OB Rag

Hugo’s Cocina
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., Suite H
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-892-7882

By Judi Curry

With the advent of the COVID-19 virus, many restaurants are having to change their menus, eliminate their buffets, and still attract diners. There are some big changes coming to “Hugo’s”.

Before I begin with the changes, I want everyone to know that take out service, using the old menu, is still available. There is no more eating inside, but takeout is still available. I also want to let you know that they do not know for certain when the “new” restaurant will open. They are waiting for the health inspection giving them the “go-ahead.”

All the refrigerators and freezers are hooked up. Right now it is just a waiting game.

So for the changes: It will now be known as “La Fruteria Y Panaderia De Hugo’s Cocina.”

The “Panaderia” will be selling assorted Mexican Bread, cakes and slices of cake, (11 varieties!)

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.

George Floyd, the Minneapolis African-American man who told police, “I can’t breathe” multiple times while former Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on his neck for over 8 minutes before he died, has joined our country’s history, as the latest victim in a lynching of a Black man. But Floyd joins our history at a devastating moment.

It was announced this week that 100,000 Americans have now died due to COVID-19.

Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop – who was caught on a passerby’s phone appearing to have a depraved disregard for Floyd’s life as it drained away before our eyes and the millions around the world who have now seen the video – has been arrested as of today for third-degree murder after parts of Minneapolis – including a police precinct station – burned last night.

The 100,000 Americans who have died in just 4 months,

More COVID-19 Thoughts for These Past Weeks

By Steve Zivolich

The morbidly obese, with a heart condition, in my elder at risk group, liar in chief, wants us to take hydroxychloroquine, mmmmm well, think I will wait for the science.

Pretty cool, due to working at home, I don’t have to wear pants to work.

Just saw a hog farmer say she was distraught about having to euthanize her stock that she cannot sell. Well, what does she think happens when she sells it to the slaughter house? Pass the faken bacon.

Fairouz Restaurant and Gallery
3166 Midway Drive #102
San Diego, CA 92107
619-225-0308

By Judi Curry

One of my very favorite restaurants is going to have their Grand Re-Opening on Monday, June 1st. I am so excited! I met with Al Nashashibi this afternoon and was pleased to see the changes that will be taking place, the new paint, and the concern for maintaining safe distances for the diners.

First of all, something that will change the place entirely is the absence of the buffet. With the new Covet-19 rules in place, it is impossible to still have a buffet and be safe. Tables and chairs will be placed strategically in the area where the buffet used to be.

By Roberto ‘Rob’ Camacho

After closing to the public nearly two months ago, Beat Box Records, located on Logan Avenue in the middle of Barrio Logan’s cultural district is re-opening its doors with modified hours for weekend curbside pickups – as the state loosens restrictions on businesses throughout California.

Since first opening its doors in 2015, Beat Box Records has served as one of San Diego’s premier record shops. Stocked with vintage Funk, Soul, Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Oldies records/cassettes, the shop has gained the reputation of carrying rare and obscure music difficult to find anywhere else in the city.

by Ernie McCray

I’ve been getting a few memes on my Facebook feed kind of around the theme that “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.”

Such a sentiment makes me shudder as people right now, who are way overburdened with a situation brought on by a deadly virus, are dying left and right all around us and all around the world.

I’m not religious but I was raised in a home with people who were religious to the bone, two of the truest Christians I’ve ever known: my mother, a soulful gospel piano playing woman who played for our church’s choir, and her father, my grandfather, a man who had sailed several seas and honored his Lord as easily as he breathed.

But their faith was reflected, less on cutesy Bible verses and the like, and more on just being respectful of their fellow human beings and giving way more than they received.