritus professor of sociology and American studies at Fresno City College. He is co-chair of the Central California Criminal Justice Committee. He is also a board member of the Fresno Center for Nonviolence, the Fresno Free College Foundation/KFCF 88.1 FM and Peace Fresno.

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From the Editor

 

The police shooting of 28-year-old Lonnie Graham in late September has a lot of us thinking about police accountability and wondering what happened to the idea of an independent police auditor (IPA) in Fresno. Graham was shot to death as he stepped out of a house near Blackstone and Olive. He was holding a cell phone, which the police say they thought was a gun. Police Chief Jerry Dyer said his officers feared for their lives, but witnesses said the seven shots were fired before Graham had a chance to raise his hands.

 

Nobody I know expects there to be an independent investigation into the death of Graham or any of the other people the police have shot and killed this year. The findings of the Internal Affairs investigations always find that the police have done no wrong. As my friend, the Rev. Floyd Harris Jr., says, “It is like having the fox guarding the chicken house.”

 

The last time there was an uproar over apparent police misconduct, Mayor Ashley Swearengin and Chief Dyer held a press conference to assure us that a complete and independent investigation would be held. That was back in February when a video emerged of two police officers beating a homeless man. Dyer said that his office would investigate the incident, the District Attorney’s office would conduct an independent investigation and the state Attorney General’s office would provide oversight by professionals outside of the city. All that sounded reassuring, but what actually happened?

 

Glen Beaty, the victim who was beaten by the police, was put in the Fresno County Jail. The DA’s office never charged him with a crime, even though the police claimed that he had assaulted them. The facts in the case that have emerged indicate that Beaty was peacefully sleeping under a tree when he was awakened by the two officers. They managed to turn the encounter with Beaty (who the court later determined to be mentally ill) into a violent confrontation. The video clearly shows one officer holding Beaty’s hands behind his back while the other punches him in the face. Did Internal Affairs issue a report saying this was excessive force? No, they didn’t.

 

To this day, neither the FPD, the DA, nor the state’s Attorney General’s office has issued a public report on the incident. So much for the assurances of Swearengin and Dyer about independent investigations in high-profile cases. Beaty was never charged with a crime in that incident, but he did spend eight months in jail and has recently been transferred to a state mental facility in Atascadero.

 

The Community Alliance has, for the last several months, printed accounts of additional police attacks on the homeless. I thought you might be interested in a follow-up on those reports. The first incident involved two homeless men in the Roeding Park area who were visiting outside of a store when an officer told them to “move on.” The two friends moved to the edge of the parking lot, next to a sidewalk and a bus stop, finished saying their good-byes and at that moment the officer returned. They were issued citations for trespassing, even though nobody at the store had complained, they were customers at the store and had moved to public space.

 

The two homeless men filed complaint forms about the harassment of the FPD more than two months ago. It is the policy of the FPD to respond to any complaints within 30 days. Neither of them ever heard back from the police. They did, however, have to spend the day at the Fresno County Courthouse, trying to clear the citation. Since the DA has not yet filed charges, they have to continue checking in with the courts so they don’t have a warrant issued for their arrest.

 

In the case we reported on in October, another homeless man, Randy Johnson, was Tasered and charged with assault because the officer said Randy had thrown a piece of paper at him. I have to admit, I thought it sounded pretty unreasonable that an officer would attack a homeless person just because he threw paper at him. Randy actually says he threw the paper (a citation he had been given) on the ground. We checked with the FPD and received the police report. Officer John Mendes claims that Randy called him some “bad names” and, quoting the police report, “crumpled up the two parking citations that were in his right hand and intentionally threw them at me. The parking citations struck me in my right shin.”

 

The report goes on to detail how the police did indeed Taser Randy for what is described as a “violation of PC243(B) — battery on a peace officer.” Randy also filed a complaint against the use of excessive force, but he has not heard back from them either. His complaint was also filed well over 30 days ago.

 

Randy said that he is now being harassed by the police who have come by on numerous occasions to talk with him about the incident. He described an incident that was disturbing to him, where one of the officers involved came by his tent at 10 p.m. to talk with him and his wife about what happened. “He was shining his light into our tent, looking for a reason to search our home.” Randy told him to go away. There have been other times when the police come by late at night and shine their spotlight on his tent. Randy believes this is retaliation for talking with the Community Alliance about the Taser incident.

 

Some progressive activists believe that the establishment of an Office of Independent Review (OIR) will greatly improve the situation. See Gerry Bill’s article on page one. Bill is an active member of the Central California Criminal Justice Committee, which has worked tirelessly for police accountability in this community. It is hopeful that an OIR, when hired, will be a great leap forward.

 

There are others in the progressive community that are more cautious about the outcome of having an OIR. The danger, they say, is that an OIR will be extremely vulnerable to City Hall politics and will either turn into a “lap dog” of the police or will be fired. The OIR, as it has been established, will have no investigative power, will report to the City Manager’s office and might not even issue reports that are available to the public. Critics say that the OIR has weak support on the City Council (it voted against a strong IPA year after year), faces hostility from the City Attorney’s office (because of liability issues), and when the going gets tough will be abandoned by the mayor.

 

Both supporters and those cautious of the OIR agree that we need greater police accountability in this community and that it will take the active participation of more people to succeed. Don’t wait until another homeless person is abused, you are racially profiled or your neighbor is shot. Stand up for police accountability NOW! No more stolen lives!

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Progressive News Briefs

Compiled by Mike Rhodes

 

Outrage of the Month

 

The “Outrage of the Month” is a chronicle of ongoing police abuse in this community. Since starting this series of articles, we have been deluged with submissions and it has been difficult to select a single outrage of the month. But this month’s choice was pretty obvious. Lonnie Graham was shot down by the Fresno Police Department as he stepped unarmed out of a house. Graham had a cell phone in his hand, but the police said they feared for their lives and killed him. Witnesses, including Graham’s former girlfriend, Celeste Rodriguez, said police did not give him a chance to surrender.

 

About 50 protesters, demanding police accountability, marched to the Fresno Police Department headquarters on Friday, Oct. 8. They were upset at Graham’s death, the eighth officer involved shooting of the year. Adriana Becerra, a member of the Brown Berets, who organized this protest, said the account of Graham’s death is disputed. Becerra said, “His family did say that he was shot without a warning, as soon as he stepped out of the house.”

 

Juan Avitia, a spokesperson for the Brown Berets said, “We want the police department to get their act together. We want them to look in the mirror and really look at tactics and options that are available to them. Shooting first is an option to them, but it is not the only option and that is what we’re saying. We want them to seriously look at their options, and there are a lot of options. In this case specifically, judging from what the Fresno Bee wrote and Chief Dyer said, “They shot this man, there was a cell phone, he had no gun, and under the circumstances, just judging what was said, that in itself raises a lot of questions.”

 

Bill Simon, the chairperson of the local American Civil Liberties Union, attended the protest. He said he is getting impatient with the slow pace of establishing an independent police auditor in Fresno. Simon told me: “I’m here to observe what is going on, to remind the city that we need the IPA. . .which was passed months ago and we still don’t have it. . . that we need absolute transparency in terms of the city’s relationship with the police department, because so many of the issues that come up are police issues, and we just have a right to know what is going on. They need to be more careful about when they feel they need to shoot someone.”

 

Rev. Floyd Harris Jr., of the National Network in Action was not optimistic about getting justice in the shooting of Graham or with gaining police accountability through an independent police auditor. Harris said: “Until we get an independent police auditor that is independent of the mayor’s office, I don’t believe we are going to get any justice. Even if we had a strong person that was good in this position, it would be dictated by the Mayor’s office and the City Manager’s office.”

 

For an update on earlier Outrage of the Month articles, see the From the Editor column on page 2.

 

If you have a submission for the Outrage of the Month, send it to Editor, Community Alliance, P.O. Box 5077, Fresno, Ca 93755, or by e-mail to  editor@fresnoalliance.com. Please include your name and cite the sources of your information.

 

City of Fresno Gets Temporary Restraining Order on Pot Dispensaries

 

The City of Fresno’s war on  drugs gained traction last month when Superior Court Judge Alan Simpson issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against medical marijuana dispensaries in this city. The TRO is intended to stop the dispensaries from operating until a full hearing of the city’s lawsuit can be heard in court.

 

The city is trying to shut down the dispensaries based on a zoning ordinance that says they must comply with all state and federal laws. The city says that because marijuana possession is a violation of federal law, no dispensaries should be allowed in the city.

 

However, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Oct. 20 told federal authorities not to arrest or prosecute medical marijuana users who were not in violation of state laws. Proposition 215, which passed in 1996, decriminalized the medical use of marijuana in California.

 

The lawsuit, filed by the City of Fresno, will take many months (probably years) to play out in court. In the meantime, medical marijuana patients will be forced to buy their medicine from street gangs or drive to Oakland, where the medicine is taxed, providing that community with much needed revenue.

 

Grassroots Democracy

 

Sixty percent of the students in the Fresno Unified School District are Latinos, but there are no Latinos on the school board. An effort is now under way to change the way trustees are elected, that would bring more balance to the board. 

 

Latino activists are pressuring the Fresno Unified School District to switch to trustee district elections as a way to bring more diversity to the school board. Currently, board members must live in the district they represent, but are elected by voters from throughout the city. Venancio Gaona, with El Councilio De Fresno, speaking at a recent school board meeting, said, “We request that the district initiate the process for converting from an at-large method of elections to a district-based election system as soon as possible. The district needs to comply with the California voting rights law.”

 

Former school district trustee Manual Nunez lost his seat in 2008 in a heavily Latino district to Larry Moore, who is white. Nunez says that when candidates spend more time campaigning in the district they want to represent, those voters can get to know them better. Nunez said, “The north side voters far outnumbered the trustee area voters at Roosevelt in getting a person elected. Fortunately, it was me and I’m not going to complain about it, but the point is that it would have been more fair for us to have had the elections by trustee area.”

 

All school board trustees speaking at the public hearing supported the concept of trustee district elections, but Carol Mills discussed postponing the conversion to 2012. Mills said, “I question whether we can reasonably do this in 2010, if there is sufficient time to get the demographic data to break the district into appropriate areas and to implement that for an election. I have a concern with that because it is also expensive.”

 

Trustee Janet Ryan thought the 2010 date was achievable. “We should move as quickly as possible. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do this in 2010. First of all, we could look at the current trustee areas from the 2000 census, we have those figures. How much could it take. . . somebody needs to explain to me why it would be so difficult to take the 2000 figures and find out if they are proportional and if they were, we move as quickly as we can to go to elections in 2010 by Trustee area.”

 

Local Democratic Party activist Joel Murillo compared the delays in implementing trustee district elections to desegregation in the south. He called on the board to act now.  “The California Voting Rights Act was instituted nine years ago. You have had nine years to institute trustee voting for your membership. Is this unreasonable delay? We have plenty of evidence. The California Department of Commerce has indicated that in the City of Fresno you have almost a 50% Hispanic population. Where is the reasonable delay?”

 

Gaona says that his group’s goal is to level the playing field and improve the democratic process. He said, “The goal is to have more citizen participation and hopefully we will have more minority candidates running and being elected, who would be more responsive to the petitions of their constituency.”

 

Update: As this issue of the Community Alliance was going to press, the FUSD Board of Trustees agreed to make a change in how future elections are held. Trustees will now be elected by the voters in their district, not from throughout the city. This is a major victory for grassroots democracy in Fresno.

 

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Understanding the Power Landscape of Fresno

By Michael D. Evans

 

Information for this article has been compiled from a number of sources, starting with a study commissioned by labor a few years ago and including other public sources and conversations with activists at various intervals of the political spectrum.

 

Where does decision-making power lie in Fresno? How is that power implemented? And how could that power be affected to more favorably reflect the viewpoints of the progressive community?

 

A methodology to assist us in making this assessment is a power grid. A power grid measures ideology on the “X” axis (from diehard progressive on the left to diehard conservative on the right) and decision-making influence on the “Y” axis (from “not on the radar” at the bottom to “decisive influence” at the top). The discussion of players and issues herein is relative to such a grid.

 

Essentially, this article is a primer on the local political landscape. Yes, it shows what progressives are up against, but it also reveals where opportunities might exist to exert influence.

 

The Issues

 

The grid reflects the importance that decision makers give to respective issues and the ideological slant of the outcomes, or the way in which those issues are framed. For example, crime prevention is a high-profile issue that falls on the conservative side of the grid because the outcomes tend to be punitive rather than preventive.

 

In addition to crime prevention, the issues given the greatest weight in decision-making circles are water, crime prevention, land use, air quality and employment. Land-use decisions, in particular, are important to a number of influential players.

 

Water is a complicated issue that tends to defy easy categorization, especially with the current framing of the right that its access is a government/environmental burden imposed on the Central Valley. For purposes of our analysis, it is further muddied in that decisions regarding water occur at multiple levels of government.

 

Two areas of concern to progressives that do get considerable attention are air quality and employment. As these issues are related to the community’s ability to attract enterprises and workers, they have become areas of mutual concern to progressives and conservatives.

 

Those who wield power set the terms of discussion: what will be addressed and how it will be framed. As a result, the current local power configuration means that short shrift is given to such issues as homelessness, agricultural workers’ rights, agriculture-related environmental concerns and immigrant rights.

 

 

The Decision Makers

 

The obvious decision makers are our elected officials. But various parties influence their decisions (see next section). As to the power base, a rather significant discrepancy exists in the impact of our local elected officials who serve at the state and federal levels compared to those who serve at the county and city levels.

 

At the federal level, the impact of our local representatives is virtually nonexistent. The two Republican representatives (Devin Nunes and George Radanovich) strictly adhere to the minority party agenda. The two Democratic representatives (Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza) have aligned themselves with the “blue dog” Democrats; although such an approach might enhance their influence in the Senate, it has marginalized their effectiveness in the House.

 

Far and away, the most influential local politician at the state level is State Sen. Dean Florez. As part of the Senate leadership, he is central to any decisions made in the state legislature. He is using this influence to kick-start his 2010 statewide campaign for lieutenant governor.

 

The county and city governments have a much more far- reaching impact on our daily lives than either the state or federal government (although the current financial crisis has expanded the state’s reach in a negative way). As a result, local decisions are more directly affected by the local power brokers.

 

The Board of Supervisors adopts ordinances, establishes programs, levies taxes and appropriates funds. It also deals with state-mandated services, including health and human services.

 

The City of Fresno’s government is responsible for matters related to land use, economic development and city services. Fresno has a strong mayor system, and a strong individual in that position can have a significant influence on decision making. By all indications, Ashley Swearingen appears to be that type of mayor.

 

 

Parties Seeking to Influence Policy

 

Numerous parties want to influence policy in some way. Those who most heavily influence the agenda in Fresno County and the City of Fresno are conservatives (See Chart). By and large, the agenda of these groups, collectively the power elite if you will, is growth, keeping down the cost of doing business in Fresno, attracting new business and employees by encouraging deregulatory efforts, privatizing city services and enhancing the prestige of Fresno.

 

There are different factions within the power elite. One faction favors smart growth, better air quality and good schools; supporters of this agenda might include Mayor Swearingen, the Fresno Business Council, the Fresno City Council and some developers. Another faction supports unbridled growth; this agenda gets a push from agribusiness, the Christian Right, the Building Industry Association, most developers, the City of Clovis and the Chamber of Commerce.

 

These power brokers exercise their influence and effect change through large political contributions, securing
appointments to various boards and commissions, nurturing strong social ties with politicians and other power players, and having created a positive public image for themselves.

 

The Electoral Landscape

 

The current makeup of the Board of Supervisors is four Republicans and one Democrat, although one of the Republicans (Susan Anderson) is generally thought to have a progressive voting record. Of the current supervisors, all were elected in a primary with vote totals ranging from 12,104 to 18,834. That means a person could be elected to the Board with as few as 12,104 votes in a district that represents one-fifth of the county. Two of these seats are on the ballot in 2010.

 

The City Council is only marginally more competitive. Only one of the sitting members was elected in a general election as opposed to a primary (Blong Xiong in District 1). The votes for winning Council candidates ranged from 2,459 to 10,914 (the latter being the District 1 race, and that was larger because it was in a general election when there are considerably more voters). As you can see, you do not have to reach that many voters to affect the outcome of a race. Four of the seven seats are up in 2010. Furthermore, the Census data will likely trigger an increase of two seats on the City Council.

 

An interesting development in the county is the voter registration dynamic. Despite the favorable media coverage of the tea baggers, birthers, deathers and other right-wing oppositionists, the registration trend, as it was throughout 2007 and 2008, is still trending strongly toward Democratic and Decline-to-State voters, in other words, against the Republican right-wing conservative onslaught on America.

 

As of the October 2009 data, the Republican advantage countywide was less than 3,000 voters. That advantage is almost solely because of the Republican registration differential in Clovis. Indeed, Democrats have a voter registration advantage of about 13,000 in the City of Fresno.

 

Yet, good voter registration numbers do not necessarily translate into good turnout. The 2008 mayoral race is a case in point.

 

The comparative turnout in northern Fresno versus southern Fresno was rather stark. For example, in Precinct 205, in northwest Fresno, there were 1,171 registered voters in 2008, 84% of whom voted. Democrat Henry T. Perea got 21%, or 208 votes, whereas Republican Ashley Swearengin got 79%, or 780 votes. Conversely, in a similarly sized precinct in southeast Fresno, Precinct 24, there were 1,267 registered voters, only 42% of whom voted. Perea got 80%, or 427 votes, whereas Swearengin got 20%, or 109 votes. Out of two comparably sized precincts with almost exactly inverse voting percentages, Perea lost 889 to 635. Had turnout been comparable, Perea would have won 1,059 to 993. This dichotomy occurred throughout the city.

 

This scenario is rather sobering. It happened in 2008—when conservatives did not have a good reason to get out and vote and progressives did. So even with a healthy voter registration advantage and an exciting ticket, electoral success was not ensured.

 

 

Analysis

 

How does this information help us as progressives? We have identified the power brokers in Fresno, and we know what progressives are up against in trying to shift that paradigm.

 

Progressives need to establish relationships and alliances among like-minded groups, select battles strategically, organize more aggressively and develop a common long-term agenda.

 

The progressive approach to Measure C, the ballot initiative to maintain a half-cent sales tax for transportation expenses, is a case study in how such alliances can be effective. When that initiative first appeared on the ballot, organizations including the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club worked with other progressive groups to defeat the measure. Because of that success, their input was taken more seriously when the measure was reintroduced and more resources went toward public transportation, bike lanes and even farmworker transportation as a result. The measure passed the second time around.

 

In the 2010 elections, there will be a real opportunity to shift the balance of power on the Board of Supervisors. The data indicate that winning at least one of the two Board of Supervisor seats on the ballot would make that body more open to addressing progressive concerns. An alliance among various progressive entities could make this a reality.

 

All of this information no doubt seems daunting, and the power and influence of the existing power base may appear overwhelming. But with a collaborative mind-set within the progressive community, real change can be effected.

 

*****

 

Michael D. Evans is a political activist, editor and writer. He can be reached at evansm@usa.net.

 

 

Important Local Races for 2010 on the Ballot in Fresno County

 

Key elections that will be on the ballot in Fresno County in 2010 are listed below. The incumbent and his/her party affiliation are listed beside the district.

 

U.S. Congress

District 18                              Dennis Cardoza (D)

District 19                              George Radanovich (R)

District 20                              Jim Costa (D)

District 21                              Devin Nunes (R)

There are four Congressional districts that reach into Fresno County. All four incumbents are anticipated to seek reelection. Both Republicans are hardcore right-wingers, and both Democrats are blue dogs. Progressive opposition has surfaced against Radanovich, and Costa will likely have a primary opponent.

 

State Senate

District 14                              David Cogdill (R)

District 16                              Dean Florez (D)

Florez is terming out and running for lieutenant governor. Michael Rubio of Kern County is running to replace Florez, and he tends to be in the same progressive vein as Florez. Cogdill is in a safe district and is unlikely to see legitimate competition.

 

State Assembly

District 29                              Mike Villines (R)

District 30                              Danny Gilmore (R)

District 31                              Juan Arambula (DS)

Both Arambula and Villines are terming out. Fresno City Council member Henry T. Perea is seeking the Arambula seat. Fran Florez is challenging for the Gilmore seat. Democrats have a healthy voter registration advantage in that district, which should position Florez well in this race. The Villines seat is in a safe Republican district, and there is unlikely to be any Democratic competition.

 

Board of Supervisors

District 1                                Phil Larson (R)

District 4                                Judy Case (R)

Only two of the five Board seats are on the ballot in 2010. The current makeup of the body is a 4-1 Republican majority. However, in both open seats a Republican incumbent is seeking reelection in a district that now has a Democratic voter registration advantage. These are key races where progressive involvement could make a difference.

 

Countywide Offices

Assessor/Recorder                 Bob Werner (R)

Auditor/Controller                    Vicki L. Crow (R)

County Clerk/Registrar of Voters                     Victor E. Salazar (D)

District Attorney                      Elizabeth A. Egan (R)

Public Administrator/Coroner    David Hadden (R)

Sheriff                                    Margaret Mims (DS)

These are countywide races that differ from other elective positions in that the candidate is elected to run an agency rather than just serve on an elective body. These positions wield considerable local influence. As far as we have been able to ascertain, all of the incumbents intend to seek reelection.

 

Fresno City Council

District 1                                Blong Xiong (D)

District 3                                Cynthia A. Sterling (D)

District 5                                Mike Dages (D)

District 7                                Henry T. Perea (D)

The Fresno City Council is a seven-seat body, and four of the seats are on the ballot in 2010. The current composition is a 4-3 Democratic majority. However, all four of the seats currently held by Democrats are on the ballot next year. Three of the Democrats are terming out, and there is already considerable interest from both parties in these seats. A key issue that will likely face the next Council is the addition of two Council seats because of population growth and the associated redistricting.

 

Board of Education

District 1                                Keith Eubanks (D)

District 4                                Delbert Cederquist (R)

Superintendent                       Larry Powell (R)

The Board is a five-seat body that works with the Superintendent to support the individual school districts throughout Fresno County. The current makeup of the Board is two Republicans, two Democrats and one Decline-to-State, and the superintendent is Republican. There is not yet much information about who will be competing for these seats, but the incumbents are expected to seek reelection.

 

Fresno Unified School District (FUSD)

Trustee Area #1                      Cal Johnson (DS)

Trustee Area #3                      Valerie Davis (R)

Trustee Area #4                      Tony Vang (D)

Trustee Area #7                      Michelle Asadoorian (D)

The FUSD is a seven-seat body, and four of the seats are up in 2010. The current makeup is four Democrats, two Republicans and a Decline-to-State, however, the body is generally considered to be rather conservative. Davis intends to seek a different office in 2010. The other incumbents are expected to seek reelection, and no information is yet available on any opposition.

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Assault on Jesse Morrow Mountain: Environmental Report Predicts Significant Damage

By Vic Bedoian

 

The proposed CEMEX Corp. gravel mine on Jesse Morrow Mountain has moved a step forward with the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). It has taken almost five years for Fresno County to produce the 700-page document, which spells out the scope and nature of the mining, as well as the environmental damage it will cause.

 

The mine encompasses the better part of a mountain that has enormous significance across the board for local inhabitants, whether they are human, animal, plant or mineral in substance. CEMEX operates out of Monterey, Mexico, in more than 50 countries. CEMEX is seeking a conditional use permit to begin work. If approved, CEMEX will blast and crush the mountain, from the top down, into gravel and other building materials for a hundred years, changing life around Jesse Morrow Mountain forever. This is of great concern to farmers, ranchers and other businesses, as well as the indigenous Choinumni, many of whom are coming together to try and stop the project.

 

In particular, the DEIR identifies potentially significant environmental impacts relative to aesthetics, agriculture, air quality, biology, cultural sites, geology and soils, hazardous materials, hydrology, water quality, land use, noise and traffic. Some of those impacts are considered “significant and unavoidable” by the environmental review:

 

Aesthetics. The project would alter the site topography and vegetation and introduce vehicle traffic and construct buildings at the plant site.

 

Air quality. Project operators would increase air emissions due to mobile equipment and fugitive dust from the blasting, crushing, screening and handling of aggregate, concrete and asphalt, which would also emit objectionable odors.

 

Cultural resources. The project could have a substantial adverse impact on Choinumni historical and archeological sites, which includes the spiritual importance of the mountain itself.

 

Transportation and traffic. The project will cause a substantial increase in traffic in relation to the existing traffic load and capacity of the local roads, resulting in congestion. Some 900 truck trips per day are estimated for the mining operation.

 

The DEIR concludes that the cumulative impact of the CEMEX operation will cause environmental, health and social problems that cannot be fixed. Despite this disturbing conclusion, the county could still approve the mine. The Board of Supervisors can ultimately approve the project by issuing what is called a “Statement of Overriding Consideration” if it concludes that the benefits of the project outweigh all the significant and unavoidable impacts.

 

 

North Face of Jesse Morrow Mountain. Photo by Jeffry Long

 

Bruce Steuben is the project manager for Resource Design Technology, the firm hired by the county to manage the environmental review process. Steuben states that “a lot of times what agencies will look at is tax revenue, job creation [and] other secondary economic benefits.”

 

One of the environmental benefits of the mine cited in the report was a reduction in greenhouse gases emitted by trucks because of the proximity of building materials to the development zones near Fresno. This is the same argument used for virtually every gravel mine that comes up for consideration in Fresno County.

 

Jim Van Haun and his wife Debbie own and operate the Sequoia View Bed & Breakfast, which sits in the shadow of the mountain. Although the negative impact of the mine will affect him personally, he thinks that the harm done will be felt by the wider public. He believes that visitors heading to the mountains will be appalled by the effects of mining.

 

“There are upwards of a million people per year from all over the world that use Highway 180 to get up to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks,” says Van Haun. “The first view shed of the Sierras is Jesse Morrow Mountain. So can you imagine coming from London, England, in your car with your two children and the first thing you see is absolute degradation?” It is a chilling vision, and one that Van Haun says will put him out of business.

 

Jesse Morrow Mountain has been home to Rick Osborne and his Choinumni ancestors for thousands of years and is integral to their history and culture. He expresses deep reservations about the mine. “Not only will the mine be a cultural disaster for me, because there are cultural sites on and around that mountain, but also the environment. That mountain to my people has been in our history as long as we’ve been here. In our name we call it Wahahlish. That means ‘Crying Mountain’ and it’s got a rich history of spirituality and of people living in that area.”

 

Although CEMEX has taken steps to mitigate some citizen concerns, its usual practice is to go ahead and violate inconvenient environmental laws and then pay the fines. That is why the company was slapped with a federal lawsuit for violating air and water quality laws at a plant near Victorville in the Mojave Desert. And that is but one of many CEMEX violations recorded throughout the United States.

 

The general public now has 60 days to provide written comments about the mining plan. After that, there will be another public meeting for comments before the proposal is heard by the Fresno County Planning Commission. Whatever the Planning Commission’s decision, it will likely be appealed to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision.

 

The review period ends Dec. 1, 2009. Hard copies of the DEIR are available at the Fresno County Public Works and Planning Department (2220 Tulare St. in Fresno) and on Fresno County’s Web site (www.co.fresno.ca.us; search for “Jesse Morrow Mountain”). The report is available on CD upon request. Hard copies can be read at the Fresno County Main Library; at the branch libraries in Sanger, Reedley and Squaw Valley; and at the Henry Madden Library on the Fresno State campus.

 

Comments on the Jesse Morrow Mountain Mine and Reclamation Project should be addressed to Briza Sholars, Planner III, Fresno County Public Works and Planning Department, Planning &
Environmental Analysis, 6F, 2220 Tulare St., Fresno, CA 93721.

 

In your comments, reference EIR 4858 and CUP 3100 and include your name and phone number. For questions or to request a public hearing notice, contact Sholars at 559-262-4454 or bsholars@co.fresno.ca.us.

 

The primary citizen action organization challenging the proposal is the Friends of Jesse Morrow Mountain (www.jessemorrowmountain.org).

 

*****

 

Vic Bedoian is an independent journalist based in the California Heartland. E-mail him at vicbedoian@gmail.com.

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What’s in the Water? The Central Valley Water Board Has a Chance to Find Out

By Elanor Starmer and Noelle Ferdon

 

Ninety percent of Central Valley communities, including the city of Fresno, get their drinking water from groundwater sources regulated not by the federal government but by the state. California’s state government has also heavily promoted the large dairy operations that dominate the Valley.

 

So what happens when some of the dairies cause groundwater contamination? How deep will the Valley’s Water Quality Control Board dig to get to the bottom of this public health problem?

 

This month, the board is rolling out a groundwater monitoring program that requires the dairy industry’s biggest polluters to install and test wells on their property. Flashy it is not—but the program is our best shot at knowing what might be getting into Central Valley drinking water and who is responsible. That is, if it is done right.

 

Background: More Cows, More Contamination

 

Over the past few decades, the number and size of dairies in the Valley has grown quickly. The region is now home to 2.7 million cows; many dairies house several thousand cows in one place.

 

The average dairy produces as much waste as a small city of 42,000. But unlike city waste laws, there is no requirement that dairy waste be treated. State law simply requires the waste to be stored in a clay-lined earthen lagoon, which research has shown does not keep the waste from seeping through the ground into the Valley’s groundwater aquifers.

 

That is bad news for the many communities that rely on groundwater for drinking, cooking and bathing, as well as for the families and workers that run the dairies and drink from their wells. Dairy waste contains high levels of nitrates, which can cause blue-baby syndrome (a condition where a baby’s red blood cells become oxygen-deprived) if consumed in high concentrations. Nitrate contamination has caused the closure of more wells in California than any other contaminant; many other contaminated wells are still being used.

 

The waste also contains high levels of salts and may contain pathogens like E. coli 0157:H7; a growth hormone called rBGH, which is used by many large dairies to boost cows’ milk production; and antibiotics that are used to keep cows from getting sick when they are housed close together in unhygienic conditions. There is no way to know whether pathogens, hormones or antibiotics get into the Valley’s groundwater because the state does not test for them.

 

Government Response Inadequate

 

Although authorities have known about high nitrate levels in the groundwater near dairies for years, it was not until 2007 that the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board took steps to address the problem. It required existing dairies to submit plans to the Board outlining how they were managing waste and the steps they were taking to ensure that waste did not reach the groundwater.

 

These steps are important, but there is no guarantee that they will fix the problem. Studies show that even when large dairies manage their manure well, the sheer amount of waste leads to some leaching of nitrates into the groundwater.

 

The new waste management requirements have now been in place for two years. But are they improving the quality of groundwater around the dairies? We will not know until the Board implements a new groundwater monitoring program. Starting this fall, the Board will require the industry’s biggest polluters to install groundwater monitoring wells around their property and test them twice a year. Presumably, if the steps they are taking to manage dairy waste are adequate, groundwater tests will show improvement.

 

Unfortunately, the monitoring program only directs dairies to test for nitrates and salts in the groundwater, not other contaminants like pathogens or hormones, so it will not give us a full picture of what we may be drinking.

 

Also troubling are statements from dairy industry associations that they think the monitoring program’s requirements are too burdensome. They are working with a consultant to draft an alternative regional monitoring program to present to the board this fall. If it is approved, stakeholders may find it impossible to prove that specific dairies are polluting the groundwater—or to hold them accountable for the cleanup.

 

We need a strong monitoring program in order to know if the current regulatory scheme is working. If the tests from the monitoring wells show that waste is still getting into the groundwater, then more aggressive action must be taken to protect the public health. It took the Board five years to come up with the current program; can Central Valley communities stand another five years of contaminated drinking water before something is done?

 

 

Factory farming of cows results in water and air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.

Find out what can be done to clear the air and water.

 

Advocates on the Move

 

Groups concerned with water quality in the Valley and with the impact of dairies on the environment are not sitting idly by. Food & Water Watch, the Community Water Center, the California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance and other local, state and national organizations are busy pushing for stronger measures to stop water pollution from Valley dairies. On Oct. 8, 12 organizations sent a letter to the Board’s executive officer, Pamela Creedon, outlining recommendations to strengthen the groundwater monitoring program. They will be following up with other proposals in the coming months.

 

What You Can Do

 

As a Central Valley resident, it is crucial that your voice be heard during this stakeholder process. Food & Water Watch is working with partner organizations to develop a long-term campaign to stop groundwater pollution from dairies in the Valley, but we need your support in the next few months to oppose the dairy industry’s weakening of the current monitoring program. Here is how to get involved now: Sign our petition letting the Central Valley Water Board know that you want clean, safe groundwater for Valley residents at www.foodandwaterwatch.org/cvgroundwater; join the Food & Water Watch e-mail list to receive updates about the campaign and for more opportunities to take action on this issue; and tell your friends and neighbors to get involved and take a stand for clean water.

 

*****

 

Elanor Starmer is a researcher and policy advocate, and Noelle Ferdon is a senior organizer at Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization with four offices in California. For more information, contact Noelle Ferdon at nferdon@fwwatch.org or 415-293-9907.

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Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union

By David Swanson

 

The following is an excerpt from Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union by David Swanson, with the kind permission of Seven Stories Press.

 

The Constitution of the United States begins with this familiar preamble, of which we the people are the authors:

 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,  and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

Not bad, but hardly a match for the eloquence of our modern statesmen. When told in 2008 that two-thirds of the people of the United States thought the Iraq War was “not worth it,” Vice President Dick Cheney replied with this familiar expression of contempt:

 

“So?”

 

The Constitution, outdated and longwinded though it may be when compared with Cheney’s chillingly concise statement, begins with the idea that in a democracy, power lies with the people. The Tenth Amendment concludes the Bill of Rights by stipulating that any powers not given in the Constitution to the various branches of the federal government remain with the people or their state governments. But what happens when the people, not to mention their supposed representatives in Congress, forget that they should care about being in charge?

 

If the last several years are any indication, not a whole lot of good.

 

It may be a surprise to many, but the Constitution gives the vast bulk of power in the federal government to the Congress, and relatively little to the executive and judicial branches. (You might have to read that last sentence a few times. It doesn’t contain a typo.) The Congress is intended to represent the people. It is given so much power that it is subdivided into two houses, and one of the two is called the “House of Representatives.”

 

About 58 percent of the words in the Constitution (excluding the amendments, and deleting words altered by amendments) are found in Article I, which is devoted to the Congress, the legislative branch. This compares to 18 percent for the executive branch and 7 percent for the judicial branch. The three branches are presented, in that order, in the first three articles of the Constitution. Each article is broken into sections, and—with the exception of a section on how to elect the president, which was later altered by amendment—the single longest section is Article I, Section 8, which lists various powers of the Congress.

 

According to the Constitution, Congress has the exclusive power to enact laws, as well as complete control over the raising and spending of money. No one can write a law without Congress. No one can raise or spend a dime of federal money without Congress. No one can declare war, fund and oversee the military, or regulate international and interstate trade, without Congress. Congress handles immigration, bankruptcies, the printing and valuing of money, the postal system, and copyrights. Congress has the power to “constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court,” and “to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.”

 

The various powers that the framers of the Constitution thought a government would need were almost entirely given to the Congress, which was then also granted the exclusive right to create any laws needed to carry into execution any other powers vested by the Constitution in “the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

 

Of course, Congress is less popular than roadkill these days (although slightly more popular than the record low it hit in the polls in 2008), but that’s not because it’s too powerful. While Congress has always tended to be unpopular, it is better liked when it wields more power. The problem now is that Congress, more than ever, fails to take on its responsibilities, and even more egregiously, fails to represent the will of the people. We spent the eight Bush-Cheney years watching a gang of 535 go along with the crimes and abuses of two. It may strike us as being much easier to change the two than to change the 535. At least the two are term-limited, whereas members of Congress seem to almost never leave. If we could just elect good presidents and vice presidents, we’d be better off hanging onto a Congress that obediently takes orders, right? Well, yes, that might begin to make sense if the two people to whom we were planning to hand what Michael Goldfarb, who was later deputy communications director for presidential candidate John McCain, approvingly called “near dictatorial power,” were anything other than homo sapiens. If we could count on each future president and vice president belonging to a very different species that was capable of always foregoing opportunities to abuse power, then we’d be fine. But even then, we wouldn’t have much of a democracy.

 

Just a few weeks before the 2008 elections, vice presidential candidate Joe Biden told a group of supporters,

 

There are going to be a lot of you who want to go, “Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don’t know about that decision.” Because if you think the decision is sound when they’re made, which I believe you will when they’re made, they’re not likely to be as popular as they are sound, because if they’re popular they’re probably not sound.

 

The comments Biden had made in the previous breath, about the likelihood of President Obama being tested with a military crisis in his first six months, made big news, but this equally distressing comment was mostly overlooked. It is simply accepted wisdom in our democratic republic that self-governance is a bad idea, that we should elect people who despise us and advise us to despise ourselves. If an idea is popular it’s probably a bad one—so said our new vice president shortly before the election, reinforcing the very denial of self-governance that had allowed the Bush-Cheney disaster.

 

It seems to me that whether or not we can change this way of thinking will determine the direction of our country to a far greater extent than the choice of what people we elect to office. We hope that we can expect our leaders to listen to our voices. In fact, you’ll notice that Biden contradicts his own assertion that sound ideas will be unpopular ones by telling his listeners that they (the populace) will find his ideas to be sound. Biden is not so much telling people to despise themselves as suggesting that they are an in-the-know group who can afford to despise the greater masses of riff-raff.

 

I recall working on a campaign with ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) in New Orleans several years ago to create a higher citywide minimum wage. We placed the question on the ballot, and a strong majority voted for it. The US Chamber of  Commerce and various hotel and restaurant industry groups opposed our efforts. But one of their spokesmen told the media that they had decided not to bother trying to influence the vote, since it would be easier for them to overturn the vote in court. Well, they immediately took the question to court and lost. And I recall one of their spokesmen telling the media that the disgraceful decision of the judge who had upheld the law was only to be expected from someone trying to please her constituents.

 

That was the ultimate criticism, it seemed. She had been trying to please people. When the Louisiana Supreme Court overruled the local court on appeal, and wages were kept down, the decision was depicted as wise and just because it was above the fray and divorced from popular interests. It was a sound decision rather than a popular one. But that is exactly the kind of thinking that damages a democratic nation and can ultimately turn it into a very different kind of state.

 

Popular rule is not mob rule. It is the foundation of a functioning democracy. When our elected
officials and representatives keep promising to disregard our voices whenever they feel like it, we should be concerned.

 

*****

 

David Swanson is the author of the new book Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (Seven Stories Press, 2009). He holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia and served as press secretary for Kucinich for President in 2004. Swanson is just beginning a book tour of 48 cities and hopes to see you on the road.

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Credo

By Richard Stone

 

Vic Bedoian is much more accustomed to asking the questions, but he consented to being a Credo subject. Vic retired last year after a long run as executive director of Fresno Free College Foundation/KFCF, but is a life long radio journalist whose work continues as a reporter on Valley affairs for KPFA News. He has also taken up print journalism, writing regularly on environmental issues for the Community Alliance.

 

With all he has seen and reported on these past 40 years, is there a book in him, I ask. “The material is there, especially about changes in our Valley, but I’m not a practiced writer. Really, I’m a story-teller, an observer and reporter, not an artist.”

 

Yes, but what stories! Vic grew up on a family farm on the outskirts of Fresno, a child of immigrant parents from Turkey (“or as we called it Greater Armenia”). He describes his upbringing as “more old-country than American. It was a real family farm, we did everything—planting and harvesting crops, raising animals, canning produce. The kids helped with all tasks, and if we were needed we were kept home from school.” Still the kids were groomed for higher education, and books were a household staple. “My dad, though, always read in Armenian—I remember these fat old volumes. And Armenian was the household language. Really, we lived in an immigrant enclave, among fellow countrymen.”

 

Vic says his parents were politically liberal, big supporters of the New Deal (“my middle name is Franklin”), but his more radical political perspectives were birthed in the Berkeley of the 1960’s. “I went to U.C. to start my junior year, after two years at Fresno City. Almost the first thing I saw were tables about the just-launched Free Speech Movement. The administration had forbidden students from distributing literature about the Civil Rights Movement, saying off-campus activities couldn’t be promoted on-campus.

 

It made no sense to me, either—this was supposedly a University. I wasn’t informed enough yet to be an activist, but I was there. And as a reporter for the college paper, I was in Sproul Hall when the students took it over. Soon after came the Gulf of Tonkin incident, used by Johnson as the excuse to escalate in Viet Nam.

 

After seeing how the mainstream media handled the Free Speech Movement, I had no reason to trust what was said about Vietnam and on campus we got information which radicalized me. I went to school as a physics major, but after graduation I began working with KPFA, the first listener-supported radio station in the country” [and the sister-station of our own KFCF. ed.].

 

 

Vic Bedoian enjoying the Mendocino coast with his grandson Gage.

 

Vic says he will never forget the great leaders who emerged from the Berkeley movements. “I heard Joan Baez singing at rallies. And I consider Mario Savio’s speech from the hood of a police car, about throwing yourself into the gears of the Machine, as one of the great moments in American rhetoric.”

 

Another important influence from Vic’s Bay Area days was Kenneth Rexroth, then a well-known poet and intellectual, one of the founders of KPFA. “Rexroth’s range of activity amazed me: from labor organizing and working with the Communist Party, to editing a book review and holding a weekly gathering for the writers who later became known as the Beats—people like Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder to being a pioneering naturalist who backpacked the Sierras in summers and wrote in defense of Wilderness. He was at the cutting edge of all I have come to value.”

 

Another acquaintance whose work has influenced Vic is Malcolm Margolin. “He wrote The Ohlone Way and later The Way We Were, among the first books acknowledging the Native American presence in California and celebrating their way of life. As editor of Heyday Books, he has put out books that have shaped our understanding of California as a geographical entity, as a place that both underlies and transcends human endeavor.

 

Coming back to Fresno, Vic regained an appreciation for the life of his childhood, apart from the American Way of Life with its emphasis on material acquisition based on corporate culture. “I had just taken it for granted, but seeing it being extinguished as urbanization spread out from Fresno, I saw the value in it. And I saw how it was in many ways of a piece with my Bay Area political education. I’ve been very fortunate to have found work that has allowed me to give voice to these values.”

 

In his semi-retirement, Vic says he would like to explore the horizons of his creativity. “Reading authors like Michael Pollan and Mark Arax opens up avenues of expression beyond journalism.” He is also deeply involved in his grandson’s growing up, though he expresses doubts about the future of our country. “When I look at all the problems we’ve created or made worse, I’m not sure we have time to find solutions. Ecology aside, it looks to me like another civil war here, with no reconciliation possible. I’m a fan of Obama, but I’m not optimistic he’s in the right place with the right analysis at the right time. FDR came to the presidency three-and-a-half years into the Depression, when people were really frightened. He came in with huge majorities in both houses of Congress. And—something typical histories do not credit enough—he had Eleanor. In my eyes, she is one of the great American heroes. She gave conscience and vision far beyond the political skills of FDR. I don’t see her peer in our current social landscape.”

 

Still, the work goes on. So listen for Vic’s reports on KPFA/KFCF, read his articles in the Alliance, and—who knows—maybe someday soon we’ll go to his book signing party.

 

To conclude, Vic gave me a favorite poem of his, by his acquaintance Gary Snyder:

 

 

FOR THE CHILDREN

The rising hills, the slopes,

Of statistics lie before us.

The steep climb

Of everything going up,

Up, as we all go down.

 

In the next century

Or the one beyond that,

They say,

Are valleys, pastures

We can meet there in peace

If we make it.

 

To climb these coming crests

One word to you, to

You and your children:

 

Stay together

Learn the flowers

Go light

 

*****

 

Richard Stone is on the editorial board of the Community Alliance.

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Jim and Me: In Conversation with Rev. Jim Franklin

By Richard Stone

 

Rev. Jim Franklin presides over Cornerstone Church, one of the larger, more influential churches in Fresno. He has also been a prominent figure in the local political scene as an adviser to mayors and a spokesperson for public prayer and “traditional marriage.” He presents an enigma to me because, while espousing a political agenda I find unconscionable, he presents himself as rational and, well, Christian. I have long wanted the opportunity to get behind the sound bytes and see the structure of thought that enables a “good man” to reach conclusions that are lacking in logic and compassion. Thanks to an introduction by our editor, and to Rev. Franklin’s openness, I was able to meet with him in early October.

 

What I offer here is not the text of our interview but my commentary on it. My questioning was not intended to create debate but to elicit Rev. Franklin’s thought process by gently challenging many of his statements, giving me material to analyze. For me as a gay person growing up in the 1950s, with no public support for what I felt, de-constructing the language of people like Rev. Franklin was a matter of preserving my sanity. I am still at it if only because Rev. Franklin represents a significant portion of our city’s populous, with a pulpit greatly enhanced by his presence on KMJ’s airwaves.

 

Rev. Franklin presents himself in a warm, open manner. Despite his stature, both physical and social, he makes no effort to be imposing, offering instead a friendly smile and the ingratiating quality of a slight drawl, southern or southwestern.

 

Answering my first general question about the relationship of church and state, he says unequivocally that he finds no contradictions. “Personal and political actions both spring from the same source, from the soul. They should be dedicated to opposing injustice and alleviating suffering.”

 

He expresses current concern about how the weak economy is impacting people, the need for healthcare reform and the importance of protecting Israel, all of which I concur with. But as we go into more detail, it seems we have significant disagreements.

 

Re healthcare, Rev. Franklin’s main concern is protecting against expansion of federal funding for abortion, not the lack of access to affordable care for so many and he has great faith that “the free market” offers service superior to a government-run system. When I rebut him with the fact that most countries with universal care mainly pay for the care, not determine it, he responds with his “golden rule”—“he who has the gold, rules”—not taking into account at all that it is currently corporations that control the purse in a system he agrees is in need of reform. As I think about this position later, I realize that a belief in the efficacy of “free markets” is hardly a religious doctrine, and no matter how Christian his motives (and notwithstanding his right to free speech) a pastor without specific economic expertise is overstepping his ministerial authority when he embraces a particular economic model rather than directly advocating for relief to sufferers.

 

As for supporting Israel, he says his position is based on that country’s status as the only stable democracy in the area, and on the Israeli prime minister’s assurances that Israel wants a two-nation solution. He specifically disclaims endorsement of “end-times” theology with its support of Israel in order to bring on conditions believed to hasten the coming of the Messiah. Rev. Franklin sensibly says, “How can we know when end-times are here until they’re here. I focus on what current conditions call for.” But he states a belief—unsupported by the facts as I know them—that Palestinians implacably object to a two-state solution (e.g., want only to destroy Israel), and he makes no mention of Israeli settlement-building and the apartheid-like conditions that have been making life impossible for Palestinians, forcing hundreds of thousands to leave the country in a subtle ethnic cleansing. (Note: I am Jewish and not self-hating.). Whether his silence is due to lack of exposure to my sources of information, or whether (as I suspect) he would respond with a phrase later recurring in our conversation that “no system is perfect,” I can only speculate.

 

Rev. Franklin does impress me with certain of his attitudes. He is clear, for example, that when laws that his faith lead him to disagree with are on the books—for example, those allowing abortion—opposition must be carried out in law-abiding ways. Referring to the murder of abortion providers, he says, “Just because [the murderers] claim to be Christian doesn’t make them so.” I wish I had pressed him as to what limits he’d impose on opposition— would he, for example, endorse screaming at women entering a family planning clinic, or harassing abortion-providers at home—but I did not.

 

Part of my reluctance to pursue such questions, though, is a dismissive pattern I find in Rev. Franklin’s responses. For instance, when we discuss the death penalty, which he supports as a deterrent, I point out the well-documented facts of racial bias in who receives capital penalties, and of the execution of factually innocent people. He uses that phrase I so mistrust, “No system is perfect, but the system works as well as we can expect.” I am surprised by this answer, expecting a man of God to be more concerned with protecting those subject to injustice than with upholding the system. And I admit to becoming speechless when I ask, “Do you think Jesus would support the death penalty?” and Rev. Franklin answers with total assurance, “Yes.” How one turns the Prince of Peace, the one who said, “Turn the other cheek,” into an upholder of state executions baffles me—especially when we consider that Jesus was the victim of such an execution. Would it suffice to say, “We can’t expect Rome to have been perfect in its justice”?

 

To return to favorable impressions, I am glad to hear Rev. Franklin speak about his cordial relations with people of other religions and beliefs (even with “a friend who is a Satan worshipper”). I can readily endorse his methodology of “finding what we agree on, rather than arguing about differences, and working together on our commonalities.” He cites his willingness to be an active and visible participant in programs to alleviate the ravages of AIDS and truly, in this regard, he goes where few other of Fresno’s religious leaders dare to go.

 

But I press him here on my perception that it is not enough for leaders to make symbolic stands as a “representative” of their faith, it is also necessary to encourage those they have influence over to enter into respectful relationship with the feared “others.” I repeat what I had written to him in an unanswered letter some months ago: that when a group of LGBT supporters stood in front of his church and gave out flowers, most of the parishioners hurried by unable to look us in the eye, and many parents shielded their children as if they were being physically assaulted. This demonstration of fear greatly disturbed me. And unless the perceived sense of endangerment is challenged by direct experience, the introduction of a gay person on stage as “a friend” (as Rev. Franklin did in fact do that day) will not seem more than an extension of Christian charity. When I ask directly if he is willing to help establish situations where his parishioners and gay people could come to know each other—such as under the auspices of Metro Ministry’s Cross-Cultural Clusters—he does not answer. And when I point out that good intentions and “being human, subject to mistakes” can be used by anyone to justify one’s actions and evade responsibility, he just casually shrugs.

 

He also makes a strange analogy to explain his position against gay marriage. “It’s like lemonade. You have water—the pure tradition of marriage between a man and a woman—and if you add lemon, you may have a delicious drink, but it is not water.” He argues that he supports the rights of gays to enter into relationships, but not call it marriage. Personally, I am not so concerned about what it is called as about the fact that in actuality “separate is not equal.” But when I have the opportunity to really think about his words, I am astonished. He evinces no concern about heterosexual marriages that are coerced, arranged for financial considerations alone, violent or abusive. The only thing that pollutes the sacred concept is the gender of its spouses? Wow!

 

Rev. Franklin also seems unconvinced by my urging that our times demand that we move beyond security in belief systems and the in-groups that form around them. “Us/Them” thinking seems hard-wired into us, but in the over lapping and inter connected societies we live in, we would seem impelled to get beyond it. This is an understanding that seems to me absolutely essential if we are to endure as a species. I am disappointed, but not surprised, to find Rev. Franklin impervious to this line of thought.

 

As I depart, I find myself heartened by Rev. Franklin’s willingness to have met with me, by the obvious good work he and his church do, and by his willingness to enter into working relations with those of other faiths—a major step forward in the religious world of Fresno. Yet I leave with one of his phrases still in my ear, a phrase I’d heard also when I’d interviewed a pastor at People’s Church some years ago. The phrase is, “If I believed that…” meaning “if that were the case, I’d have to change my understanding, but it’s not the case.” Unfortunately too many times “it” is the case: that homophobia wreaks human damage, that desperation drives some women to seek abortions, that the decision of our government to go to war is frequently based on lies and economic policy rather than defensive necessity. So when the phrase is used, it all too often indicates a complacent readiness to uphold belief over and against looking at “inconvenient truths.” Again unfortunately, until I’m convinced otherwise, I leave our interview with the belief that Rev. Franklin shows this readiness, a belief that greatly diminishes my trust in his leadership of a significant number of my fellow citizens. It is also interesting to note that although Rev. Franklin’s Internet homilies are dominated by directives based on “what God says to us,” as I recall our conversation God did not come up at all.

*****

 

Richard Stone is on the editorial board of the Community Alliance.

 

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QUEER EYE

SF Queer Democrats to Governor Arnold — Kiss My Faggot Ass and Other Musings

By Dan Waterhouse

 

I had planned a totally different column, exploring events in a historic neighborhood downtown, but—as quite often happens—there was breaking news. The neighborhood piece will eventually happen—it’s a story that will continue to develop in interesting ways—but what happened in San Francisco pushed it aside.

 

It seems that former Assembly Speaker and Bay Area Big Daddy Willie Brown showed up at the annual Democratic Party county committee gala at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Francisco on Oct. 7. What made it news was who he brought with him and what happened when people realized who it was.

 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Assembly member Tom Ammiano commented, “Before (Schwarzenegger) showed up, people were talking about how unfortunate it was the governor...was so missing in action on issues so important to San Francisco. Then I noticed the dye job out of the corner of my eye. This isn’t a chamber where someone suffers through. This is our house—and it’s like someone came in and took a big dump. He showed up; it was rude, he got up there and it felt to us that he was trivializing all the issues we care about. You have a few options, and along with the labor people, we walked out.”

 

Before Ammiano and the others walked out, the following transpired according to a Calitics reporter present: “He was talking with Willie Brown and his entourage for a while. And then, former SF Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin brought him up on the stage.  As he began to talk, Asm. Ammiano yelled out ‘You LIE.’ The governor began to say a few words about how he heard that the Democratic Party event was in the same hotel, as a chorus of boos and other random hissing noises rained down upon him. I, of course, was taking pictures with my cell phone. Apparently, the governor felt that he should visit the Democratic event because he ‘sleeps with one every night.’ And then proceeded to tell the room that he was ‘post-partisan’ and that he didn’t care whether you were a Republican or a Democrat. And as he continued, Asm. Ammiano still couldn’t believe this man was up on the stage at a Democratic event. The San Francisco Assembly member yelled something to the effect of ‘kiss my gay ass’ as he left the room.”

 

A video of the testy exchange was posted on YouTube. A viewing of the video revealed that what Ammiano had said was, “You can kiss my faggot ass.”

 

Willie Brown professed horror at the “rudeness” shown to the governor. Brown conveniently forgets his bud Schwarzenegger is the same governor who eliminated 85% of HIV/AIDS funding a few months ago. And Brown’s political mentor (Democratic Party Chairman John Burton) told the Chronicle he feels Democrats gave the governor an appropriate comeuppance after having to accept deep cuts to programs they care deeply about. Schwarzenegger, Burton said, could not have been surprised.

 

On the local front, “Queer Eye” was covering another story in late September when I learned that the first effort to hire a permanent police reviewer for the City of Fresno had failed. My source, who was close to the search process, revealed the first search could find just one potential qualified candidate. “We had a highly regarded firm helping; we made phone calls, twisting arms, trying to get people to interview. We could only find one person who met what we were looking for.”

 

He said that, despite an offer from the city to raise the salary, the sole candidate finally said no. He added there are very few people experienced in auditing law enforcement agencies; it’s a new area of auditing. The source also said no one was that interested in the Fresno job. Doing police reviews is difficult in the best of circumstances, even more so in a conservative community like Fresno. People in the community say it would be hard to convince anyone to leave where they are already to take a job where there is little support for it behind closed doors in the local city hall.

 

Other sources say that the majority of the Fresno City Council does not support civilian review but agreed to it because they could eliminate funding for it at any time. Several community activists say it’s an open secret the City Council is looking for an excuse, any excuse, to can the whole thing. There also are questions about how much backing the reviewer would have from Mayor Ashley Swearengin when the inevitable crisis happens.

 

City Manager Andy Souza confirmed to the Fresno Bee that a second search was under way and that the Oct. 1 target date for having the permanent reviewer on board would not be met. The auditor position is being filled on an interim basis by Robert Aaronson from Santa Cruz, where he is the city’s police auditor. He also serves as police ombudsman for the City of Davis.

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Cultural Arts and Critical Mass in Fresno

By Vic Bedoian

 

Attending the Cultural Arts Conference is always an invigorating experience, even in these tough economic times. It’s not just the wide variety of people representing the arts and cultural sector in Fresno, but also their enthusiasm and camaraderie. There is a positive sense of place that pervades the atmosphere. Not simply booster-ism, but an affirmation that our region is culturally rich and has much to offer local citizens and the world. The conclave happened on Oct. 2 and was organized by the Fresno Coalition for Arts, Science & History, a broad and inclusive organization that has become the tip of the spear for cultural advocacy.

 

Certainly, there was a vague feeling of anxiety in the air because of economic conditions. But it was not doom and gloom. Culture in one form or another is a human need, it seems. Even in hard times cultural activities thrive. Still many cultural institutions, profit and nonprofit alike, are struggling to survive and looking for ways to expand their audience. Cynthia Cooper is the FCASH executive director and has her finger on the local pulse. “What the recession has done is exacerbate the weak points in all companies and nonprofits across the board.”

 

Cooper emphasized, “It’s the reason why we all have to work together, to have our own little stimulus packages, our own ways to lend a hand and help each other out through these difficult times.” She brought up the concept of “critical mass” to point out that a small but active fraction of the population can make a big difference in having a vibrant cultural community. The magic number seems to be 3%. In Fresno, that would be 15,000 people and Cooper thinks that is achievable.

 

Collaboration was also the theme Matt Lehrman encouraged as the keynote speaker. He founded Alliance for Audience, a group working to envision the next generation of technology to power the collaborative, community-level audience development efforts of the cultural community. He cautioned that an organization’s comfort level to “preach to the choir” can limit its potential, “Every organization, in its own marketing strategy, is trying to figure out how to get the most number of people with the least expense. So from a straight out marketing standpoint they’re contacting the people they already know. When organizations collaborate, they can do a much better job of reaching out and bringing in new audiences.”

 

He stressed that by collaborating, arts groups can accomplish more than they can individually. One pragmatic idea that Lehrman discussed was the creation of a centralized event calendar for Fresno. He’s already done it for Arizona cities; it is a Web site called Showup.com and is considered a great success there in building a critical mass for arts participation.

 

Diversification is another important implication in building a cultural critical mass in the Valley. Living in a region with such a diverse mix of ethnic and national groups, mutual outreach is critical for the future arts and culture. The James Irvine Foundation did a study last year on modes of cultural engagement in our region. As the director of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Amy Kitchener has worked with artists and artisans from many backgrounds. She analyzed the study this way, “These findings tell us a story about how different racial and ethnic groups have different preferences and different practices. One of the findings, for example, was that in venues like concert halls and theaters, the audience was predominantly White, with 53% participation, in contrast to 18% of the Hispanic community. The study found that in Hispanic culture the main mode of cultural engagement was community and home based.”

 

Kitchener concluded from the study that the future of the cultural arts holds challenges and opportunities, “ There were some really stark differences and I think that one of the messages is that in our cultural system we need to really have a diversification of the kind of programming that is going to be culturally relevant to the people who live here.”

 

*****

 

Vic Bedoian is an independent journalist interested in the people and places of Central California. He can be contacted by e-mail at vicbedoian@gmail.com.

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West of the West: Book Review

By Mike Rhodes

 

Mark Arax is one of my favorite writers. The former LA Times reporter is from Fresno and writes about some pretty amazing things that are happening right under our noses. His ability to share his story, which is our story and the history of Fresno and the Valley, is a gift that I encourage you to take advantage of.

 

I read his first book, In My Father’s Name, several years ago. It is about the murder of his father, Ara Arax, in the early 1970s. Mark, through writing the book, is trying to make sense of his father’s death. Ara owned a local bar (near Clinton and Webber) and was in the process of turning in information about police and political corruption to state officials when he was killed. The fact that no money was stolen during the incident, which the police say was a robbery gone wrong, added to the suspicion that there were other factors motivating his killers.

 

Reading about how a former Fresno police chief set up a video surveillance operation in a hotel room, connected a City Council member with a prostitute, filmed the encounter and used that to have leverage was an interesting inside view of the underbelly of how Fresno works. The police chief went on to marry the madam of the largest house of prostitution in this city. Mark Arax uses his search for the truth about his father’s death to shine a spotlight on Fresno—the tale is both fascinating and of great historical importance.

 

The second book by Mark Arax, which I also encourage you to read, is called The King of California. This story is about how J.G. Boswell developed a cotton empire in the western San Joaquin Valley. He dried up Tulare Lake, which was the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, so he could farm the fertile soil. If you want to understand raw power and how big agribusiness dominates the San Joaquin Valley, you need to read this book.

 

West of the West is a compilation of short stories about life in Fresno and throughout California. It includes a “bonus” section at the end that is an update on Mark’s relentless search for truth in the death of his father. Significant new information has come to light since In My Father’s Name was written, but a mystery still remains about the killers’ motive.

 

I was absolutely fascinated with the way Mark was able to give us the gift of our own history in West of the West. The intimate portrayal of an immigrant family breaks the stereotypes painted by mainstream media. You feel as if you are walking in their shoes as they face the challenges of survival in the fields and the journey back and forth from Mexico. This is a story about the farmworkers we see everyday in Fresno, but few of us know.

 

If his chapter about local builders, developers and OperationRezone in Fresno does not raise the hair on the back of your neck, you better check your pulse for signs of life. I think an excerpt from his book will best explain what I mean and give you a sense of Arax’s writing style:

 

In Fresno, the Planning Department had been renamed the Development Department. The salaries of the development director and all his staff were now funded by the builders themselves; the faster they pushed each project through the pipeline (the fewer questions they asked) the faster the fees from the developers poured in.

 

The local newspapers, their Saturday and Sunday editions fat with builder ads, weren’t in a mood to ask questions either. One question seemed obvious: At a time of boom, why were cities scrambling to balance their budgets? Why had the unemployment rate of 14 percent not budged? Why were drivers getting killed on one lane country-roads that served as the only route in and out of Apricot Estates? Why was the main lobbyist for the building industry driving around town in a fancy car with the license plate REZONE?

 

I spent months digging through planning documents, sitting through public meetings, and comparing decades of local budgets. What I found did not please the building industry associations or the chambers of commerce or the publishers of the Bees. From Bakersfield in the south to Stockton in the north, the boom was scarcely reaping economic prosperity. In a paradoxical twist, growth was actually draining the coffers of every city and town in a 250-mile stretch of middle California. For every dollar that the boom was generating, cities were spending roughly two dollars to provide streets and sewers and cops to serve the new suburbs. To cover the loss, one city after another had taken on record bond debt. The builders had city hall in a classic bind. Cities needed the front-end revenue from property and sales taxes to cover the hefty back-end costs of sprawl. This meant that each new losing subdivision was being approved to pay for the losing subdivision before it. It was a giant Ponzi scheme.

 

The immediate source of the problem was in plain view. Valley towns, in a lavish gift to a handful of local builders, were failing to charge the development fees that cities to the north and south were charging. In San Jose or Glendale, for instance, a three-bedroom, two-bath house was generating $45,000 in fees—everything from a fee for roads, sewers, and police stations to a fee to beautify downtowns and build parks. Modesto, Visalia, Stockton, Bakersfield, and Fresno, on the other hand, were charging less than four grand for the same house. It didn’t take a lot of math to figure out that during a sustained boom—tens of thousands of new houses rising up on farmland—valley cities were forgoing hundreds of millions of dollars to build a better place.

 

This is why Bakersfield smelled the way it did and looked the way it did. Why the roads were full of peril and a fifteen minute drive across town—red light to red light—took thirty minutes. (Synchronization is a fee too.) This is why Fresno had one of the lowest parks-to-people ratio in the nation and why downtown had become a roost for pigeons. Why a dozen valley men with names such as Spanos, Bonadelle, McCaffrey, Wathen and Assemi were multimillionaires making a 40 to 50 percent profit off each house they built, an unheard return in the nation’s building industry.

 

With its patchwork services, Fresno had consigned itself to the status of a third-rate city. “It’s pretty basic,” Walt Kieser, an expert on municipal financing, told me. “Good infrastructure is what the best industries and retailers are looking for when they locate to a city. In Fresno, they’ve done such a miserable job with the roads, parks, libraries, and schools that they haven’t created a nice place to live. Instead, they’ve allowed developers to just maximize their profits.”

 

In Bakersfield, at least one politician was sorry. “I knew residential development wasn’t paying its way,” Pauline Larwood, a Kern County supervisor, said. “Yes, I voted for my share of developer projects in other supervisors’ districts. I did so because if I wanted something in my district, I was going to need their vote.”

 

In Fresno, there were no such apologies. “Slowing growth is elitist and anti-market and anti-free enterprise,” Ken Steitz, a real estate lender who moonlighted as a Fresno city councilman, told me. “If a builder comes before the council and meets all the requirements, I don’t believe we have a right to tell that developer no. And let’s call developer fees what they are: hidden taxes. We don’t need any more taxes.”

 

Had Steitz, a born-again Christian, been more honest, he would have added that he was a drunk and a philanderer in the clutches of a half dozen developers. He and his fellow Council members were pushing the view that California environmental laws did not apply to Fresno. Developers needn’t fuss with the environmental impact reports that were basic in every other major city. The San Joaquin Valley had overtaken LA as the nation’s smog capital, but the council refused to consider how the new subdivisions on the far fringe of town were polluting the air. When the city’s own economic impact studies began showing that each housing tract was putting Fresno deeper in the red, Mayor Jim Patterson stepped in. The city, he said, could no longer afford to do economic analysis. The studies were shit canned.

 

I talked to one long time builder from Southern California who couldn’t believe his good fortune upon landing in Fresno. “The first time I stood at the Development Department’s front counter and realized what they were requiring me to do—which was nothing—I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” he told me.

 

Arax continues, describing how the FBI finally came to Fresno to try and clean things up. Operation Rezone revealed what many already knew or suspected. Fresno was corrupt with builders and developers paying for votes on the City Council by buying our elected officials new tires for their cars, a cheap suit or other goodies. Frankly, it is embarrassing how cheaply our elected officials sold out for. One would think that if they were going to sell their soul to the devil, they should at least get a good price for it.

 

Here is how Arax describes it in West of the West:

 

Before it was over, sixteen politicians and developers pleaded guilty or were found guilty. Farid Assemi, the builder who liked to finger a string of worry beads and play bridge on the international circuit, came to a teary-eyed deal with the feds. His main lobbyist, Jeff Roberts, the man with the REZONE license plates, took the fall and was hauled off to prison. Right behind him was old man Bonadelle.

 

I went to federal court to hear the guilty plea of Big Bob Lung, the blustery city councilman who had whined that my reporting was nothing more than the get-even of a murdered man’s son. The evidence showed that Lung had sold his votes to Bonadelle for, among other things, a new blue suit. As he stood up to come clean, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was pleading guilty wearing the same blue suit.

 

While my favorite sections of this book are about what is happening right here in Fresno, other chapters paint a rich tapestry about life in the rest of the valley and throughout the state. Arax gets close to his subject and leaves you with deep and new insights into the world around us. I give this book two enthusiastic thumbs up.

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Progressive Religion…Is Not an Oxymoron

“Made in China”

By David E. Roy

 

In the United States, we are used to seeing the words “Made in China” on countless products: shoes, dishes, electronics, car parts, and on and on. The Mac laptop on which I am writing this column was assembled in China. The same with the Microsoft mouse I am using (I believe in tech diversity).

 

Most of these items were originally designed in the United States but, because they can be manufactured far less expensively in China, production was shifted to the Orient.

 

The Latest “Product” from China

 

There is something else created in the United States that recently has been carried to China and is undergoing a rapid expansion of its “production facilities.”

 

If this development continues at its current rate, it has the potential to return to the United States, not as a less-expensively produced product identical to the original, but as something new, something with a uniquely Chinese design.

 

This “product” is process thought, the metaphysics originated by 20th century mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.

 

I Hear Your Groans, But…

 

Okay, okay, I hear your groans. I know that most of the time, most of us, myself included, do not particularly enjoy reflecting on the ground of our being, which includes how we look at the world.

 

But, if we do not take time to do that every now and then, we remain enslaved to a worldview that directly contributes to every single issue with which social progressives are concerned (e.g., people and the environment being treated as a means to an end, the end being wealth for a few).

 

Moreover, in the history of ideas, what is happening in China is a truly amazing story. It has the potential to help not only China but also the United States and other Western nations to make the changes necessary for a more just and sustainable world society by radically modifying the prevailing worldview.

 

So bear with me.

 

18 New Centers for Process Studies in China

 

Here is what is happening: Over the past decade, China has established 18 centers for process studies at 18 university sites. That is a truly phenomenal number all by itself and even more so when compared to the United States.

 

The only such organization in the United States, the Center for Process Studies (located on the campus of the Claremont School of Theology), was founded in 1973 and only after enormous struggle.

 

Why Is China So Interested?

 

Why is China so interested in this difficult philosophy that has, quite frankly, been marginalized across the board by the vast majority of serious academicians in the United States (and elsewhere in the Western world)?

 

Process scholars in the West have struggled unsuccessfully for decades to be taken seriously by leaders in the world of scholarship. Two factors that have worked against a more mainstream acceptance of process thought are the challenges of mastering Whitehead’s ideas and the fact that the “God” word is used by him in Process and Reality, his major work.

 

Many believe it is the second factor that is far and away the more important of the two. There are, after all, people who master Kant and other highly challenging thinkers.

 

The Idea of God Has Been the Kiss of Death

 

But the idea of God, even as abstractly and formally defined as it is for Whitehead, is the kiss of death in so many fields today.

 

In China, however, this has not appeared to be an issue. For one thing, the Chinese culture includes the non-theistic traditions of Confucianism and Buddhism. In those traditions, there is no need to get rid of the idea of God because it is not there in the first place.

 

Likewise, Taoism, while having a mystical quality and pointing therefore to something outside the individual, has a variety of gods but does not focus on a monotheistic God in the vein of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 

China Is Not Reflexively Atheistic

 

Simply put, this means that the Chinese culture is not reflexively against theism. It is more theistic neutral. Also helpful is the fact that any theology emerging from process thought is not going to be evangelistic.

 

China’s receptivity to process thought comes at a critical juncture in its own history, when it is striving to balance its four millennia of cultural history with its perceived need to master the science and technology it needs to be a world power.

 

Process Thought Holds Together Science and Values

 

Process thought has the capacity to bridge these two radically different worlds. Whereas science (hard and soft) has sought to be value free (objective, value neutral), process thought embraces both science and values.

 

This union of values and science is a major part of what attracts these academicians in China. They can see their way to enfolding the ancient wisdom of Confucius, for example, with cutting-edge work in neuroscience.

 

Another part of the attraction to Whitehead’s ideas is the way they have been developed by several American leaders, including in particular David Ray Griffin.

 

David Griffin and Constructive Post-Modernism

 

Griffin caught the attention of one of the intellectual leaders in China’s university system, Zhihe Wang. Wang and others had been pursuing a postmodern agenda in the efforts to move China forward in the world.

 

However, the dominant postmodern approach was “deconstructionism.” In this approach, the modern worldview is “deconstructed” but nothing is offered in its place.

 

Griffin, meantime, had authored and edited a series of books with the State University of New York’s Press (SUNY) on constructive postmodernism. In this approach, the modern view is deconstructed and then immediately replaced by an alternative picture.

 

For example, the modern worldview emphasizes separateness and disconnection. Instead of simply saying this is wrong, process thought supports our deepest intuitions about our real degree of connectedness.

 

Zhihe Wang: The Bridge to China

 

Griffin’s work was so compelling to Wang that eventually he came to Claremont to earn his doctorate under Griffin. As a result, Wang has been the bridge to China, and he has been extraordinarily effective.

 

The question, of course, is where all of this will lead, both in China and potentially the rest of the world. Much of it depends on what happens in China.

 

Process thought is being used to guide the development of academic programs in China (including one in psychology; more on that later). These programs, in turn, have the potential to influence the leaders who eventually will govern the nation.

 

China at a Crucial Juncture

 

China is at a crucial juncture in its development. In recent decades, China has shifted from a position that environmental problems only happened in the West because of failings unique to the West to a position of growing concern about its own contribution to environmental damage. However, development still appears to trump environmental protection, according to Jared Diamond (Collapse).

 

China’s next focus is on improvements for its vast rural areas. Unlike the United States, the vast majority of Chinese citizens still live on farms. If China pursues the easiest and quickest approach, it would create instant cities. This, of course, would accelerate environmental destruction.

 

If, on the other hand, China chooses a simpler approach, it would instead improve roads so commodities from the rural areas could be more easily brought to market. It would pursue rural health clinics and secure the electrification of the outlying regions.

 

Leaders with a process perspective would advocate for sustainable agriculture and against practices that damage the earth’s resources (such as many more cities).

 

Perhaps China Can Guide the West

 

It should be our hope that China can eventually guide us in the West toward a more sustainable and just relationship with our world.

 

Speaking of China, by the time you read this, I will be in China to deliver a paper at a conference in Jinan (five hours southeast of Beijing) on “Process Psychology: The Next Fifty Years.”

 

*****

 

Ordained in the United Church of Christ, David Roy is a pastoral counselor and a California licensed marriage and family therapist who directs the Center for Creative Transformation. He has a Ph.D. in theology and personality from the Claremont (California) School of Theology. Send comments to him at admin@cctnet.com or 5475 N. Fresno St., Suite 109, Fresno, CA 93711.

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What Do You Have To Be Thankful for?

By Mike Rhodes

 

We asked our readers what they have to be thankful for this November. After all, Thanksgiving Day will be observed on Nov. 26 this year. There is a perception that progressives are a little too cynical, we are critical, and not very positive. With so many protests taking place, we don’t take the time to share our positive vision of the future or to give thanks about the many good things in our lives. So, this seemed like a good opportunity to give our readers a chance to challenge the stereotype that we are always grumpy. We tried to limit the comments to 50 words or less, but drawing within the lines is not always the strongest skill for those of us on the left end of the political spectrum.

 

I would like to add, to all of the great comments below, that I’m honored and thankful to be the editor of the Community Alliance newspaper. I also give thanks to the indigenous people whose land we occupy.

 

Here is what our readers say they are thankful for:

 

I’m thankful I got married before the idiots in this state voted in Prop 8.

 

Sue Stone

Fresno

***

I am grateful for all the informed and caring people I have had the pleasure to work with in the struggle for peace and social justice here in the Central Valley. I feel blessed. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart..

 

Bill Warner

South Valley Peace Center, Visalia

***

The single payer, socialized medicine plan which covers me through VA because I “fought” WWII with a screwdriver... Hardly any heroic acts, however on the edges of danger... I have had some major medical actions recently on my liver and urinary systems. At one point I was given 5 shots which on the market cost $1,200 a pop. Without VA I would now be dead or broke... Or both... We all should have this plan.

 

Smiling Seriously,

Maia & George Elfie Ballis

Prather

***

Non-corporate news sources: KFCF/KPFA and, yep, the Community Alliance. And trees; thanks for the oxygen, friends.

 

Leni V. Reeves,

Auberry

***

I am thankful for the Community Alliance. It has a variety of articles written by people who are caring and thoughtful. I particularly like the editor who is always looking for the news we would like to know. What a gift to us progressives!

 

Lydia Flores

Fresno

***

It seems “free thinkers” like us who try to make right what is wrong come across in a negative way. It is like a person who works in a Return Department Store or a person who works in an Auto Claims Office. These people deal with Negative Situations day in and day out. We seem to find a lot of wrongs with Government, Police and those who look down on other people. But, we do love America and we love our Families and enjoy life in Fresno or Dinuba where I live. Not just in Fresno but I am so grateful to the Rest Stops on the Freeways. I think our State has done a great job in maintaining these rest stops. They use poor people or disabled people to keep these Restrooms clean. I GIVE THANKS FOR THAT.

 

We the people who like to ride bikes and use the San Joaquin River Park Way Trails for jogging, biking, walking and horseback riding. It is so beautiful there (no cars). I GIVE THANKS FOR THAT. The Tower District is where life begins. Good Restaurants, friendly people, Music, Arts and maybe a different way of life if the person wants it that way You will not be judged. I GIVE THANKS FOR THAT.

 

I give thanks that the Community Alliance newspaper can print Articles that question Acts and Laws that seem to be written at keeping a certain part of the population down. America’s right to Free Speech by us the Alliance News Paper. I GIVE THANKS FOR THAT.

 

Geo Madrid

Dinuba

***

I am thankful for good friends, and especially those friends who are not afraid to speak out for those who have no voice in the current power systems. I am thankful for the Community Alliance, its editor, its writers and photogs. Knowing that there are those who have the courage to tell us what is really happening in our communities and our world gives me hope!

 

Thank you!

 

Barbara Grace Ripple

Honolulu, Hawaii

***

Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, is my birthday! I am thankful to be alive and to be living on this beautiful, precious planet we call Earth. May she survive; may we all survive! She’s begging us to take care of her before it’s too late.

 

Jean Hays

Fresno

***

I’ll be thankful when we Dismantle the Military Industrial Complex so that we end the wars in Afganistan and Iraq. So that U.S. Military deaths are decreased [4,663 in Iraq and 841 in Afghanistan as of September 2009], and Civilian deaths are decreased [1.2 million in Iraq ], so that the Pentagon Budget is decreased. Current Pentagon Budget $745,000,000,000 for FY 2009, $2,041,095,890 a day, $14,326,923,076 a week, $2,438.39 per person per year, so that Resources are made available to Main Street, so that Jobs are created, Health Services are accessible to all, Continuing Education is available to all, Hunger is reduced, Homelessness is reduced, Crime is reduced, Global Warming is addressed, etc. So That we are a living testament to the benefits of government of the People, for the People, and by the People.

 

Philip Traynor, MPA

Fresno

***

I am thankful that there is no temple to Rush Limbaugh in Fresno to worship at his clay feet. And I am thankful that the Fresno mayor prevailed in keeping brutal sports out of Woodward Park.

 

Isabell Lawson

Fresno,

***

Thankful? For a President and Congress with no backbone? For the continued degradation of our environment? For the continued denial of universal healthcare? For a government that will forever be run by corporations and special interests? Yeah, I’m very thankful this year!

 

Michael Mirigian

Fresno

***

I am grateful for the stars in the sky and that not a day in my life have I gone, without willing (fasting), gone hungry. I am grateful to hear owls at night, coyotes and crickets... the smell of a morning meadow. Oh, and KPFA!

 

William Kaneversky

***

My name is Nora DeWitt and I live in Fresno. This year, after having lived/worked here as an Australian expat since 1975, I finally became a U.S. citizen (without losing my Australian citizenship). I’m thankful for that, since it allowed me to vote in the presidential election. I’m very thankful that we elected Barack Obama.

 

Nora DeWitt

***

As I approach a mountain with intimidating height, I’m grateful for the challenge for I know that mastering the mountain will afford me a perspective that will allow me to choose the most productive path. A flat, easily traveled landscape affords no such opportunity, no challenge, no growth.

 

Will Tranquilli [de la Mancha]

***

There are scores and scores of people, experiences and events Esther and I are grateful for. friends are prominent and are Cherished greatly, opportunities we have experienced are Certainly major gifts, and to be able to care for ourselves and Live in a comfortable home with our daughter is wonderful. We are grateful for other family also.

 

Shalom, Carl & Esther

***

I am thankful that Fresno County citizens have become more progressive since I moved here in 1962. In the sixties if someone had blown up the house meeting of 20 progressive community activists that would have been the end of the progressive community in Fresno!

 

Carol Bequette

Fresno

***

I am thankful for my four children who amaze me daily with their accomplishments and their concern for people. I am also thankful for the many people I know in Fresno whose concern is for the welfare of the global family rather than for the welfare of the global economy.

 

Bill Simon

Fresno

***

I am thankful for informed citizens who know that safe, new nuclear reactors like the Toshiba 4S will become readily available only when Congress fully funds the Nuclear Regulatory Commission instead of the current mandate that has the NRC recovering 90% of its budget through prohibitive, hundred-million dollar fees charged to applicants of such new innovative reactors that emit almost no CO2. Save life on earth. Stop coal and petroleum-based electricity. Demand full NRC funding by Congress instead of funding by fees.

 

Mike Starry

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Marking Eight Years of War

By Camille Russell

 

Peace Fresno’s Oct. 17 Antiwar Demonstration marking eight years of war was a success. Though we fell short of our goal of 400 participants, the 125 people who came effectively sent the message “Peace in Iraq and Afghanistan: Troops Home Now” to passersby and to the community at-large via the media. The new signs, which were designed by Peace Fresno member Val Maylone, made the message clear.

 

Peace Fresno circulated a petition that was copied and mailed to President Barack Obama, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and Congressional Representatives Jim Costa, Devin Nunes and George Radanovich. The petition, which was written by Peace Fresno board member Gerry Bill, states the following:

 

To our national leaders in Washington, D.C.:              10/17/09

 

We the undersigned concerned members of the public here demand the following two actions:

•  An immediate end to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq; bring the troops home now!

•  An immediate cessation of robotic drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, attacks that inevitably injure, maim and kill innocent civilians.

 

Many first-time demonstrators came. They heard about the demonstration from friends, flyers, coverage in the Community Alliance, e-mail messages, community calendars and KFCF 88.1’s announcements and its local program “Stir It Up,” which airs at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays.

 

The Brown Berets brought their banner and several children. A mother of a U.S. Marine veteran was passing by on Blackstone Avenue and joined in. She was extremely happy to discover that there is a local peace movement and was in complete agreement with the message. A couple passing through town from Oregon said if they had been home they would have been demonstrating there. A group from the 9/11 Truth Movement brought a large banner with the message “Google Building 7.” Several college students demonstrated, including an international student from India and two interns for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Sarah Whittington and Tosha Curls, who also brought her three children. And, the family of a young man killed in Iraq stood silently. The father held his son’s photo, and the son’s combat boots hung by their strings on the father’s chest.

 

Those who were unable to attend are encouraged to copy the text of the petition and send it to President Obama and/or to one or more of our senators and representatives. Political experts recommend mailing letters to the local offices rather than to the Washington, D.C., offices. See page 24 of the AT&T phone book’s purple bordered “Community Living” section for a complete listing of addresses of elected officials.

 

*****

 

Camille Russell is a retired teacher, the president of Peace Fresno and a member of the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee. Contact her at camille.russell@att.net or 559-276-2592 or through “Contact Us” at www.peacefresno.org.

 

 

Peace Fresno is a collective of community-minded citizens dedicated to promoting peaceful and nonviolent alternatives to the war and positive social change in Fresno, the Central Valley, and the rest of the world. Peace Fresno’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at the Fresno Center for Nonviolence, located at 1584 N. Van Ness Ave., Fresno, on the southeast corner of Van Ness and McKinley. Photo by Howard Watkins.

 

 ***********************************************************************************************************

Total U.S. Military Deaths:

Iraq 4,349; Afghanistan 877

 

Total Iraqi deaths 1,339,771

 

Total Iraq & Afghanistan war spending (approved & pending) since 2001 is now more than $921 billion.

 

Taxpayers in Fresno County, have paid $2 billion for total Iraq and Afghanistan
war spending since 2001. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

 

•   823,331 People with Healthcare for One Year OR

•   3,564,183 Homes with Renewable
Electricity for One Year OR

•   35,737 Public Safety Officers for One year OR

•   28,259 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR

•   300,628 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR

•   373,903 Students Receiving Pell Grants of $5,350 OR

•   5,988 Affordable Housing Units OR

•   747,759 Children with Healthcare for One Year OR

•   239,280 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR

•   28,731 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR

•   25,265 Port Container Inspectors for
One Year

 

http://www.icasualties.org/

 

www.justforeignpolicy.org

 

www.costofwar.com

 

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

 

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Become a Card-Carrying Member

By Bill Simon

 

The newly elected Board for the Fresno Area Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California held its first meeting on Oct. 11, to elect officers for the coming year. The officers include Chair: Bill Simon; Vice Chair: Chuck Krugman; Treasurer: Georgia Williams; Co-Secretaries: Catherine Campbell and Donna Hardina; Field Rep: Heidi Saunier; and Alternate Field Rep: Russ Barker.

 

We also restructured our committees and appointed a chair for each committee.  We now invite ACLU members and other interested members of the public to participate on four standing committees:

 

1.  Legal Issues chaired by Georgia Williams. The committee work includes prison issues, voting from jail, the pro bono network of attorneys and developing other legal resources. Death
penalty issues will be handled by this committee or come to the whole board as seems appropriate.

 

2.  Police Issues chaired by Phil Connelly and Donna Hardina. The committee work includes video surveillance, police brutality, the OIR and homeless issues.

 

3.  West Side Issues chaired by Floyd Harris. The committee work includes the many issues that arise in our Westside community.

 

4.  School Issues chaired by Jean Hays. The committee work includes Williams Act issues and the Schools for All Campaign.

 

All Fresno Chapter ACLU meetings for the coming year will be held on the first Monday of the month at 7 p.m.  They will be held at the Sarah McCardle Room of the downtown library, depending on availability. Members of the public are always invited to attend and to become involved in the work of the Chapter. Committee meetings will be held on the first Monday of November, January, March, May, July and September. Board meetings will be held on the first Monday of December, February, April, June and August. 

 

2009 marks the 75th anniversary of the ACLU of Northern California and the second anniversary of the current Fresno area chapter. The ACLU is dedicated to preserving our constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. It seems like civil liberties are eroding at a record pace. So become a card-carrying member of the ACLU and help preserve freedom for all Americans.

 

*****

 

Bill Simon is the chair of the Fresno Area Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. He can be reached at simonaclu@sbcglobal.net.

---

POETRY CORNER

Edited by Richard Stone

 

The following by Native American Richard Iyall, a descendant of the Cowlitz tribe, is not so much a poem as oratory in print. Richard pointed out some lines that ostensibly argue against gun control, saying “This might bother you.” As a civic policy in current society, yes; as part of a picture of an idealized freedom outside of civil society, no. As a reader, my challene, was to allow Richard’s picture to remind me that restrictions on liberty need to be carefully scrutinized...to remember the Nature in human nature. And to remember that liberty, to justify its costs, must be universal.

 

Where Is the Freedom?

by Richard Iyall

 

Why was this country formed, this country

Called the United States of America?

Was it not for freedom, for independence;

For freedom from a government which ruled its people with an iron fist?

Was not the formation of the United States an act

To create independence from a government of repression;

From a government “destructive of these ends”:

Of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”?

 

Before the English settled on this land, we were here.

Before the Spanish plundered this land, we were here.

Before Columbus happened upon this land,

There were people here, old nations of people,

Living their lives with freedom, as the Great Spirit intended.

Many of the people roamed the land following the path of the buffalo.

Other people fished for salmon, hunted deer and other game.

Berries were picked and roots were dug. The land was rich, yet nothing was wasted.

 

Kamiakin, an organic farmer, one of the first in Washington,

Was so respected by people of many tribes, that they made him

The chief of his tribe, the Yakama. He was a friend to all,

Until the greed and injustice of the new immigrants, led by Isaac Stevens

Forced him to lead his warriors to fight, to protect his people,

Their land and their way of life, from manifest destiny.

 

Nisqually war chief Leschi, led the Indian nations

West of the Cascades, but he could not save their freedom.

He was wrongly charged with murder, of a man, in time of war,

While he was a legal combatant; and he wasn’t even there.

Then after not one, but two trials, he was convicted and imprisoned.

Two years later, they hung an innocent man.

 

Chief Owhi surrendered, to try to save his beloved son Qualchan.

But instead, he watched in horror, as they hung him.

Owhi tried to make his escape, fleeing on horseback.

With his hands tied, running for his life, Owhi was shot in the back.

Now, as a member of a sovereign nation

That’s called the Cowlitz Indian Tribe;

And as a descendant of Chief Scanewa,

Who ruled the land from the Columbia River all the way up to Puget Sound;

And as a descendant of We-ow-wicht, chief of the Pisch-wan-wap-pams,

A powerful tribe of the Yakima Nation; and as a descendant of other peoples

Who made their homes in the Great Northwest,

All of whom found themselves subjected

To the wanton acts of this “new nation”,

Formed, as it was, in the name of freedom

And in the name of independence

From the rule of the British monarch, I ask of you:

Where is our freedom? Where is our independence?

Where is your freedom? Where is your independence?

 

Where is the freedom to practice the Ghost Dance?

Where is the freedom? Will you give us a chance?

We honor the earth, our sacred Mother.

We honor all life. We are one with another.

 

Some leaders of this government which now rules the land,

Do they not build a web of restrictions

Around the choices in our lives?

Do they not declare their power

Over simple trade with your neighbor,

With taxes on sales, taxes on trade

And taxes on income from labor?

Do they not put limitations on where you can carry your gun?

Are our rights really protected by the supremacy of the Constitution?

 

They put limitations on where you can go,

On what you can wear and what you can grow.

Is this “the land of the free, the home of the brave”?

Are we really free, or are we just slaves?

If they put limitations on what you might drink,

Would they put limitations on what you might think?

They would if they could, with a drug or a slug.

 

One day they will require a mark on your body, a laser tattoo

Or a microchip implant; or you can’t do business, by order Of the government. You’ll live as an outcast, a radical, a criminal,

Or you might be theirs, even after your dead!

 

So where is the freedom, independence to be found?

It’s found in our spirit; it’s found in our mind.

So please pay attention to the world around you.

If you think you have freedom, know your history; know our history.

To the people who lived on this land here, before you,

Freedom and independence were not just ideas.

They were the natural ways to live!

 

With the expansion of the influence of the laws of this nation,

Replacing the “savage” with “civilization”;

With the taking of lands from native Americans,

By the power of numbers and superior weapons,

The Indians had to learn to adapt.

All of the best intentions and technologies in the world

Cannot achieve what the Indians had:

Harmony with Mother Nature,

Harmony with the Great Spirit!

 

Colonial rebels got their independence

From the tyranny of King George.

But at what price to the Indians?

The greed of others decimated our people.

Don’t fall prey to such dark temptations.

Live instead for the betterment of all.

Don’t wander the land with your head in the sand.

Open your eyes, clear your mind and stand tall!

---

What Counts and Why

By Richard Stone

 

What counts in our economic system? And why is value calculated that way?

 

If you are curious as to why the crash of the Exxon Valdez had great economic value, whereas a woman’s household management has none, you should check out the video Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics. It will be shown on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at C.A.F.E. Infoshop (935 F St., in Chinatown south of Fresno Street).

 

The video tells the story of Waring, who was the first woman member of Parliament in New Zealand, as she unearths the hidden “first principles” of global economics and traces the path of destruction they have led us on. It is enough to get you riled up.

 

In fact, it riled up a few of us sufficiently to create the Committee for Sustainable Community Economic Development, which is the sponsor of the event. The committee consists mostly of associates of the Fresno Center for Nonviolence and Fresno City College. In addition to screening the video wherever we can, we are working on our first project—to bring a farmers’ market to our neighborhood. For more information, e-mail Al Arredondo at arredondo@sbcglobal.net or call Richard Stone at 559-266-2559.

 

*****

Richard Stone is on the editorial board of the Community Alliance.

---

 

Opinion & Analysis from the Grassroots

 

Resetting Our Priorities

By Ruth Gadebusch

 

Eight years later and still we struggle in Afghanistan. Of course, we took a diversion along the way. That too has not turned out so well for us. In fact, that excursion to Iraq has cost us the goodwill of a large portion of the planet as well as contributing to raising our financial deficit to incomprehensible amounts.

 

The world is more willing to accept our reasoning for going into Afghanistan, though in hindsight it is at least questionable that we have used the right techniques. We don’t seem to have learned that military might is no match for guerrilla action. We failed to learn from our own actions in Vietnam, the Soviets’ in Afghanistan or the West’s long history of interference with
Afghanistan and its neighbors.

 

Even the Russians are warning us that we are headed to the same downfall they found in Afghanistan. And it does not appear that the Russians are arming the Taliban as we did against them in our paranoia regarding communism. Through the years as various Western powers have attempted to conquer, occupy, stabilize or whatever we claimed the purpose to be in that part of the world, it has not worked. As a matter of fact, they have done fairly well on their own when left to their own devices.

 

It is the Western world, namely the British in this case, who set up the conditions that cause us so many problems today. In defining the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a line was drawn through the Pashtun territory. Today, it is that territory that most likely harbors al-Qaeda, complicating our efforts to find Osama bin Laden. This group has no loyalty to either Islamabad or Kabul, leaving us to decide when our “justified” presence in Afghanistan allows us to cross the border into Pakistan.

 

Not surprising Pakistan says a definite “NO” while we, in effect, say if you can’t control the area we will. For years, we have been paying off Pakistan but our aid has gone more to the whims of our so-called friend, their now deposed dictator Musharaf, than to the military for hunting down al-Qaeda. Still, we feel we must buy off Pakistan because they have the nuclear bomb. What a Hobson’s choice we have!

 

We have aligned ourselves with unquestionably corrupt regimes in both nations. We seem to have a habit of doing that around the world. Then we are surprised when the natives who thought we were coming to help them don’t embrace us.

 

If we are to stay in Afghanistan, which increasing numbers consider unwise, our tactics must change. An exit strategy is always a good idea when we undertake these “set the world straight” projects. We think we have one in Iraq, although it is not without its problems. Perhaps too little too late. In both places, there is the dilemma that we not abandon those who stood with us. There are numerous other examples of our not following up on the support rebelling natives had been led to expect from us.

 

Particularly in the treatment of females we pride ourselves on having improved conditions. It is believed that our departure would leave them in dire circumstances, which is undoubtedly true. All we need do is think what a battle women had in achieving their rights in the enlightened Western world to realize the folly of expecting those women to achieve in a few years that which took us decades to do. In fact, we still wait for the Equal Rights Amendment, not to mention rights for same sex marriage.

 

We cannot exactly sit on our laurels as being so much more progressive than others. We have less healthcare at a higher price than citizens of many other nations. We exploit immigrants who sneak across our borders by using their labor but not extending rights. We pollute our air and water and fight over the distribution of the latter. We imprison a larger portion of our population than any other so-called progressive nation, and we have that death penalty. We refuse to tax ourselves to support our infrastructure, or our wars.

 

A wise man I know recently noted, “We have a remarkable lack of wisdom in our priorities.” Only when we put our wisdom to straightening our own house dare we tell the rest of the world how they should behave. Anyone for changing our priorities?

 

*****

 

Ruth Gadebusch is a former naval officer, a Fresno Unified School District Trustee for 13 years, Vice-President of the Center for Civic Education and a community activist.

 

 

From the Greenhouse

by Franz Weinschenk

 

Let’s welcome a thoroughly “green” non-profit agency called Grid Alternatives to Fresno and the Valley. Its mission is to provide energy-efficiency equipment and services to low-income homeowners. It has been in existence since 2001 and currently has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and now in the Valley.

 

Since beginning its program, this agency has installed 230 solar systems for low-income families throughout Northern and Southern California. These installations are reducing electric bills by about 75% for needy clients. In the next 30 years, those systems will prevent roughly 11,500 tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted into the atmosphere. Grid Alternatives has also helped low-income seniors by directing them to other agencies that can help make their homes more energy efficient—provide insulation, weather stripping, secure ducts, etc. This service saves seniors on their electricity bills and makes their homes more livable.

 

The State of California now offers a program called “Single-family Affordable Solar Homes” (SASH), where qualified low-income homeowners who would like to acquire a solar system not only get the regular benefits in the form of rebates and tax credits but also do the installation of the solar system by Grid Alternatives. SASH is run by the California Public Utilities Commission and funded by rate-payers. Right now, only those homeowners who are living in housing developments that were constructed especially for low-income families by organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or Self-Help Enterprises are eligible to receive help in installing solar arrays. As you might remember, in Fresno Habitat for Humanity recently finished an 80 home development called “The Crossroads.” Ten of those homes have solar systems. The folks at Grid Alternatives believe that between now and December, they will be able to install 40 more solar arrays on homes similar to the Crossroads homes not just here in Fresno, but throughout the Valley.

 

To qualify, currently a low-income family, has to own and live in the house where the solar panels are to be installed; the home has to have been built by a volunteer-assisted home development agency; the roof has to be un-shaded and face either south or southwest; and finally the family has to earn less than allowed by SASH requirements. These vary in different counties, but in Fresno County, this means a family of four has to earn less than $44,650 a year to qualify.

 

And now for the good news. Starting next January, the folks at Grid Alternatives believe that any low-income single family will be able to get help providing they qualify. Recipients will not have to live in a volunteer-assisted housing development, but can live anywhere. Let’s say that a financially qualifying family lives in an approximately 1,200-square foot home. The cost of a solar system for a house like that will average around $25,000. When you take into account state rebates, federal tax credits and free installation (provided by Grid Alternative
volunteers), the cost to the homeowner will probably be less than $6,000, a sum that Grid Alternatives says it may even be able to reduce depending on the home in question. It also needs to be remembered that, now that they have a solar system in place, the involved family will experience an approximately 75% reduction in its monthly PG&E bill.

And speaking of volunteers, please know that since Grid Alternatives is brand new to the Valley. It is looking for volunteers who can assist with installation projects. If you would like to volunteer, you will first be enrolled in a three-hour training session. After completing that, you will be assisting in solar panel installations that normally take a couple of six-hour days. After having worked a half-dozen projects, you’re eligible to become a “team leader.” To contribute to your community in this way is not only personally gratifying, but might come in handy if you were ever to apply for a position with a company that sells and/or installs solar systems. If interested, please call Grid Alternatives at 559-261-4743.

 

And so, once again, welcome to the Valley, Grid Alternatives. The more solar installations you can accomplish, the more low- income families will be able to sustain themselves on limited resources, while simultaneously reducing the amount of fossil fuel necessary to generate electricity for the Valley.

 

*****

Franz Weinschenk has been a teacher and school administrator in Fresno for more than 50 years. E-mail him at franzie@scccd.org.

 

Italian Unfairly Imprisoned in Central Valley Prison

By Luca Severi

 

Unfair. This is the first word you imagine when you think about Carlo Parlanti’s trial. He is an Italian man, born in Montecatini, a small town in the middle of Italy, who for many years has lived in the United States and traveled all around the world because of his job as an information technology manager. One day, landing in Germany, as usual after one of his trips, he was arrested by Interpol according to a complaint against him for forcible rape, corporal injury against a co-habitant and false imprisonment by violence. This complaint was presented by Mrs Rebecca White, his American roommate. Jealousy? Revenge? Mental problems? Nobody really knows why she made these accusations, but what is sure now is that Carlo has already spent five years inside one of the most terrifying jails of the world, the Avenal State Prison in central California. Unless something changes, Carlo is going to spend another two years there.

 

Fake evidence, fake tests, fake reports and a conspiracy between lawyers of Parlanti and his judges are the things that caused his imprisonment, according to the documents published (see www.carloparlanti.com/CrimeScene.htm) by his girlfriend and legal representative Katia Anedda. This evidence is supported by experts in their fields, like the famous criminologist Marco Strano; Dr. Agnesina Pozzi, a Ph.D. in medicine and surgery and is listed in the Registry of Forensic Expert Advisors Affiliated with the Court of Lagonegro (PZ); and Dr. Matteo Pacini, a specialist in psychiatry at the University of Pisa. Why? Because of a long series of mistakes and omissions that step-by-step became too hard to fix for the court, it was really easier to imprison an innocent man.

 

“With those evidences, any honest judge or lawyer would be able to take Carlo out of there,” says Katia who since 2005 has led an effort to tell his story, forcing Ventura County (see  www.carloparlanti.com/Reports.htm) to revise the case. But the problems for Parlanti did not end with his imprisonment. The Avenal State Prison is the most overcrowded jailhouse in the state; it was designed for about 3,000 people but now has more than 7,000 people housed inside.

 

Parlanti has suffered both psychologically and physically under detention. Because of the poor medical conditions inside the jail, he contracted hepatitis C, which has further undermined his health. During phone calls from the prison, he told Anedda about violence, solitary confinement, and many other harassments he has suffered inside the prison. The more media attention Anedda got on Parlanti’s case, the more some guards and the administration
of the prison unloaded their pressure against him with any kind of excuse, giving him a month more of detention for “bad behavior.”

 

During a recent trip to the United States, Anedda presented, in the name of Parlanti, complaints (see www.carloparlanti.com/Reports.htm) against all the people involved in the case during these years who never tried to discover the truth. But the answer was always the same, “You need a lawyer.” After five different lawyers who only seemed to be interested in the money, the trust is gone and the money too. Dozens of people met in spontaneous committees in order to help Carlo. Even some politicians have decided to take part in order to put a spotlight on all the inconsistencies of the trial. Here (see www.carloparlanti.it/Interrogazioni.htm) you can find some names of the people who helped focus international public attention on the conditions of Parlanti’s detention. But governments change, politicians change and the only sure thing is that Parlanti is still in jail.

 

For those who want to have more information about the case, follow its development or keep in touch with Carlo and Katia, go to www.thepeoplevscarloparlanti.com/ where you can find all the official documents of the case, all the evidence and pictures, all the news from the prison and all the contact information to help or support. You will discover how easy it can be for anybody to fall inside a similar situation and that’s why whoever can, must help. Help thousands of people like Carlo to not be prisoner of the silence.

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California’s Crisis of Higher Education

By Diane M. Blair

 

On Oct. 21, hundreds of students at Fresno State walked out of their classrooms and held a rally at the university’s Peace Garden to protest the massive cuts to higher education and the California State University system. Students voiced their concerns with the unprecedented tuition increases, canceled classes, furloughed faculty and staff, and reduced enrollment opportunities. They then took their message to the sidewalks and streets of the campus calling out to students, faculty and staff to take a stand and join the walk out. Many did. By the time the march reached Shaw and Cedar avenues, all four street corners were overflowing with students speaking out on behalf of themselves and the future of higher education in the state.

 

“I hope that this walkout will increase community awareness that the budget cuts to the CSU are delaying our graduations, forcing would-be students out, and creating a precedent that ‘it’s ok’ to cut education when really funding education gives back in more ways than one,” explained Whitney Thompson, a women’s studies major at Fresno State and a spokesperson for Students for Quality Education, the organization spearheading the event.

 

Hundreds of students participated in this protest at CSUF. Demonstrations have been held throughout the state.

 

At the end of the march, the students presented Dr. John Welty, President of Fresno State, with a list of demands, which Welty indicated he would address at a later meeting.

 

California is indeed facing a crisis of higher education, and the current solutions to the crisis being offered by the Chancellor’s office and administrators are only exacerbating the problems.

 

For the first time in Fresno State’s history, all admissions, including transfers, have been canceled for the spring semester. In Fall 2010, the university announced that it will reduce enrollment by approximately 400 eligible students. The CSU systemwide is calling for a reduction of enrollment by 40,000 students over the next two years. High school students who have been told that if they do well in school they can earn a college degree are facing a broken promise because meeting the minimum eligibility requirements will no longer guarantee a student a place in the CSU.

 

For those students lucky enough to secure a seat in the classroom, they face the prospect of continued tuition hikes. Just this past year, students saw a 32% increase in their fees. This comes on top of multiple fee increases the last several years. Since 2002, tuition has increased 182%. Just recently, the Chancellor’s office and the Board of Trustees announced the possibility of an additional 10% increase next year.

 

These tuition increases and cuts to enrollment come despite faculty and staff furloughs resulting in a 10% cut to employees’ salaries. These efforts were suppose to save jobs and classes, but it is not clear that the money is staying in the classrooms. At Fresno State, more than 1,000 classes were canceled fall semester and more than 200 lecturers were laid off. Students and faculty face even more course cancellations and layoffs for spring semester.

 

Layoffs, furloughs, tuition increases, and course and enrollment reductions are the primary solutions the CSU administration has proposed to address the budget shortfall. Little pressure has been placed on the governor and the state legislature to make higher education a priority.

 

 

Students at CSUF walked out of classes on Oct. 21 to protest tuition increases, faculty layoffs,

reduced class availability and cutbacks in enrollment. Both (CSUF walk-out) photos by Nigel Medhurst.

 

The trend in California is to reduce state funding and to privatize the cost of higher education such that individual students and their families bear a greater burden for the cost of college. For example, in 1988–1989, per capita state funding for higher education was $348, whereas last year it was $263. California used to be a national leader in higher education, but today we rank in the bottom 10 states in the share of students getting a four-year college degree. California now spends more money on the prison system than it does on the educational system. The promise of higher education for all who desire it is fading in California.

 

One possible solution before the state legislature is AB 656. The bill is sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) and proposes to levy an extraction tax on natural gas and oil companies that profit from our state’s natural resources. This money would then provide a reliable funding source for higher education. California is the only major oil-producing state that does not levy an extraction tax. By contrast, in Texas public universities receive more than $400 million a year in revenue from mineral and oil rights. The California Faculty Association and the Students for Quality Education support the passage of this bill.

 

Remarkably, the CSU administration has not come out in favor of this bill.

 

The CSU is the people’s university—it was created as a part of California’s master plan to ensure a public higher education system that would extend access to all the citizens of the state who desired it. In particular for the CSU, the mission was to serve those populations that have been historically underserved: first-generation college students, students of color, women, working and middle-class families. This is what is at stake in this crisis, and what is needed is a groundswell of support to stand alongside these students fighting for their future and the future of the state. It is time to revitalize the state’s commitment to public higher education. To voice your support of AB 656, go to tinyurl.com/isupportAB656.

 

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Diane M. Blair is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno, and vice president of the California Faculty Association. She can be reached at 559-278-8578 or dblair@csufresno.edu.

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