Category: Columns

Come stand with San Diego’s community college students, teachers, and their community allies this Friday, May 13th at 9:00 AM at Assembly Member Nathan Fletcher’s office at 9909 Mira Mesa Boulevard to send a message to Fletcher and his Republican allies that they can’t hold the future of education in California hostage.

Editor: This is Part 2 of Jim Miller’s examination of San Diego as the “Wisconsin of the West”.

While the web of right wing, corporate-funded think tanks are clearly feeling their oats in the Scott Walker era, their rise was a long time in the making. They were, importantly, the intellectual replacements for unreliable “liberal” universities where the state-funded intellectuals could not be counted on to carry the water for the corporate class.

I was just thinking about all the nice moments I’ve enjoyed in life and a little time I spent in Tucson last week ranks up there among the mellower of the refreshing respites from the troubles of the world I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in.

First of all I was in my hometown and that’s always enjoyable, not to mention that I was there for a very special event, wearing the lofty title of “guest speaker,” which I took to mean I was to have a good time so that’s what I did. Why not, I was around some of my favorite people: a bunch of folks wearing sunny smiles…

A couple of weeks ago local Republicans held their unity night at the Kona Kai Resort where notables such as Jerry Sanders and Kevin Faulconer cheered as Carl DeMaio asked if they were ready to make San Diego “the Wisconsin of the West.” They, along with the Chamber of Commerce, the Taxpayers Association, the Lincoln Club and other luminaries of the local right were getting fired up and ready to go for a ballot initiative that would undermine collective bargaining rights for unionized public sector workers in San Diego.

Congressman Allen West (R-FL) is on to the nefarious attempt of Planned Parenthood and Code Pink types to make men subservient. Just as we women were poised to become the Master Gender, our evil unnatural scheme of reducing men to meek yes ma’ams in between abortions has been ruined by this scholar- cum- congressman.

See inside for the video

Posing in a picture on the desktop of my iMac are some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, members of MEChA, a Chicano student organization at Mission Bay High led by Luis Villanueva, a remarkable educator who constantly seeks ways to create learning experiences that are relevant to their lives. Each of them is a budding community leader and exemplary American citizen.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the end of the March for California’s Future, a 48 day, 352-mile march through the Central Valley to the State Capitol. There, on a rainy day in Sacramento, I was one of many union folks, students, and religious and community leaders who spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered to protest the ever-more draconian cuts to education and social services.

All the way from Los Angeles to Sacramento we carried the message that California needs a government and economy that works for everyone, not just the rich.

This video pick is in the key of quirky problem solving solutions. For those of you who will be facing a bumper crop of hard boiled eggs this weekend, here’s a novel way to shorten the time between egg and egg salad. Science! Projectiles! Yes!

In my column last week I reported the results of a new Tulchin Research poll that showed that Californians favor raising taxes on the rich and closing corporate tax loopholes by large margins. Perhaps this is true because they sense that something has gone very wrong in our economy over the past several decades. The gap between the rich and the poor has dramatically widened and the middle class has become increasingly unstable. Many more of us are feeling unsure about the future.

Monday, better known as “trash day” in Ocean Beach, is coming up soon. What a beautiful array of blacks, greens and blues await us on each and every street.

Oh…what’s this? What are all these trash barrels doing on their sides? And why are the tops cracked on so many of them?

Thoughts Stimulated by a Historic High School Basketball Game

I was just looking through my scrapbooks and I came across two pictures of me playing high school basketball 55 years ago.

In one I was going in for an easy basket, a lay up, with my left arm shielding my defender from the play. In the other I’m springing high to win the opening tip of the same game, the first game in Pueblo High’s history. Their school building was still under construction, a few months shy of being done. We were housed in my school, Tucson High, the oldest public school in the state of Arizona.

Interesting question, since I don’t really care for breakfast in bed, but I found a wonderful alternative and something that I do like. And… the best part is that is right here in Ocean Beach.

Curious? Let me give you a few more hints. The “hidden place” is located on Santa Monica Blvd., just west of the Apple Tree Market. It is between Cable and Bacon, located on the south side of the street. There you can be pampered, fed, even “bathed” if you are interested.