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Because People Mater
Progressive News and Views November / December 2008
Inside this issue:
Editorial.2Social.Studies.Famiy.Style.2Giving.That.Helps.Others.2Too.Big.To.Fail.3 Male.Violence,.Financial.Terrorism.3Kuehl.on.Schwarzenegger.4
Working Harder, Geing Nowhere
.4Georgia.on.My.Mind.5Peter.Camejo.Remembered.7
El Porvenir—Water for Nicaragua
.8
Sacramento NOW
.8
Gimme Shelter—Aordable Housing
.9Free.Gaza.Movement.10Trends.in.the.Media.Marketplace.10
Nuclear Weapons Policy
.11Peace.Arts.Xchange.11Sacramento.Area.Peace.Action.12Global.Warming.13Book.Review:.Fidel.Castro,.My.Life.14Something.Fishy.at.McClellan.14Calendar.15Progressive.Media.16
By Paula Lomazzi and Patsy Byers
Relocalize Sacramento! is an imperative, and it’s alsothe name o a grassroots group in Sacramento that’s parto the movement away rom globalization and towards amore rational and rewarding use o energy and other resources. Relo-calization promotes the local pro-duction o ood, energy, services,and goods, to meet primarily localneeds. It strengthens a community’seconomic and ood security by making that community moresel-reliant and less dependenton dwindling oil supplies. It alsostrengthens “community” and the sense o “belonging”to the place where you live. It is a global movement thatis neither nostalgic nor isolationist. So very much o oureveryday lives depends on material inputs rom outsideour region (such as chemicals that are used to puriy oureveryday drinking water), and so much o our by-prod-ucts and reuse is shipped away to become someone else’sproblem or prot (such as landll “waste” trucked toNevada and recyclable paper going to China). We needto close the loops!Relocalize Sacramento! was ormed in June o 2003.We started by educating ourselves more about ourlocal resources and our region’s reliance on non-localinputs. We had a water study group to explore this mostbasic o all our survival needs, with eld trips to a waterintake acility and our region’s wastewater treatmentplant. We have hosted a series o Eat Local Potluckswith guest speakers on sustainability, sharing deliciousstu rom the Sacramento “oodshed.” At the last twoEarth Day celebrations, we’ve had a table o ree ruitand vegetable “starts,” hoping to encourage recipientsto grow some o their own, and we also gave away “StopJunk Mail” postcard packets andthe notorious Sacramento seedballs (like the ones made o clay andcompost in a workshop on alterna-tives to biotech and corporate oodproduction during the 2003 Agri-cultural Ministerial conerence, andthen conscated as potential ter-rorist projectiles by the SacramentoPolice Department).We have become a local voice or local action. We needmore actual action and more people to act. We all mustadjust our lives to the new paradigm orced on us duringthis very unique decade in human history. Please join usin this endeavor, either by recommitting yoursel to morestringent conservation, recycling, and encouraging oth-ers, or by joining our group or our activities.We meet regularly on the rst Sunday evening o each month. Keep abreast o our activities with ourwebsite:
www.relocalizesacramento.org
. You can alsoparticipate in our online projects via our wiki:
www.relocalizesacramento.wikispaces.com
, where we seek to educate each other about our most vital systemsand local resources, and maintain a calendar o localsustainability actions and events.
Patsy Byers and Paula Lomazzi are among the ound-ing members o Relocalize Sacramento! who invite you to join them.
By Bob Metcal
Can cardboard, aluminum oil, and a clear plastic bagbe used to cook and bake as well asyour gas/electric stove and oven?I you answered “yes,” you knowabout solar cooking, something I’vedone regularly during Sacramento’ssolar season ever since 1978.I you answered “no,” considerputting solar cooking on your list o things to discover in 2009. You willlearn an amazing, environmentally riendly skill, and youwill also realize why this knowledge needs to be spreadto the 2.5 billion people in sun-rich developing countrieswho are using wood or cooking at a non-sustainablerate, and suering respiratory and eye damage rom thesmoke o res.Te repository o inormation on solar cooking isound with Sacramento’s non-prot organization, SolarCookers International (SCI),ounded in 1987. Initially promot-ing solar box cookers, in 1995 SCIdeveloped the ultra-simple CooKitsolar cooker. With a CooKit, a clearplastic bag replaces glass as theheat-trapping device, and a simplepanel replaces the box.Using a CooKit is simple. Food isplaced inside a darkened, covered pot. Te pot is placedinside a clear plastic bag and set in the center o theCooKit acing the sun. CooKit panels direct sunshinethrough the plastic bag to the dark pot, where light isabsorbed and converted to heat. Te plastic bag trapsmuch o the heat and acilitates cooking most oods in2-3 hours, with no stirring needed during cooking.Remove the pot with hot pads, take o the lid, watchthe steam roll out, and see the perectly solar-cookedood. It’s an experience that continues to delight me evenaer more than 6,000 solar-cooked meals.Because no water is needed or vegetables, ruits, meatand sh that already have plenty o water, solar-cookedoods have a great avor as oods cook in their own juices. Bread and cakes can also be solar-baked with aCooKit.Go to a village in a developing country, and twodaunting challenges ace amilies every day—the lack o wood or cooking, and unsae local water sources. SCI’sCooKit can contribute signicantly to solving both o these problems, as it is doing in SCI’s Kenya projects nearLake Victoria. Heating contaminated water in a CooKitto 65°C pasteurizes it in a manner similar to milk pas-teurization. o veriy that 65°C has been reached, SCIdeveloped a reusable, wax-based water pasteurizationindicator (WAPI) that is included in the project.Villagers also have been taught how to check theirwater sources or contamination by testing or the ecalindicator bacterium,
Escherichia coli
, using two simplemethods I’ve assembled into a Portable Microbiology
Energy Descent? Global Warming?
We need to relocalize, now!
Relocalization promotes the local production o ood,energy, services,and goods, to meet primarily local needs.
Solar Cookers International
Tapping into the sun or cooking inSacramento and worldwide!
…consider putting solar cooking on your list o things todiscover in 2009.
Relocalize Sacramento!
members inside a pipe outsidethe wastewater treatment plant on one o the group’seld trips.
Photo: RelocalizeSacramento!
A
Relocalize Sacramento
! potluck.
Photo: Relocalize Sacramento!
Woman and child with CooKit in Nyakach, Kenya.
Photo: Bob Metcalf
Bob Metcal shows 2004 Nobel Peace Prize WinnerWangari Maathai the Colilert test results rom watertested at the Arican Women and Water Conerence,Nairobi, Kenya, July, 2008.
Photo: Bob Metcalf
See Solar Cooking, page 13
Because People Matter November / December 008
www.bpmnews.org
People Maer
Vlume 17, Numbe 6
Published Bi-Monthly by theSacramento Community forPeace & JusticeP.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816(Use addresses below forcorrespondence)
Ediial Gup:
JacquelineDiaz, JoAnn Fuller, CharleneJones, Jeanie Keltner, RickNadeau
Cdinaing Edis fis Issue:
Jacqueline Diazand JoAnn Fuller
Design and Lau:
Ellen Schwartz
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Chris Bond
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is an all-volunteer endeavor to presentalternative, progressive newsand views in Sacramento. Weinvite and welcome your re-sponses. To discuss a proposedarticle, or help distribute thepaper, inquire about ad rates,or help out in some other way,call or write using the phonenumber and address listed un-der ”How to Reach Us” above.Please reproduce from any of the written contents, but docredit the author and BPM.Printed at Herald Printing byGraphics Communication UnionDC2 pressmen.
because
Editorial
On the cover
A Tulsi Solar Box Cooker beingused in Washington, DC tocook pizza. See story on SolarCookers on page 1
Photo: Karyn Ellis
Jacqueline Diaz and JoAnn Fuller, Co-coordinating Editors for this issue
We appreciate your support! Please fll out this orm and mail to:
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Learn the true news and thenTeach Peace
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thewebsite o the same-named organiza-tion in Davis. I you’re a teacher, you’llbe especially interested in their materi-als or teaching peace to people o allages. But here we want to point out thesite’s other extensive resources. Alongwith important articles rom the worldpress on crucial topics in the news (likeRussia, Georgia and Ossetia), there isalso an extensive library o all the latestpolitical documentaries to watch with aclick o your mouse.
Put Your MoneyWhere Your Mouth Is
Gift-giving that helps othersand the environment
By Dorothy L. Wake
UNICEF
(United Nations Children’s Fund)—
www.uniceusa.org/shop
Heier International
—
www.heier.org
;Works with communities worldwide to endhunger and poverty and care or the earththrough gis and training that moves amilies tosel-reliance.
Sierra Club
—
www.sierraclub.org/store
MADRE
—international women’s human rightsorganization.
www.madre.org
.
The Breast Cancer Site
—
www.thebreastcancersite.com
The Hunger Site
—
www.thehungersite.com
The Rainorest Site
–
www.therainorestsite.com
The Animal Rescue Site
–
www.theanimalrescuesite.com
; great gis orkids, including nger puppets
Note:
You can sign up or daily reminders toclick onto the last our sites to help und mam-mograms or women in need, to help eed thehungry, to help preserve rainorests around theworld, and to help care or rescued animals livingin shelters or sanctuaries.
Want your git-giving to help locally?
Make donations to local organizations such asood banks, Sacramento Children’s Home, andWEAVE in the names o those you are giing.Many organizations send cards inorming peoplethat donations have been made in their names.And you can visit your local post oce to ask about participating in Operation Santa Claus,which is a great way or amilies or work placesto collectively contribute to kids in need. Happy Holidays!We homeschool our daughters. Tere were many reasons that led to this choice, but none thatreally had to do with disliking school. I attended,beneted and sometimes enjoyed my publicschool experience. My husband’s experiencewas similar. Yet when we weighed the possibleschooling options or our kids, continuing todirectly support our daughters’ learning beyondthe time they grew to “school age” seemed likethe best option or our amily. And so ar, we arehaving a great time.Many people think o homeschoolers and pic-ture kids sitting at the kitchen table with work-books, or think o homeschoolers as deprived o social interaction. Certainly there must be someamilies who are doing lots o workbooks or whowould just rather hang at home, but in our com-munity there are many more amilies who are outall the time, avoring experiential learning overworkbooks.My daughter also takes classes with otherhomeschoolers sometimes, and this is how Idiscovered that there is one thing that bugsme about traditional school—social studies.I realized this when my daughter and I werethinking over classes or her to take and I beganto begrudgingly read the descriptions or thesocial studies ones so she could decide betweenclasses in various disciplines. Tese social studiesclasses all seemed ne, but I was concerned aboutperspective. Whose version o history would my daughter be studying?I just didn’t like the idea, and thankully, shedidn’t pick a social studies class this year. Nev-ertheless, this experience gave me ashbacks o years o schooling where I wondered i I wouldever hear anything about mysel as a Chicana ando being the only kid on the le side o the debatein my less-than-diverse classes. But quickly I letout a sigh o relie, thankul to be homeschooling.Our social studies plan while our daughtersare still young is to share historical, culturaland political inormation and experiences withthem. We won’t be plotting out goals or pullingor them to make specic discoveries throughcritical thinking, but I can’t say they’ll go withoutbias—without experiencing our own perspectiveon things (which is what most school social stud-ies classes pretend to do).Our hope is that as they get older, they’ll con-tinue to choose their own readings and gureout or themselves what seems most plausibleor “real” to them. Until then, I’d just as soonskip getting to see them in cute little pilgrim orIndian outts in a Tanksgiving play or recitingthe “story” o Plymouth Rock. Instead, this yearour Tanksgiving plan is to participate in the“Indigenous People’s Sunrise Gathering” at Alca-traz, commemorating the island’s occupation by American Indian activists in 1969. Luckily, youdon’t have to be a homeschooler to join us. Go to
www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/sunrise-gathering.aspx
.
Jacqueline Diaz is a mother, teacher and poet living in Sacramento.
Te editors or this issue o BPM invite youto read about the important issues o the day ascovered by olks who live and work in Sacramen-to. Despair about global warming? Be inspiredby the work o Solar Cookers International, andothers who are working rom here to make liebetter everywhere. Need some good news aboutthe uture o nuclear weapons? We have it. Won-der what happened to the pollution at the ormerMcClellan base? Here’s an update. Conusedabout the coverage on the ghting in Georgia?We include inormation and places to get moreinormation.Our writers cover many o the important issueso the day, rom healthcare to the nancial crisisto housing—all rom an alternative and progres-sive point o view, as usual. But we don’t stopthere, we also tell you who is working on theseissues locally and how you can get involved!Plus we list ideas or where to buy your holiday
Social Studies, Family Style
No pilgrim costumes for this family!
By Jacqueline Diaz
gis, such as the locally produced PAX peacecalendar or a “CooKit” solar stove.Don’t orget, this paper is built on the volunteereorts o many olks. We need olks to write,edit, and deliver the paper. Or you could help by introducing others to BPM with a gi subscrip-tion—only $20 a year!Coordinating Editors,Jacqueline Diaz and JoAnn Fuller
Make a Holiday Contribution to BPM
Mail donations to P.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816
Help sustain local, progressive print media!
Got time? Because People Matter is always in needo distributors and other volunteers. Please emailbpmnews@nicetechnology.com or call Paulette at422-1787 or more inormation.
www.bpmnews.org
November / December 008 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER
By Roger White
O
ne question that hasn’t been asked muchabout the current nancial crisis thatcould turn into a depression is who hasmore o a moral claim on public dollars? Strug-gling single moms on welare? Or corporatebanking titans whohave been deemed“too big to ail” by Wall Street “analysts”and corporatists inWashington?Looking at theheadlines over the lastew months about thebailouts on Wall Streetbrought me back to1995 and the debateover welare reorm. Back then, we heard a loto talk about dependency, the irresponsible lie-styles o single mothers on public assistance andthe sanctity o “middle class values.”While much o this talk came rom the con-servative establishment, it was a Democraticpresident along with a signicant number o Democrats in Congress that made the passageo so-called welare reorm possible. In that casethe political class had come to a broad consen-sus—the days o big government were over (atleast in service o the poor) and rom now on
…it would take about 35 years o aid to poor olk onwelare to match what just this installment o Bush’sbailout o Wall Street will cost taxpayers”
Who’s Too Big To Fail?
Corporate welare vs. poor people’s welare
A
midst the worst nancial crises in UShistory, I recalled a book by June Ste-phensen, Ph.D., published in 1991,
Men Are Not Cost-Eective
. Dr. Stephensen, a researchpsychologist and author o many other books,demonstrates how“men are bankruptingour country.”Stevenson nearly two decades ago setthe annual cost o male violence—everythingrom murder to “whitecollar” crimes—at $300billion. Now, update that gure (undoubtedly threeold) and add what ended up being over$800 billion the middle class is being orced to“pony up” to bail out Wall Street and pay or deal“sweeteners”—a bag ull o goodies ranging romtax breaks or NASCAR racetracks to children’swooden arrow makers. In an attempt to makethis bailout more palatable to Main Street, “con-cessions” were made by lawmakers. For example,we will get shares in these “toxic assets” thatthe rich need to quickly dump and the FederalDeposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) willraise the insurance on our savings to $250,000.(How many readers have $250K in the bank?)Many don’t realize that the FDIC has up to 10years to pay up on that insurance. Te taxpayer“sugar daddies” and “sugar mommies” can nolonger aord these “kept men”—predators o allstripes, rom the Wall Street big boys, to the menentrenched in warare, to the common thugs whoare raping, murdering, robbing, and plundering.Bush’s monstrous bailout plan gives broadauthority and a blank check to the tune o $700billion to unelected appointee reasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., raising the national debt to$11.3 trillion. Additionally, Bush demanded thatthe program be shielded rom judicial review.Interestingly, according to Hungtonpost.com(“China’s Investment House,” 12/13/2007), China“purchased $700 billion in US long-term assets.A huge and growing category o purchase hasbeen the agency bond. Tese are bonds made o
Male Violence, Financial errorism
Taxpayer “sugar daddies,” “sugar mommies” askedto bail out “kept men” of Wall StreetBy Dorothy L. Wake
“…a ew members wereeven told that there would be martial law in Americai we vote ‘no.’”—Rep. Brad Sherman, D-CA.
See Bailout, page 6
those seeking government help would be madeto work, and would be stripped o their privacy and labor rights. Essentially, they would be madewards o the state in exchange or the $300 or sodollars they received every month. Tese peopleweren’t like “us” andreally didn’t deserveour compassion orsupport. Tey were“too small to matter,”so to speak. Why worry about them?Now, when corporatebanks and investmenthouses started drop-ping like ies andlooking or handouts,bailouts, “debt packages” and other congura-tions o tax-payer monies in the late summer o 2008, the talk coming rom the responsible olkswas quite dierent. Instead o hearing about thedepravities o a permanent over-class that hasgrown dependent on government contracts,tax subsidies, and, when needed, bailouts, wewere told by people like Henry Paulson and BenBernanke that companies like AIG and BearStearns (etc.) were just too important to be leto the vagaries o the market and that the $700billion was a rescue, not a bailout. Te nationally syndicated conservative talk show host HughHewitt said it best, “Sure, we’re in avor o the reemarket—except when we’re against it!”O course, the conservative House Republicansand progressive House Democrats who votedagainst the bailout were immediately admonishedby olks like the moderate Republican politicalcommentator and proessional political classsuperego David Gergan to “grow up,” but theirarguments or being against the bailout werenever seriously engaged. Instead, we all were eda steady diet o ear o what might happen i wedidn’t hand out public dollars to the rich. Eventu-ally the propaganda campaign worked, and theHouse voted in avor o the bailout. Whew. Tatsaved the day. Now we can sleep at night, right?In all, the ederal government spends about$20 billion each year on the emporary Aid toFamilies with Children program. Tat’s $20 bil-lion or poor, single women with children eachyear compared with $700 billion or rich corpora-tions and their stockholders or now. Put anotherway, it would take about 35 years o aid to poorolk on welare to match what just this install-ment o Bush’s bailout o Wall Street will costtaxpayers.And when we actually compare what singlemothers who are permitted to stay home with
See Corporate Welare page 6
loans—oen home mortgage loans—soldto government sponsored enterprises, oragencies, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.In other words, they are US mortgages.” Isit just a coincidence that the current bailoutamount is theexact amount o China’s purchaseo mortgageloans? Answer:Probably not.It’s reasonableto surmise thatthe US wouldwant to cover China’s “purchase gone bad”in order to continue receiving loans romthem to und the Iraq war.US Senator Bernie Sanders (D-V)argued or an alternative plan to cope with thecollapse o nancial institutions. Putting MainStreet beore Wall Street, the plan includedimposing a surtax on the wealthiest 400 US am-ilies that garnered a $670 billion increase in theirwealth since President Bush has been in oce.Sanders and others argued that the middle class,whose standard o living has declined, shouldnot be paying or these bailouts. Additionally,Sanders called or stronger oversight o nancialinstitutions and an end to Bush’s deregulationpolicies; a break up o huge businesses, likeBank o America, that are swallowing up otherlarge corporations; and an immediate economicstimulus package which would put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling inrastructureand moving us to energy eciency and sustain-able energy. But unlike Sanders, most lawmakerschose to “sell out” Main Street to prot WallStreet.I would have added to Sanders plan: Nochance or these criminals to receive “goldenparachutes,” obscene buyouts, or any other bene-ts. Rather, charge these nancial terrorists withcrimes—everything rom domestic terrorismagainst the people to raud to inuence peddling
Man who requested anonymity protesting the $700 billion-plus bailout onOctober 6 at the corner o Fruitridge Rd. and Freeport Blvd.
Photo by Dorothy L. Wake
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