Month: June 2020

It is one week ago exactly that George Floyd died. Since then his death had brought the country – in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – to the brink of a new reality.

Over the weekend, at least 4400 Americans were arrested. Sixty cities – including La Mesa and San Diego – experienced protests. The National Guard has been called out in 20 states. Curfews have been laid down on many municipalities – too many, as in Poway where a small demonstration of 50 people was enough for local leaders there to enact a curfew. More lock-downs.

Yet, what has become clear is that the young of this country – the future of America – have been marching and protesting since Floyd’s death, and the singular demand they have shouted in many different ways coast to coast is an immediate end to the racially-based criminal justice system in this country.

By Colleen O’Connor

Sunday was the Feast of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost Sunday.

The morning started off at 2 a.m., with 11 fire trucks (lights and sirens blazing) and 9 police cars, speeding down Rosecrans to Shelter Island.

Fear and courage addressed the billowing smoke and flames that could be seen from downtown to the coast.

That afternoon, hundreds of vehicles backed up for blocks on those same streets, surrounding Portuguese hall. With popped trunk lids, drivers waited patiently in line, for hot plates of homecooked Sopas.

Great expectations and faith motivated them. For over 700 years, Portuguese worldwide have celebrated this Festa de Espirito in thanksgiving to the Holy Spirit for help in “times of danger or calamity.”

by Bob Edwards

This past Saturday, May 30th, I was looking at the Cabrillo National Monument web page to see if there was any news about a future reopening. To my surprise I found the following information under “Alerts Now In Effect”:

“Outdoors areas and restrooms at Cabrillo National Monument are open from 9 am to 5 pm.

We are working to increase access to the park in a phased approach. Outdoors areas and restrooms are open from 9 am to 5 pm. Indoor facilities such as the Lighthouse, Visitor Center, and some exhibits remain closed.?The tidepools close at 4:30 pm.”

I usually walk the Bayside Trail a few times a month and have been really missing it, so I immediately hopped in the car with my wife, drove up to Catalina Blvd., and headed out past the cemetery to the monument. (As a side note, I just found out that there are 101,000 souls interred at Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery. That also happens to be the number of people who have died of Covid-19 in the USA as of this weekend.)

This flier was seen posted on telephone poles in OB and Point Loma Heights.

“White Silence Is Violence” also says “Get educated. Do something.”

It reads, “Donate to anti-white supremacy work such as your local Black Lives Matter Chapter

By Jim Miller

Watching Minneapolis burn and the country explode in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police in the midst of a global pandemic and subsequent economic depression that have both disproportionately harmed black and brown working-class folks was one of those moments that makes America’s brutality painfully clear — yet again.

In the same week that one of the Trump administration’s economic advisors caused a minor uproar by dehumanizingly referring to his fellow Americans as “human capital stock”, we see the President of the United States race past his nanosecond of concern for the Floyd killing to threaten protesters with “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Welcome to the United States of Disposable People.

Back in 2014 in the wake of the Michael Brown murder, I observed in this space that the dehumanization that makes racist police murders possible is linked to the economic system that reduces people to objects in the marketplace, and I quoted one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speeches that questioned our society as “an edifice which produces beggars”:

by Ernie McCray

It’s scary looking out on our streets right now as pent up rage is released, causing fires and looting and rubber bullets being shot and tear gas deployed.

But in the scene I see more and more white folks than I’ve ever seen fighting for what is right, joining the struggle for liberty and justice for all, and it’s a pretty sight to see: a sight I’ve dreamed of and lived for all my life.

Finally. After centuries of supremacists perpetrating horrible unforgiveable crimes against black humanity, with very little outrage expressed by their communities, they’ve now seen something that’s cut through their compliance with how the country has treated black people, and this has bothered them deeply.