OB Rag

The battle and controversy raging in Ocean Beach over a hateful sticker against the community’s homeless has just intensified.

On one side, The Black – the source of the stickers of intolerance – has just now begun selling T-shirts with the well-known image carrying the the message “don’t feed our bums.”

On the other side, organizers of the Boycott The Black effort are gearing up with a petition and plans to picket the old-time head shop on Newport.

Ken Anderson, co-manager of The Black told me on Monday, June 14, that he would consider taking the stickers off the shelf if he was presented with a petition with a hundred names asking him to do that. However, apparently in a new move to cash in – literally – with this anti-homeless sentiment, Anderson is now selling shirts with the hate logo.

Editor: Rocky Neptune accompanied local San Diegans as they caravaned to Phoenix to join thousands in protest of Arizona’s new immigration and ethnic studies laws. Here, he recites his observations of that trip and summarizes local developments, including the death of Anastasio Rojas.

by Rocky Neptune
San Diego Man Brutally Beaten to Death by Border Agents

In front of hundreds of terrified border crossers several U.S. Border Patrol Officers killed Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, 42, a lifetime resident of San Diego, with a wife and five children. Apparently, trying to flee earlier abuse by agents after his arrest some hours earlier Hernandez Rojas, was attempting to run into Mexico, to awaiting Mexican custom officials, when federal agents tasered him and beat him to death Friday evening, May 28.

By now, we’ve all seen the photos of wildlife drenched in oil. We’ve seen Gulf Coast fishermen stranded on their docks, and we’ve seen maps estimating that oil could reach as far north as New Jersey before flowing on to Europe.

It’s easy to feel helpless, but we’re not. There is something you can do right now to help stop the spill: BOYCOTT BP. Go inside for Pledge to Boycott BP.

Progressives and environmentalists all over San Diego County are being urged to send emails and letters to stop the movement toward creating a North County landfill in Gregory Canyon. The deadline is June 18th, so we at the OB Rag are urging our readers to send emails out today – June 17th.

The proposed Gregory Canyon Landfill is an environmental disaster in the making and would ruin sacred Native American lands.

For about one week, we asked our readers what they thought the Federal government should do about BP – British Petroleum – the oil company responsible for the worst American environmental disaster in history.

With our readers’ progressive bent, we were not surprised with the results. Three-quarters of our respondents either want the Feds to begin criminal prosecution of BP – 61%, or nationalize it (or at least their American holdings) – 15%. Another 5% asked what would we take BP over with? (This was a reader answer and I’m not certain what they meant.)

On the other side, 9% wanted the Feds to allow BP to “finish the job.” Another 9% agreed with GOP candidate for gov in Kentucky (a Tea Party favorite), Rand Paul who made a public statement criticizing President Barack Obama for taking BP to task, and that it was “un-American” to criticize BP.

by Jack Hamlin

A week ago, I saw the article about the “Don’t Feed Our Bums” sticker. I was on my way out the door to conduct three days of restorative justice mediation training which involves methods of collaboration and reconciliation. I have to admit, I was a bit furious about yet another sign of intolerance and hate, and no, my mind has not changed regarding the character of the stickers, but my fury has subsided. After all, as a mediator, neutrality is one of our goals, regardless of personal feelings.

And so rather than enter into the fray on these issues, and there are many here, and adding to the fire, engaging in more community polarization, I decided to take some time and reflect. …

Sunday June, 9th, half a dozen or so volunteers descended on Pescadero Avenue to take part in a joint project between San Diego Food Not Lawns and a local meetup.com group called SD Community Farms and Gardens. Their goal: to help local residents transform their water guzzling grass lawns with sustainable vegetable gardens.

On this Sunday, the group was helping a couple local residents to dig up their lawns and plant an assortment of vegetables. The group provides a great way to get a head start as a homeowner who may be thinking of converting their lawn but lacks the resources or manual labor to begin the process.

by Mike James

Poet and actor S.A. Griffin has just journeyed across America in a gas-sucking Ford Econoline van with his sidekick Elsie. At libraries, coffee shops and bookstores from California to North Carolina, S.A. would wheel Elsie out of the van and sit her in a corner. People were immediately drawn to her beauty, yet they probably felt an underlying apprehension knowing her tumultuous past. Within her they knew was where her redeeming soul resides.

She was not human; she was once a dull gray Cold-War Era military practice bomb, lovingly refurbished into shiny brightly colored receptacle of words.

by Annie Lane / Special to the OB Rag / June 15, 2010

First of Two Parts

The California State Assembly has passed a bill to ban single-use plastic bags. The next stop is the State Senate where, if passed, the ban would prohibit all supermarkets, retail pharmacies and convenience stores from distributing the bags at the point of sale. The ban would come into effect as early as January 2012.

The State Senate is set to vote on the ban no later than mid-July, …

The Union-Tribune has finally discovered that a film crew has been filming in OB for the past umpteen weeks. On today’s (6-15-10) front page is an article entitled, “TV discovers a San Diego star: O.B.”, with some cool observations and comments from the television stars and producers themselves, plus the OB Rag is mentioned along with some of our gnarly commenters.

Here are some great quotes – the first by actor Raymond-James:

“Ocean Beach has become a character in the show that is just as big, if not bigger, than Donal and I. There is a bit of a scruffiness and scrappiness about our characters that fits right into O.B.”

by Jeannette De Wyze /Travels in San Diego / June 14th, 2010

Given how much San Diego has changed in the 36 years I’ve lived here, it warms my heart when I run across something that seems timeless. Case in point: the current flap roiling Ocean Beach, which I’ve been following in the always-entertaining OB Rag blog. At issue is a $2.50 sticker that’s been sold for about three weeks at The Black, the community’s venerable head shop/novelty store. Displaying the silhouetted imaged of a Depression-era hobo and his dog, the sticker recalls California state park messages not to feed the bears. Only it instead directs OB visitors not to “feed our bums.”

by Randy Dotinga / Voice of San Diego / Originally posted June 2, 2010

There’s a funny thing about the San Diego anti-nudity law that’s in the news this week: It used to actually allow people to be naked in public. But only at Black’s Beach, the country’s only city-sanctioned nude beach and only for a while.

Then city voters had their say in 1977 and told folks to cover up already, thank you very much. But 33 years later, beachgoers still flaunt the law and rarely get in trouble for it.