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Because People Mater
Progressive News and Views May / June 2007
Inside this issue:
Editorial.2BPM.in.Utne.Reader.2Virginia.Tech.Shootings.2Health.Care.for.All.3Impeachment.3 American.World.Service.Corps.4Poem:.Unclean.4Cucapa.peace.camp.in.Mexico.5Peace.in.the.Precincts.6Poem:.Painting.in.the.Mail.6Local.media.7Film.Review:.Salud!7SCUSD.School.closings.8School.segregation.returns.8WMIs.found.at.CSUS.9CSUS.Faculty.Referendum9Book:.Conservative.Nanny.State.10Book:.Working.Toward.Whiteness.10 Media.Clipped.11 Air.America.Gone.12 Jailed.grandmother.12Peace.Action.13 Middle.East.Milestones?.14Calendar.15
By Jeanie Keltner
As so often, it’s the good news and thebad news.
Te bad news is that BPM almost had a nancialmeltdown. Facing the ull court press o the Bushiesand their endless wars on people and the law, we got socaught up doing the news that we didn’t do the money enough. We were like the rog in the pot on the stove,almost boiled by imperceptibly rising printing and mail-ing costs.I say almost because many o BPM’s core supporterscame through and helped us jump out o the deadly pot.Teir generosity created the cushion that gives us time toget the 300 NEW SUBSCRIPIONS that will restore usto nancial health.
CAN WE DO IT?
I eel certain now that readers are alerted to BPM ‘s$$ situation, you will respond. Maybe you’ve just takenus or granted (or or granite, as a student once wrote).However, aced with the possibility o losing BPM, Ibelieve even olks who don’t ordinarily think o them-selves as nancial supporters will see that that $20 bill-which might buy a CD or a movie and a big popcorn-cango a lot arther and deeper i it keeps BPM on the streetsbringing more people the crucial news that the big mediaignores or distorts.You can pick up the paper or ree o course. Butwe need you to subscribe. Because BPM doesn’t justpreach to the choir. Our biggest brag and our primary ocus is the boxes and racks and stacks o FREE BPM saround town (and in libraries and prisons too). For thelast 15 years, amazingly, a ew hundred subscribers haveenabled BPM to put out 15–18,000 papers every twomonths—to reach olks who’ve been turned o to politicsby the triviality, shallowness, distortions, disinormationand outright lies o the corporate media-and to presentways to engage and get involved.o inspire maximum generosity, I want to pass onsome very good news that shows the power and impor-tance o independent media—all those little outletsscrabbled together by groups and individuals on theirown time—and oen on their own dime, too.Aer 9-11 when Bush rst declared eternal war, Iknew his high poll numbers were temporary. I knewnone o us who were meeting during those raught daysto try to stop the oncoming disaster would go over to theBush side. And I also knew that many rom the pro-warside would come to join us. Even at those rst post-9-11 vigils at 16th and J, with cars sliding by in silent, dark hostility, I knew that the day would come when we’dstand with our signs amid a constant blare o honks orpeace. And it has! It was a matter o getting the ino out.Te people o this country have turned prooundly against the war. And it’s certainly not rom any inothey’ve gotten rom the big corporate media. Tis hugeshi against the war was created by persistent and some-times heroic actions by many thousands o activists—and by the independent people’s media—like BPM—thatput their stories out. (And o course the worldwide web,which connected us all.)
But there’s even better news.
Te English visionary, William Blake, wrote, “Younever know what is enough until you know what is morethan enough.” I’ve hoped rom the start that the Bushregime’s bald-aced lies, distortions, and billion dollarcorruptions are so over the top that people would seethrough not only this war but war in general.And that, too, has happened.In spite o the best military propaganda system inhistory-a corporate media which enthusiastically backedthe war and ignored dissenting voices and the peacemovement rom the start, people now say overwhelm-ingly that war is not the answer.Public Agenda’s study,
Anguish Over Iraq ShakesPublic’s Faith in Military Solutions
, probes much deeperthan typical polls, examining core belies about America’srole in the world. In a list o proposals or strengtheningour nation’s security, “attacking countries that developweapons o mass destruction” ranked at the very bottom(17%)—compared to 63% or improving intelligenceoperations and 55% or becoming less energy dependent.Eighty-two percent say the world has become moredangerous or the US and its people, and 70% say the UShas been too quick to resort to war. On ghting terror-ism, 67% say we should emphasize more diplomatic andeconomic methods, while only 27% call or more mili-tary eort. In dealing with Iran, or example, support orpossible military action is in the single digits—8% (
www. publicagenda.org/CFPI4
).Tis is an amazing shi in the public mind, andBPM is part o the independent inormation web o peo-ple’s media that has enabled it . BPM is an all-volunteeroperation. Te paper is almost completely written, puttogether, and put out or ree—and we’re happy to do it.Printing and mailing costs up to now have been coveredby subs, donations, ads, and undraisers.
With 300 NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS BPM ‘s pres-ent and future will be assured. Won’t you help?
It’s true, 300 sounds like a lot. But just since I startedthis piece I’ve run into our people who took out sub-scriptions on the spot—two with generous additionalgis! So that’s only 296 to go! Help us! Especially now atthis critical time. Media is everything; it’s what createsthe public mind (and heart); as well as the very reality o the world in the public mind.Without true ino there’s no democracy.Keep BPM going: to borrow KPFA radio’s slogan, it’snews you can use or a change!
Jeanie Keltner is BPM editor at-large.
If you want BPM to SURVIVE and THRIVE, you need to SUBSCRIBE!!
“This huge shit against the war was created by persistent and sometimes heroic actionsby many thousands o activists—and by theindependent people’smedia—like BPM—that put their stories out.”
We appreciate your support! Please fll out the orm and mail to:
BPM, 403 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
This is a great paper! I’ll gladly subscribe or a mere $20
.
WOW! You sound desperate! I’m enclosing $ extra tohelp out!
This is my opportunity to break into journalism and help get thetruth out! I’ll help: Writing, Editing, Distributing,Prooreading, Anything!
Name .......................................................................................................................Address ...................................................................................................................City .............................. Zip ....................... Phone .................................................Email .......................................................................................................................
Help keep BPM on the streets: Subscribe today! With a small number o subscribers, we’ve been reaching 15,000readers, including mailing ree copies to prisoners around the country.We need 300 new subscribers to keep doing it. (Ooops! We’re also raisingour subscription price or the rst time in 15 years. But remember, you’re helping make BPM available to dozens o other readers, all over Sacramento, and rom Chico to Nevada City.)I you’re pencil-challenged, email us: bpmnews@nicetechnology.com . See pages 4, 10 and 16 or additional volunteer opportunities.
Because People Matter May / June 007
www.bpmnews.org
People Mater
Vlume 16, Numbe 3
Published Bi-Monthly by theSacramento Community for Peace & JusticeP.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816(Use addresses below for correspondence)
Ediial Gup:
JacquelineDiaz, JoAnn Fuller, SethSandronsky
Cdinaing Edi fis Issue:
Seth Sandronsky
Edi-a-Lage:
JeanieKeltner
Design and Lau:
Ellen Schwartz
Calenda Edi:
Chris Bond
Adveising and BusinessManage:
Edwina White
Disibuin Manage:
Paulette Cuilla
Subscipin Manage:
Kate Kennedy
How to ReacH Us:
Subscriptions, letters, punditry:403 21st StreetSacramento, CA 95814444-3203 Ads or other business:446-2844 All e-mail correspondence:bpmnews@nicetechnology.com
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For the July/Aug., 2007 Issue: Articles: June 1, 2007Calendar Items: June. 10,2007Cultural events welcome!For details, see our newwebsite,
www.bpmnews.org
BecaUse peopLe MatteR
is an all-volunteer endeavor to presentalternative, progressive newsand views in Sacramento.We invite and welcomeyour responses. To discussa proposed article, or helpdistribute the paper, inquireabout ad rates, or help out insome other way, call or writeusing the phone number andaddress listed under ”How toReach Us” above.Please reproduce from any of the written contents, but docredit the author and BPM.BPM is printed by Herburger Publications, Inc. 585-5533.
because
Editorial
On the cover
Consumer AdvocateRalph Nader and BPMEditor Jeanie Keltner pose with a copy of our paper. Academy Award-winning documen-tary filmmaker MichaelMoore and author andbroadcast journalist AmyGoodman (DemocracyNow!) can count onBPM and our readers toget the truth out.
Seth Sandronsky, Coordinating Editor for This Issue
Mental illness and violence
By Ralph E. Nelson Jr., MD
he National Alliance on Mental IllnessCaliornia extends its sympathy to all theamilies who have lost loved ones in theterrible tragedy at Virginia ech. NAMI Calior-nia is a grassroots organization o amilies andindividuals whose lives have been aected by serious mental illness. We understand the needor compassion and support in times o mourn-ing ollowing any tragedy and loss.When senseless acts o violence occur in oursociety, it allows all o us time or reection onthe nature o mental illnesses—what they are andwhat they are not— with regard to symptoms,treatment and risks o violence. In our experi-ence, most people with a serious mental illnessare more oen the victims o violence ratherthan perpetrators. Tis is borne out by consistentresearch ndings by the US Surgeon General andNational Institute o Mental Health (NIMH).NIMH researchers ound that the odds o violence are oen governed by actors other thanpsychotic symptoms. For example, violence wasassociated with young individuals who havebeen victimized, physically or sexually; or haveco-occurring substance abuse. News reports state
Schools and Students
that Seung-Hui Cho,the shooter at Vir-ginia ech, had beenrequently bullied by others or his oreignheritage, his shyness,his speech and Englishlanguage difculties.Ultimately, noone may be able tounderstand the motiva-tions and actions o someone who commitspremeditated murder. More importantly, wemust as a community continue to understandthe needs o people who have been victims inthe past and to ensure that those with seriousmental illness receive proper care in a time whenservices or them are being eliminated all aroundus. Tis includes both voluntary and involuntary services and supports when they are needed,whether or not the mentally ill individual realizesthe necessity. Many cases similar to this one havethe common pattern o “no ollow-up” care aerhospitalization.We advocate or lives o quality and respect,without discrimination and stigma, and weadvance education and support or amilies whobravely continue their lives in the ace o greatly
Responding to the Virginia Tech Shootings
misunderstood mentalillnesses and braindiseases.It is our mission toensure the acts con-cerning the connec-tion between mentalillness and violence areostered with accuracy with the Americanpublic. Ultimately thetreatment and care ormentally ill individu-als depends on it. Tis can be a matter o lie anddeath.
Ralph E. Nelson Jr., MD is president of NAMI California.
Sources:
US Surgeon General’s Report on Men-tal Health (1999)
www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth.
National Institute o Mental Health (2006)
www.nimh.nih.gov/press/schizophreniaviolence.cfm.
Contact Annie Breault Darling, advocateor oenders with mental illness at
breault55@ yahoo.com
or 821-4165.
A
re you a regular or occa-sional reader o
BecausePeople Matter
? And whatdo you think o this all-volunteerpaper? Your replies matter tous who produce and distributeSacramento’s progressive paper. By progressive Imean the view that policies must rst and ore-most meet all people’s basic needs in health care, jobs, schools and other areas o lie.Speaking o needs, what are BPM’s? First, weneed readers. And as you read in Jeanie Keltner’sront-page appeal, we ace a money problem.O course BPM is not alone there. Many youngadults, the so-called “Generation Next” betweenthe ages o 18 and 25, scramble to make endsmeet on their paychecks.Te majority o this new generation alsoattends publicschools, as dothe vast bulk o youth under theage o 18. Whatchallenges dostudents ace in public schools, and why? Tecenter spread o the paper ocuses on parts o thiseducation situation.Heidi McLean looks at the closing o neigh-borhood schools in the capital city. A mother o two and spokesperson or the Sacramento Coali-tion to Save Public Education, her inormativearticle is a must-read. Paolo Bassi analyzes schoolsegregation in Sacramento and around the US.A local attorney, he sheds light on the whys andwhereores o this trend. Je Lustig, a proessor o government at CSU Sacramento, has a unny takeon a serious matter in higher education. Hint:high-tech learning is less than meets the eye. Inan April reerendum, nearly our o every veCSUS aculty who voted expressed no condencein school President Gonzalez. Proessor o sociol-ogy Kevin Wehr explains why.As always, BPM brings you a mix o progres-sive articles by local writers on Sacramento, Cali-ornia, US and world aairs. We also have poetry,and book and lm reviews or your readingenjoyment. And don’t orget BPM’s calendar pageo upcoming local events in May and June.On behal o the people who bring you thepaper every two months, please send a BPM sub-scription or three to co-workers, amily membersor riends. Tey just might like to read such newsand views. Onward.
Seth Sandronsky is a BPM co-editor.
“What challenges do students ace in public schools, and why?”
By Charlene Jones
B
ecause People Matter
made the shel at
Utne Magazine
in March this year. Notedor its love o the best in independentmedia, the le-leaning bimonthly publicationkeeps a watchul eye on the American social andpolitical landscape as a leading digest o alterna-tive news and reviews. On March 16, it chose tohighlight Sacramento’s all volunteer community newspaper in “From the Stacks,” the magazine’sweekly Web page le o notable publications thatland in Utne’s library rom around the country.Listed in the company o
Foreign Policy
magazine, a multilingual literary journal andthe
Ozarks Mountaineer
, BPM’s March/Aprilissue was described as a progressive newsletterrom the Sacramento community or peace and justice, dealing largely with eminist issues. Whilenot necessarily ocused on a eminist agenda—though peace and social justice struggles havelong been shouldered by women—BPM honoredMarch’s Women’s History Month by eaturingarticles on topics generally characterized by women’s activism. What is particularly pleasingabout Utne’s recognition o this issue o BPMis its citing o articles by Renee D. Covey andAmreet Sandhu, two young contributors, new tothe paper.From a “steady ow o 1,500 magazines,newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines and otherlively dispatches” seldom ound on corporateranchise racks, Utne Magazine recaps publica-tions that present viewpoints missing rom themainstream. Te magazine’s acknowledgmento BPM in an increasingly vibrant landscape o independent media may inspire devotees o alter-native views and news to support Sacramento’sown bimonthly publication.I you read BPM on occasion, consider acontribution to sustaining its ongoing work. I you pick it up routinely, please send in a sub-scription. In the 16th year o publication, BPMcontinues to provide its readers and its commu-nity with progressive thinking, writing, reportingand opinion. Te importance o independentcommunity media only grows. Be a part o it.Visit Utne at
www.utne.com
.
Charlene Jones is a member o the Sacramento Media Group.
BPM on Utne’s E-stand
www.utne.com“When senseless actso violence occur in our society, it allows all o us time or reectionon the nature o mental illnesses—what they areand what they are not.” Subscribe to BPM! Already a subscriber? Buy a subscription toBPM or a riend or amily member! Fill out the coupon on page 1.
www.bpmnews.org
May / June 007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER
SacramentoProgressiveEventsCalendar onthe Web
Labor, Peace,Environment, HumanRights, Solidarity…Send calendar itemsto Gail Ryall,gryall@cwnet.com.
www.sacleft.org
By Jeanie Keltner
S
tate Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s healthcare reormbill, SB 840, passed both houses o theCaliornia Legislature last year, only to be vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Movingagain through the Legislature, this desperately needed bill provides comprehensive medical,dental, vision,hospitalizationand prescrip-tion drug cov-erage to every Caliorniaresident. Tisis made pos-sible througha streamlinedclaims andreimbursement system that saves billions inadministrative costs. With SB 840, Caliorniawill use its purchasing power to negotiate bulk rates or prescription drugs and such medicalequipment as wheelchairs, thus saving additionalbillions.Folks who ear “socialized” medicine shouldnote that SB 840 preserves the status o health-
By om King
L
et’s get this meditation underway by rstthinking o reasons not to impeach Presi-dent George W. Bush and Vice PresidentRichard Cheney.I’ll kick-start with the ones I’ve observed incirculation:It is looking backward when we should bedealing with problems aplenty now acing us.One, with only a slender majority in Con-gress, the Republican resistance could never beovercome.wo, the process would take so long thateven i success were possible, the duo’s term inofce would have ended beore they could berendered accountable.And three in asweeping response to allthis oot-dragging, I’lltreat you to an analogy.A man returns homerom his late shi to ndhis apartment ablaze.Knowing his wie andonly son are inside, heruns toward the inerno,despite a nearby reman’s attempts to stop him.Never mind whether Joe becomes a am-ing casualty or a hero, the point has been made:When enough is at stake in a venture, the oddsagainst simply don’t matter in the decision o whether to act.Tis, we may say, is a principle o nature.Now let us see how it applies to impeachment atthis moment in history.American reporter Sherwood Ross reels o 18 justications or impeachment in his Febru-ary 2007 piece, written or Permalink, entitled,“America! I You Will Not Impeach Tis yrant,Who Will You Impeach?”I pause to choose rom his smorgasbordthe ones I eel are powerully paramount: “or violating ... the International Convention againsttorture; ... or usurping the power to imprisonpeople arbitrarily or indenite periods by mak-ing himsel judge and jury; ... or ... reinitiatinga nuclear arms race in deance o the nucleararms treaty; ... or using illegal weapons againstIraq such as white phosphorus, depleted uraniumammunition and a new type o napalm ... ”But the double-barreled reason that most o us would like these men impeached is or initiat-ing, unprecedented even in our nation’s heinousoreign policy, preemptive warare, and “... violat-ing the Genocide Convention by turning Iraqinto a charnel house ... ”Perhaps those grounds make enough o acase.But I propose to move to the clincher—thelong view o history.Te 17th and 18th centuries were a gestationperiod o great philosophers such as TomasHobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke.While Hobbes viewed the state o nature asone o perpetual war, and wished to disarm men,Rousseau and Locke wished to ree men rominstitutional excesses.But their quest was the same—examining thetheory o social contract,by which mankind sur-renders certain reedomsin exchange or protec-tion rom savagery, managainst himsel. Tey were weighing the poten-tial o civilization, thewager that by adjustingits controls just the rightway, mankind might raise society to a higherstandard than ound in the state o nature.Have we evolved to a more civilized stateo what characterized us at the dawn o history?Many will deny it.Te strongest evidence oered by thesesomber observers is war, and how throughout the20th and 21st century it continues to be used by the strong to exploit the weak, and by the privi-leged to repress the poor.Tis pessimism can be repudiated by a singleboon that emerged rom Western civilization: theconcept o the rule o law. By this is meant theprinciple that governmental authority is legiti-mately exercised only in accordance with written,publicly disclosed and duly sanctioned laws.Certainly those brainy thinkers o the 17thand 18th century did not invent it.At its peak, the ancient city o Athensboasted democracy. Even aer it was enguled by the might-makes-right primitivism o the RomanEmpire, the Athenian ideals survived. Tey werereborn in the visionary enterprise o those wereer to as our Founding Fathers.In the three-century span between theGeorges—George Washington and George W.
Fixing California’s broken healthcare system
SB 840 comes up again
“SB 840 is the only healthcare reorm package now beore lawmakers that includes clear inormationabout how the plan would be paid or.”
Unimpeachable Reasons for Impeachment
Why the wager must match the stakes
“When enough is at stakein a venture, the oddsagainst simply don’t matter in the decision o whether to act.”
Bush—we see the one great and nal wageragainst the savagery that lurks in the heart o man. Te US Constitution introduces the con-cept o checks and balances, embraced by Locke,whereby power might be counterbalanced i notdisarmed.Contrarily, what we presently observe inthese United States is a coup d’etat representinga receding to that primitive condition o human-kind where the “rights o man” are abrogated.Where we nd ourselves in April 2007 is notin a republic, but in a dictatorship. Our Consti-tution is scuttled, no more than a “goddamnedpiece o paper.” Te rule o law is a dead letter.Does anyone suppose that CongresswomanNancy Pelosi’s band-aids will heal us?Shambling somnambulists, we have sleep-walked into enormous damage.In our carelessness we have mislaid thepreciously unique dream that set us apart in allhistory—the experiment o mandating the will o a people. We shall not recover that dream by sim-ply recycling despots in 2008. I we are to restorewhat is lost, we must bring the traitors o the ruleo law to justice, no matter how long it takes.Let us seek impeachment regardless o thetime limits le in the Bush term in the WhiteHouse. For whether Bush and Cheney are heldaccountable in or out o ofce, they are warcriminals: thieves who have stolen our legacy;monsters o such magnitude that i we allowthem to die o natural causes in their beds, ourcowardly complacency must lose us all the chips,terminating or good and all the great wager o our democratic dream.
om King is the leader o the Peace Pyramid, aSacramento suburban grassroots group promoting a cabinet-level Department o Peace.
care providers, hospitals and pharmacies as pri- vate, competitive businesses.A companion bill, SB 1014, details und-ing. SB 840 will draw in current local, county,and state medical care spending and will replaceall premiums, co-pays anddeductibles paid to insurancecompanies with one aordablepremium paid to the system.Why should insurance compa-nies siphon o 25% or so o ourhealth care dollar?“Te angels are in thedetails,” says Senator Kuehl. “SB1014, the unding bill, demon-strates concretely how SB 840really can provide comprehensive coverage toeach Caliornian while guaranteeing our right tochoose our doctors and control costs. Tis is theonly health care reorm proposal out there, withnumbers in black and white, which oers genuineaordability, shared responsibility and consumerempowerment along with quality coverage.”Under this plan, most individuals and busi-nesses that now buy health coverage wouldreceive substantial savings and a higher level o coverage. Full coverage, or everyone, or every-thing, orever, or less payment!It’s not too early to tell the governor you wantSB 840. It will take a ew minutes to get through,but dial 445 2841 extension 2.
Jeanie Keltner is BPM editor at-large.
Place an ad or your businessor nonprot group: Businesscard size ads only $40 (or $30 i run in multiple issues).Call 446-2844 or more ino.
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