Columns

Chalk It Up to Experience

Lots of chalk on the sidewalks these days as enterprising youngsters shelter-in-place and engage in curbside bursts of instant messaging on family driveways. One grand announcement on Berryman Street (complete with colorful hearts and a rainbow) read: "Celebrate Violet's socially distanced birthday!"

On my morning run up Hopkins St., I watched as a young lady running a half-block ahead of me encountered a chalk-drawn hopscotch grid on the concrete. Without skipping a beat, she immediately executed a perfect seven-hop/ten-box maneuver and continued running at full speed.

Be All that You Can Bee

It's heart-warming to see all those colorful grad-placards adorning porches and front yards around town. Congrats graduates of 2020! Cheers for that pandemic-enforced diploma enforcing the dream that: "You can be whatever you want to be!"

Unless, that is, you're matriculating from Berkeley High School where the campus motto (proudly featured on BHS' graduation placards) stoutly declares: "Once a Yellow Jacket always a Yellow Jacket." 

A Rose by Any Other Plate? 

Earlier this week, three cars were parked at the entrance of the Berkeley Rose Garden. All sported personalized license plates. One read JELBEAN. Another read A C E M. The third read SULAWEAC. 

Could this be evidence that people who opt for personalized plates also happen to be garden-loving, rose-addicted anthophiles? 

Disarming Our Neighborhoods—and Our Language 

This was another deadly week filled with gun violence and death but it was especially grievous given the number of children who were shot dead in America's cities. The Bay Area was forced to deal with the inexplicable loss of a remarkable eight-year-old boy named Jace Young who succumbed to a bullet that pierced his chest while he was watching fireworks from the porch of his family home. 

Jace's photos depict a youngster who appears full of life and light. Even at this young age, Jace stood apart. Explaining why he had decided to stop eating meat, he told his family: "Because it will kill animals." 

Part of the problem is the way that unconscious militarism penetrates and occupies American culture. Our language is infiltrated with violent imagery and battlefield references that have become so commonplace that they go unnoticed (at least on a conscious level). 

Words and phrases like: We need to fight for change. We need to take careful aim and enforce discipline on targets we're attempting to overcome. That's a high-caliber presentation. Don't go shooting off your mouth. That performance bombed. Your presentation needs more bullet points. 

The problem of "war-speak" is so embedded in our discourse that it can surface even in the course of a public denunciation of armed violence. 

This happened recently when San Francisco Mayor London Breed delivered a passionate speech in response to the death of young Jace. At one point, Mayor Breed exhorted the crowd with the following plea: 

"We must put down the guns—everyone must put down the guns—and turn our sights on the long, hard work ahead." 

As a Google search of meanings reminds us, the phrase "turn our sights on" is drawn from the following references: "You look through the sights of a gun to aim at the target" and "to take aim: sighted along the barrel of the gun." 

A Cry from Congress: 'Defund the Pentagon" and Move $350 Billion to Human Needs 

David Swanson, founder of World BEYOND War, recently reported: "The US Congress has 100 Senators and 435 House Members. Out of the full 535, there are 20 thus far who have made themselves sponsor or cosponsor of a resolution to do what is most badly needed, move major amounts of money out of wars and war preparations and into human and environmental needs." 

These are the 20 peace-leaders who deserve our thanks and support: 

Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal, Raul Grijalva, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Peter DeFazio, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jared Huffman, Andy Levin, Rashida Tlaib, Jan Schakowsky, Ayanna Pressley, Earl Blumenauer, Ilhan Omar, Jim McGovern, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nydia Velasquez, Adriano Espaillat, Bobby Rush. 

Click here to mail your Representative and Senators. 

Who Was that Masked Maniac? 

Under mounting pressure, Donald Trump finally conceded the wisdom of wearing a facemask to prevent the spread of Covid-19. He informed the media "I sort of liked the way I looked" and added he thought the black mask made him look "like the Lone Ranger." 

Granted, Trump is ignorant of many things—science, medicine, empathy—but he may be the only American who believes the Lone Ranger wore a surgical facemask over his eyes. 

The satiric British news site, NewsThump.com, quickly jumped on Trump's weird disconnect by publising an altered photo of POTUS wearing a black facemask above his nose—with two holes cut out (so he could search for handrails while walking down long, slippery ramps). 

But, when you think of it, what was the Lone Ranger thinking? Putting a mask over your eyes is a poor way to hide your identity. Tonto should have staged an intervention and told Kemosabe to wear a bandana over the lower half of his face, instead. (There's a reason bank robbers don't charge into a Wells Fargo wearing eye masks.) 

Footnote: As Google giggles, "kemosabe" is a Navajo word for "soggy shrub." So why was the Ranger's "faithful Indian companion" secretly slamming the "masked rider of the Plains" by calling him a wet bush? "Perhaps he was just repaying the Ranger's long-standing insult," Google speculates. “Tonto, after all, is a Spanish word meaning 'stupid'.” (Native American writer Sherman Alexie has noted that kemosabe means “idiot” in Apache.) 

A Tale of Two Containers 

It's been, maybe, 40 years since I swore off drinking Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper but on a recent triple-digit day, I faced a quandary. I was thirsty but I'd also recently taken a vow to swear off anything that comes wrapped, trapped, stored, or contained in plastic. 

I was in a 7-11 and there was nothing liquid that was encased in glass that wasn't alcoholic. So, instead of walking out with a tin can full of beer, I opted for a Pepsi. Checking the ingredients, I discovered the drink was not only enriched with 200 calories of high fructous corn syrup and sugar but had been injected with a 50 milligrams of caffeine. But what surprised me was a four-word pledge that appeared at the end of the ingredients list: "We're here to help." Wuzzat mean? Here to help if I experience sugar shock or sustain a cardiac arrest? 

Meet the Eco-Cup 

Coffee cups are pulling some new tricks these days. I recently scored a decaf nonfat latte that arrived in what looked like a paper cup. Not so! The cup bore the caveat: "No trees were harmed in the making of this cup." World Centric's trademark NoTree containers boast that they are "100% compostable (in a commercial composting facility)" and are also "Petroleum Free" thanks to a "Bio-lining made from plants." The cups are made from sugarcane leaves and the "bio-lining" is made from corn. 

I'll drink to that. 

Flunk You, Electoral College! It's Time We Became a Real Democracy 

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million ballots. In 2020, some pundits are warning that Joe Biden could pull in 5 million more votes than Donald Trump and still "lose" the presidency. All thanks to the archaic, racist, undemocratic Electoral College. 

There is only one "elected officer" in the US who is not selected by popular vote—the president. It's no accident and the EC's history and impacts are abominable. (See The Atlantic's report, "The Electoral College's Racist Origins.") 

So: if the US isn't a real democracy, what can we do? It used to be argued that the only solution to this abiding contradiction was to amend the Constitution—a burdensome, fraught, and time-consuming challenge. But now there's a bold new movement afoot that is treading a new path toward democracy. 

Most Americans haven’t heard of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC)—and that's the way the Republican Party wants it. Meanwhile, 3,408 state legislators from all 50 states have endorsed it. 

Here's how it works. States that join the Compact agree to award their state-level electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote. In other words: "Forget Mitch McConnell. Forget Washington Republicans. We can Abolish the Electoral College state-by-state." 

According to the reformers behind the NPVIC, "We're 70% of the way to abolishing the Electoral College." To date, 15 states (including California, Illinois, and New York) and the District of Columbia have signed on to the NPVIC. That's 196 of the 270 electoral votes needed to render the Electoral College irrelevant. 

The challenge: Can the NPVIC cover the distance between 72.9% and 100% before the next election now less than four months away? More information and updates available at nationalpopularvote.org. 

Two New Political Novices I'd Love to See Join 'The Squad' 

Here's a statement (titled "We Deserve Better," from Dr. Arati Kreibich, a candidate for New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District. 

"I used to volunteer for my Democratic member of Congress. I had his sign in my yard. But he called for bailing out private equity firms and high-interest lenders that prey on low-income Americans. He voted to weaken Dodd-Frank and deregulate big banks after taking over $2 million from Wall Street PACs and employees. And when he was asked about Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, he said 'none of those things are going anywhere.' 

"I'm an immigrant, neuroscientist, and a mom, running on Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. I’m refusing all corporate PAC money." 

Update: Primary ballots were still being counted as this column was being written. At that time, Gottheimer had claimed roughly 69% of votes and Kreibich had conceded defeat. But she did so with the following defiant statement: "This fight is more important than ever. We've seen time and time again the damage done to immigrants, women and people of color when our party is undermined by conservative forces." 

Elect a Female Ex-Con for Congress 

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has been touting Keeda Haynes as a progressive preference to the incumbent, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper (TN-05). Haynes has a remarkable resume for a political candidate. As PCCC notes, Haynes "was wrongly incarcerated at age 22. Now, she’s fighting to improve our justice system. To do that, she’s running in the August 6 congressional primary against conservative, Blue Dog Dem Jim Cooper." 

In the last Congress, Cooper voted with Trump almost 40% of the time. Cooper routinely accepts campaign cash from weapons contractors that sell their excess military equipment to police departments and the prison-industrial-complex. 

"This is a safe blue district," PCCC contends, "There is no reason for it to be represented by a conservative like Cooper." 

PCCC marvels at Haynes' "amazing story about being wrongfully incarcerated, going to law school at nights, and becoming a public defender and advocate for criminal justice reform" and notes how "Policy is personal for Keeda. She’s a proud supporter of Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, criminal justice reform, paid family leave, and access to prenatal care for all pregnant women." First-time candidate Haynes is endorsed by the PCCC and backed by scores of progressive groups, including Indivisible, Democracy for America, the Sunrise Movement (Nashville chapter), and the Bernie Sanders spin-off, Our Revolution. 

Haynes' campaign ads are as unique as her personal journey. Here's a sample: