Category: Civil Rights

On June 14, the Committee for the First Amendment will be hosting Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment, an uplifting evening of song, solidarity, and action.

Featuring an all-star line-up of performers, this 90-minute concert event will celebrate the freedoms guaranteed by our First Amendment—of speech, religion, press, assembly, and protest—and the people power that both fuels these rights and is essential to guarantee them.

Even as authoritarians increase their attacks on our freedoms and communities, we see examples across the country of people rising up together, taking action, and turning back those forces.

Event Include Juneteenth Celebration

By JW August

The revival of the Black Family statue – and a lasting legacy of San Diego artist Rossie Wade – will be unveiled this Saturday, June 13th in one of San Diego’s oldest parks. The event is set for 11 a.m. at the Neal Petties Mountain View Park at 641 S Boundary St., near 40th St. and Oceanview Blvd.

The City of San Diego’s Cultural Affairs department flyer says it will be part of a Juneteenth celebration.  Following the unveiling of the statue there will be free food, a petting zoo, and free performances.

The original statue was made of painted redwood, which had deteriorated over time.  All that remained of Wade’s original creation was its brick and mortar base.

A new stainless steel statue has been created to respect and honor Wade’s image of Black values and community pride, as was the case when the original was dedicated in 1974. Saturday’s event signals the end of a 10-year journey to create a replacement for Rossi’s original work.

Eric Law, the chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, has just announced that Navy representatives will provide a briefing to the community on Navy plans for the redevelopment of the NAVWAR Old Town Campus.

The update will be at the Peninsula Community Planning Board monthly meeting on Thursday, June 18th, 2026 — 6PM at the Point Loma Hervey Library Community Room, 3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107.

Law stated,  “The NAVWAR Old Town Campus (OTC) Revitalization program manager and the Navy Region Southwest Public Affairs Officer have confirmed that they will provide a briefing to the community on the OTC program ….”

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, June 8: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Items 600, 601, 602, 639, 643, 644: Proclamations

Why it matters: We must ask again for an explanation of how and why honorees are chosen. The last three were added to a very packed agenda in the last few days. The last two (including a Scripps Health administrator who is a Rotary Club officer) have no supporting documents. Everyone agrees that Council meetings run too long. These performative agenda items add extra time but little civic substance.

Item 613: 2026 Update to the San Diego Municipal Code (Land Development Code)

Why it matters: Staff report notes that one of the amendments “would increase … the City Council appeal fee [on project and environmental appeals] from $1,000 to $2,380,

By Sam Halpern

In the Hebrew tradition, when a family member dies, first order relatives (husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters etc.) mourn for seven days (Shiva means
seven) beginning with the day of the deceased’s death. This is the first part of a mourning process which extends to about a year.

I am a secular Jew, and the last of my generation died long ago. With so many gone, for whom would I sit Shiva? That brings me to my country, America. In a way, America is like a beloved family member for me. America took my young parents in, made them citizens, and I was born in this great land. She has given me a home, safety, freedom, a good life. I cannot believe how lucky I have been. My family has risen from sharecroppers to property owners, and in one generation, has allowed one of their children to become a professor at one of the great teaching institutions of the world.

Reporter David Garrick at the Union-Tribune today wrote an article entitled, “Public displeasure with San Diego City Hall boils over in early election results.”

He wrote that the primary results “show notable voter backlash against San Diego City Hall, with outsiders leading in three out of four council races as some well-funded insiders struggled and incumbents fared worse than usual.”

He’s right, of course, as ‘public displeasure’ with City Hall has been building dramatically over this last year or two. All one has to do to survey this building displeasure — or even rage — is to peruse the pages of the OB Rag. From the devastating San Diego extremist rules for bonus ADUs, the increased fees for paid parking, the trash fee debacle to the paid parking in Balboa Park quagmire, the budget crisis and threats to libraries and rec centers, the cuts to arts funding, to the general sense by the San Diego public that city hall is trying to “nickel and dime” them to death.

This “displeasure” with downtown San Diego political leaders has finally surfaced in results that the establishment can recognize — voting tabulations and results.

By Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF / June 2, 2026

People around the world are pushing back against the mass surveillance that undermines privacy and free expression for everyone.

One of the people who joined the fight for digital rights is EFF client Will Freeman. Will created the website DeFlock.me to reveal the dangers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs)—cameras that collect location data on every vehicle they see and upload that to a massive nationwide police database. Deflock.me turns the tables by enlisting ordinary people to track the locations of tens of thousands of ALPR cameras.

But when the police spy-tech company Flock Safety went after Will’s website with legal threats citing trademark law, he saw it for what it was: an attempt to silence critics and dim the light on mass surveillance.

By Theodoric Meyer and  Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post / June 3, 2026

The House passed a resolution Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, ratcheting up pressure on the administration to find a way to end the unpopular war.

The 215-208 vote marked the first time that such a measure has cleared the House or Senate on a final vote since the start of the conflict more than three months ago. The Senate advanced a similar resolution last month on a procedural vote, reflecting growing impatience with a war Congress hasn’t authorized.

The effort faces sizable hurdles, however, before Congress could force Trump to end hostilities.

In the House, four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Tom Barrett (Michigan), Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania) — joined Democrats in voting to force Trump to end the war.

With the clarity of the morning after, the California Primary results of 2026 show that Xavier Becerra — the top Democrat in the slugfest that was the gubernatorial race — will be the first Mexican-American to be elected governor of the state. This will be the first time since 1846 when the last Mexican governor, Pio Pico, fled to Baja as American military forces swarmed into Alta California after war between the U.S. and Mexico began.

A bold assertion? Just look at the numbers. Steve Hilton, the top Republican, received 27.8% of the total vote to Becerra’s 25.4%. But if one adds up the percentages for Tom Steyer, Katie Porter and Mike Mahan — you get 28.3%, and coupled with Becerra’s, you have 53.7% of the vote available for Xavier. That smashes Hilton even with Bianco’s numbers — a total of 39.1%. (A Republican has not won a state-wide race in California for years.)

Absent some unforeseen upset or crisis or calamity, Becerra will journey to the General Election in November — and win it.

This victory 6 months away will result in the first Mexican-American elected as governor for California — the first time since the state has been in the Union.

San Diego Gas & Electric wants to lay down a 140-mile, 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line that would cut through California’s largest state park, the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. They call it the Golden Pacific Powerlink and it would run from the Imperial Valley to the Orange County border.

The proposed line has also sparked massive opposition from environmentalists and local communities who are strongly against the overhead route. They are demanding the project be entirely rerouted away from protected environments and population centers.

Opposition to the line is lead by the Anza-Borrego Foundation, which is fighting to keep the lines out of California’s largest state park. Opponents point out that a previous proposal (the 2008 Sunrise Powerlink) was rejected for its park path, and warn that nearly 200-foot-tall towers would ruin dark skies, impact endangered bighorn sheep, and destroy fragile cryptobiotic soils.

Rag Writer Signed Up for Nonpartisan Voter Assistance

By JW August

3:18 p.m.  Kearny Mesa Rec Center

Much more activity compared with other stops.  Can’t say if it’s the time of day or location. All 5 check in spots are busy. Small line of voters on occasion.

My Common Cause Partner Jo Curcio is watching the check in desk. Monitoring the exchanges. They all have praise for the county registrars hotline

Site manager Olena tells me her parents were from the Ukraine.  She speaks passionately about the war and its toll.   “They are dying, they want to be able to vote as we do.” To be able to vote.

One poll worker smiled and nodded “we are ready for November. Hope the country is.”

2:27 p.m. San Diego – At Islamic Center of San Diego

When we arrived it looked like election day coverage as its supposed to be. Lots of people moving around.

But then I find out their midday service just ended.