Local News & Views

Where do we go now? Yes, keep up the struggle for budget justice, but let’s look at another frame based in our own gifts, our thrival, not just survival – a plan of action to move off of the grid of philanthropy pimps, globalization pimps, non-profit pimps, to reject the lie of budget cuts, to reclaim our land and resources stolen from us so long ago!

The Public Defender’s Office will be forced to lay off seven attorneys and five staff members and eliminate the BMAGIC and Mo’ MAGIC programs if $1.6 million is cut from the office’s budget, as proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom. Show the Board of Supervisors your support for the Public Defender’s Office on Tuesday, July 21, 2 p.m., City Hall Room 250. Give them a call today.

The dynamic duo of the Bay Area’s “green movement,” Ambessa and Zakiya, have been organizing the Grind for the Green Festival for a few years in an effort to get Black and other youth of color interested in “sustainable” living practices. Mixing the music industry with environmental politics seems to be the ticket on how they have managed to get hundreds of youth from all over the Bay to be their captive audience. Past guests have included Bicasso of Living Legends, Charlie 2na, and Dj Backside. This year the keynote speaker will be M1 of dead prez. Check out what Ambessa and Zakiya have to say about this year’s Grind for the Green conference, which kicks off July 18th at 10am in San Francisco.

From San Francisco’s Fillmore, Hayes Valley and Western Addition, Black people and other members of the community of the poor were removed. The removal was a new form of segregation and discrimination. The government unit that led the charge was the Redevelopment Agency. The sociological name for this removal was and is gentrification.

What was amazing about the hearing Monday was the prosecution’s admission that it didn’t have enough evidence to convict these men. As attorney Daro Inouye said of Jalil Muntaqim, who pled no contest to the prosecution’s charge of conspiracy, his client picked up a loaded grenade to save his brothers, his friends, his fellow defendants, and he didn’t plead guilty. That language did not pass his lips.

Support both of these cases. In both cases of the police and courts have no evidence. These are bogus charges to waste the defendants’ time and resources. We as the community must stand behind these two warriors as they are attacked individually and the community is attacked through them. What's the call? Free ‘em all!

The KPFA station board has the responsibility to approve KPFA’s budget, evaluate management and oversee programming. Nominations for KPFA’s Station Board are now open. Anyone who becomes a member, by donating $25 or by performing three hours of volunteer work before July 15, is eligible to run as a candidate and to vote in KPFA’s Station Board elections. You may wonder why you should participate. Only 17 percent of the world’s population lives in a country with freedom of the press. So please exercise you right to have your ideas heard by participating in these elections as a candidate or voter.

The San Francisco Housing Authority plans to tear down thousands of homes in public housing and give the projects to Bridge Housing, the John Stewart Co. and Mercy Housing to prey on the poor and gentrify the areas. Bridge will have Potrero public housing, John Stewart has already started executing its plans at Hunters View in Hunters Point and Mercy Housing is waiting for the green light to gentrify and make hay while the sun shines at Sunnydale. Where are the people? They are fast asleep!

Among youth, while only 15 percent of teens (ages 13-19) are African American, they accounted for 73 percent of the new AIDS cases reported in 2004. Comparably shocking, HIV and AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 34. Where’s Black leadership on this issue? Where’s the Black church?

In a letter dated May 22, 2009, Navy representatives announced their intention to dissolve the RAB. This is not the first time the Navy has threatened to take this action. Indeed, whenever a critical impasse has arisen regarding key shipyard cleanup matters, a threat to disband the elected body recognized by Congress as the legitimate organized voice for public comment, dissent and scientific debate has been made.

If enough listeners become subscribers, and vote in the election, it’s possible that “people power” will overcome “money power” and elect an LSB majority that isn’t wedded to the status quo. The Bay Area deserves a KPFA that innovates. For example, isn’t it about time for a program for the Black community, a program for the LGBT community and a program about California’s injustice system? And KPFA workers, paid and unpaid, deserve management that respects them and the listener community.

Thirty-seven percent of the adults and 20 percent of the kids living in West Oakland have asthma and children living in this community are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for breathing related illness than any other children in California.

We often tell our children, "I want you to do better than I did. I want you to make a difference and I want you to be more financially sustained than I am." My name is Betty McGee and I earned a doctorate in business administration in 2004. The journey for me was five years of hard work, sacrifice and to some degree doubt around my ability to complete the work.

Few events reflect the priorities of elected officials more vividly than a budget crisis. It is during a budget crisis that policy-makers are forced to choose between the interests of powerful or popular constituencies and the needs of the less powerful and most vulnerable citizens. Presently, this drama is being played out in San Francisco, where social and legal services to the poor are being slashed while Police and Fire Department budgets are being protected. This Faustian bargain is displayed in Mayor Newsom's proposal $1.9 million cut to the Public Defender's budget, while adding $18 million to the Police Department budget.

The murder of a 22-year-old unarmed Black man, Oscar Grant, by a transit cop in Oakland during the early hours of New Year's Day sparked national indignation. Onlookers captured the shooting on cell phones, and their video footage was transmitted to millions via the Internet and TV.

In response to the California state budget crisis and to global warming urgencies, California's 20th District Assemblymember Alberto Torrico has proposed Assembly Bill 656, a tax "for the privilege of severing oil or gas from the earth or water in this state," to fund higher education, especially renewable energy education, to train a generation capable of helping California make a transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.

Chevron's 107-year-old Richmond refinery is the largest industrial polluter in the region, and communities in Richmond, particularly low-income and communities of color, already suffer from industrial pollution-related health problems. Putting a halt on this expansion project will prevent increased pollution in Richmond and throughout the Bay Area.

The residents of Martin Luther King - Marcus Garvey Cooperative Square Apartments, Inc. (King Garvey Co-op), who are also the shareholders of this housing complex in San Francisco's historically Black Fillmore district, known before redevelopment as "Harlem of the West," are being intimidated into a fraudulent deal that would turn over nearly $100 million in their families' assets to private developers with government connections.

People speaking up, seemed not to matter / People speaking, I seen no one scatter / ... This ain't enough even for us to live / ... And what about my kids / And now you cutting off / General Assistance? It's all I got / ... Something left for the people?

San Francisco bus fares will go up and service will go down - impacting Blacks more than any other group - as the struggle over who gets stimulus funds continues. Transit authorities around the country are in line for token stimulus funds, but only for new building projects; no immediate operating support to stave off fare hikes, service cuts and layoffs.