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Because People Mater
Progressive News and Views July / August 2009
Inside this issue:
Editorial ....................................................2
Thank you Paulete!
..................................2Pastors for Peace Caravan ........................2 My Story:Time for Single Payer ...............3Support Soapbox .......................................3Derailing Obama’s Health Plan ...............4 Mimic US Capitalism? .............................4Budget Woes SparkDeath Penalty Decline ...........................5Daniel Singer Millennium Essay .............5Fundamentalists in the Military ..............6Confessions of a Conspiracy Theorist .......7Let Progressive Secretary Write For You ..7What To Do With All Those Cucumbers ..8Growing Sacramento’s Future .................8Farms Not ‘Burbs .....................................9Visions of a Nuclear Weapons-FreeWorld ....................................................10Taking a Look at Islam ............................10 Ask A Socially Responsible Therapist ....11Californians Know What To Do .............11No Hope Ending the War on Drugs .......12Death Penalty Focus ...............................12Calderón Failing .....................................13What’s Up With Homeschoolers .............14Calendar ..................................................15
By Meg Johnson
In 2002, when the nonprot Sacramento MutualHousing Association (SMHA) was completing construc-tion o Victory ownhomes in North Sacramento, peoplewould oen stop their cars to inquire as to the cost o thehomes, assuming the attractive buildings were market-rate condominiums. Tey were urther intrigued withthe solar panels on each townhome. Most were shockedto learn that the housing would be orrent, and income restrictions wouldlimit occupancy to very low incomeamilies.In 2002, solar panels were unheardo in rental communities. Victory ownhomes was the rst multiamily development in SMUD’s service area toinstall solar components. In additionto solar panels on the townhomes, thebuilding at the ront which houses alarge community gathering space, oces or organizersand service sta, and a computer learning lab, has a roo with solar roo tiles.Why did the mutual housing association break thebarriers o installing solar energy components in itsaordable development? Why is the association planningnew housing communities that meet high standards orgreen construction? How will they keep rents low andstill incorporate cutting edge green eatures?Te choice at Victory ownhomes was an easy one.Low income people are challenged by meeting their util-ity bills each month. Many elderly residents won’t turnon air conditioning, at great risk to their health, becausethey can’t aord to pay the electric bill.SMUD had a special program that,combined with incentives created by then State reasurer Phil Angelidesunder the Low Income Housing axCredit program, cut the cost o thesolar components by about 50 percent.In the City o Davis, the mutualhousing association owns land uponwhich it plans to build 69 apartmentsor disabled and low-wage households.City leaders are committed to sustainable development.Tere is a city ordinance that creates a minimum greenstandard or all new development. SMHA’s New Harmo-ny housing development will exceed this standard. TeSMHA believes that exceeding the standard will elicitgood will among city residents, something that aord-able housing could use. Te SMHA’s leaders also want topush the envelope to bring down the cost o operations,resident utility bills and add to the sustainability o thelarger Davis community.Te sta o SMHA has had to develop new capacitiesin green building methods and materials. Tey becamemembers o Build it Green, the creator o the GreenPointRating System, and the US Green Building Council, thecreator o the Leadership in Energy and EnvironmentalDesign (LEED) Green Building Rating System. Te twoorganizations provide training, networking and proes-sional certications to advance sustainable developmento commercial and residential acilities.By hiring local architects whose sta are certiedgreen designers, including Cynthia Easton, Bob Kuch-man, and Jim Zanetto, the SMHA’s recent housingdesigns will be models or other developers. Some stepsare no-brainers. Sensitivity to placement o buildings on
By Rachel Iskow
Cecilia’s mom lives in a Sacramento inner-city neigh-borhood lacking a majorgrocery store. She can’t aorda car, and many months, shelacks the money or a bus passto get her to a retail center inanother neighborhood whereproduce is sold. Te local momand pop stores a couple o blocks away rom her apart-ment carry bananas, mostly aging, a ew apples, and per-haps wilting lettuce—this is on a good day. Te cost o this produce in that small shop is double the price oundin conventional grocery stores.Cecilia has heard accusations in the media that low-income moms are not eeding enough ruits and veg-etables to their kids. Tey don’t mention the access issue.Residents o Sacramento’s aging neighborhoods havealways had a problem getting ready access to resh andaordable ruits and vegetables. Last year, AlchemistCommunity Development Corporation (ACDC) andSacramento Mutual Housing Association (SMHA) part-nered to bring Sacramento’s rst urban arm stand to thecommunity o Alkali Flat. Te year prior, residents o Alkali Flat had mourned the loss o their neighborhoodgrocery store. Access to resh produce became an issueo concern. Leaders o ACDC came up with the urbanarmstand concept as a means o providing that access.In Alkali Flat, as in other poor and aging neighbor-hoods, armers perceive there is an insucient market to justiy bringing their produce out or a armers market.Tis is where urban armstands come in. ACDC andSMHA proved that the concept could work in Sacramen-to. Te arm stands ulll two goals. Tey provide accessto resh and aordableproduce and because o theway these two nonprotsdesigned the program, thearm stands build commu-nity. Tey encourage resi-dent interaction by bringingin local musicians, by utiliz-ing volunteers, and oeringchildren’s activities and community organization booths.Unlike armers markets in which armers come tothe people, urban armstands require an intermedi-ary to bring the armers’ produce to the customers. Intheir urban armstands, the two sponsoring nonprotspurchase organic and conventional produce directly rom area armers and turn around and sell the produceweekly at arm stands located in public areas. Tese aretypically public parks or mutual housing communitieswith large open spaces.Volunteers sta the stands, with one paid ACDCemployee coordinating the operations. Trough a grantrom Te Caliornia Wellness Foundation, SMHA pro- vides stipends to neighborhood young people who internin the armstands. Tese youth get training on the dier-ences between conventional and organic produce. Tey also get customer service skills and benet rom positiveinteraction with adults in their neighborhood.Tis year, the SMHA and ACDC arm stands arelocated in both Alkali Flat and Oak Park. Te Oak Park
See Urban Farmstands, page 9
Greening Afordable Housing
Because it just makes sense
The SMHA’s recent housing designswill be models or other developers. Some steps are no-brainers.
Urban Farmstands
Bringing resh produce to low income residents
Residents o Sacramento’s agingneighborhoods have always had a problem getting ready accessto resh and aordable ruitsand vegetables.
New Harmony, a green mutual housingcommunity, is scheduled to startconstruction this winter in Davis.
Image courtesy of Kuchman Architects, rendering by Sawyer Fischer.
See Green housing, page 11
2 Because People Matter July / August 2009
www.bpmnews.org
Editorial Page
On the cover
Farmstands mean fresh, localfood. See stories beginning onpage 1, continuing on 8 and 9.Photo courtesy SMHA.
Muriel Strand, Co-Coordinating Editor for this issue
People Mater
Volume 18, Number 4
Published Bi-Monthly by theSacramento Community forPeace & JusticeP.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816(Use addresses below forcorrespondence)
Editorial Group:
JacquelineDiaz, Jeanie Keltner, JoAnnFuller
Coordinating Editors forthis Issue:
Jacqueline Diaz,Muriel Strand
Design and Layout:
Ellen Schwartz
Calendar Editor:
Chris Bond
Advertising and BusinessManager:
Edwina White
Distribution Managers:
Distribution Manager Emeritus:Paulette Cuilla
Subscription Manager:
Gordon Kennedy
HOW TO REACH US:
Letters, ads or otherbusiness:
bpmnews@nicetechnology.com
HOLD THAT CALENDARITEM!
Please be patient as we switch to our new format. If someonewill volunteer to formatand post calendar items,we'll maintain a communitycalendar. Meanwhile, checkfor peace and justice events atwww.sacpeace.org.
HANG ON TO THATSTORY!
With the new web-basedformat, we can run more timelystories, and readers will beable to comment on them. Wewant your articles, punditry,opinions, comments andletters! But, we won't be able topublish any of it until the newwebsite is set up. Watch for itat www.bpmnews.org.
HAVE SOME A LITTLETIME?
Our new format will requiremuch less time from ourvolunteers than the paperversion. For
Editing
we needpeople who are (mildly)geeky rather than fanaticallygrammatical. Editors willpost articles when they aresubmitted, though it need notbe immediate. No meetings.No deadlines. Articles maybe reviewed for spelling andgrammar errors (or not), butin general the content willbe the responsibility of thewriters.
Distribution
is also transformed: we need people topromote the website, to email their friends, put it on theirFaceBook pages, Twitter aboutit, ask owners of other sites tolink to it, hand out businesscards with our web address.
Can you help?
Call Ellen at916-369-5510 or email bpm-news@nicetechnology.com.
BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER
is anall-volunteer endeavor to pres-ent alternative, progressivenews and views in Sacramento.We invite and welcome yourresponses.Please reproduce from any of the written contents, but
do
credit the author and
BPM
.Printed at Herald Printing byGraphics Communication UnionDC2 pressmen.
because
It’s Not Tat Easy Being Green
How People Matter
As I write my rst BPM editorial, my mindwanders back to when I helped start the Sacra-mento Greens, beore the Green Party, when wemet in Dale Crandall-Bear’s New Society book-store. Why the Greens? Because the integrationo social and ecological sustainability is a key Green principle.A ew years later this newspaper was createdBecause some Sacramentans believe People Mat-ter. People can make a dierence, and peopledeserve consideration rom others.But how much do people matter? Well, we(usually) matter more to ourselves than to eachother, or to other species, let alone to the planet.(Although now what probably matters to the eco-sphere would be recovering rom the inection.)Tere’s no denying that the more people thereare, the less each one matters. Tat’s the reality o diminishing marginal returns, a undamental o economics. Scarcity makes things more valuable,
ceteris paribus
, and abundance can make theminvaluable, like water or air that we generally takeor granted. Excess can turn anything into a nui-sance or a hazard, like plastic trash or corn syrup.So people will matter more i they are in pro-portion, which is another way o saying whensocial and ecological sustainability are in har-mony, when we are living as wewere evolved to live.Ten, ake dilemmas like jobs vs. environment will oolno one. We will realize that ourtrue needs—clean air and water,healthy ood, and shelter—aremore important than jobs ormoney, that money can only buy what’s or sale. Only Mother Earth can provideor our survival; people can simply share.But huge orces oppose ecological and socialharmony. One orce is cheap gasoline. We areaddicted to our oil ‘energy slave,’ who worksor less than 1% o the minimum wage. We arespoiled, hence the petulant comments provokedby higher energy prices. Te ear and anger voiced by many reect our addiction.Te institution o advertising is an underap-preciated and ormidable opponent o the clearthinking and non-attached compassion thatsocial and ecological harmony calls or. Newsmedia’s addiction to advertising income hascontaminated public discourse, and we are somarinated in public relations’s breathless miasmao psycho-social manipulation that the boundar-ies between virtual and reality, between act andction, are ading ast.Another opposing orce is within us. It is the“dominator culture,” a conceptnamed and described by RianeEisler in her book, Te
Chaliceand the Blade
. Te dominatorculture is the centralized, hierar-chical, authoritarian worldviewthat we are all somewhat inectedwith. Tis toxic mindset is, Ibelieve, more undamental thanour ossil uel addiction.So it’s really simple. Do you want to be some-one who matters, who makes a dierence? Tendo unto others as you would have them do untoyou, a policy recommended unanimously by world religions. Put yoursel in other people’sshoes, and don’t be mean. Be kind i possible, butdenitely don’t be mean. Now put yoursel in theshoes o people who look dierent, talk unny,and/or live on the other side o the world, suchas those who are homeless, oreign, reugees, ter-rorists, etc. And also behind the eyes o wolves,mosquitoes, trees and our other nonhuman kin.Tey all have natural and rational reasons ortheir eeling and actions.
hanks to Paulette Cuilla or all her work and years o service. Paulette has been anindispensable help in getting our wordsout! She took on the distribution o
BPM
at atime when our network wasn’t working. Shetook an unorganized distribution concept andsomehow got the paper into the hands o readers.She recruited and organized distributors into anecient team.Not content to let things rest, Paulette strat-egized placement o
BPM
stands and got newstands into new outlets in our communities. Shealso kept aer those o us distributing the paper,reminding us to do our part!Te role o Distribution Manager is a behind-the-scenes job that makes it possible or our pre-cious thoughts to have readers, so we thank you,Paulette, or having done this work!
People can makea dierence, and people deserveconsiderationrom others.
Thank You Paulette!
Farewell to our BPM distribution teamFrom the BPM Editorial Board
And to our loyal, hard-working distributors, many who have happily pickedup and delivered papers oryears throughout the Sacra-mento region, we thank youor your work and support.oday
BPM
is ready ora change, so we are sayinggoodbye to stands, printpapers and distributors. But,we are saying hello to a newonline ormat! We hope that our extended
BPM
amily o distributors will continue to spreadthe word that
BPM
is going online! Distributorsand readers can continue to read
BPM
in a newonline ormat coming soon to the
webstand
nearyou!Please join the Sacramento Area Black Caucus (SABC), the CentralAmerica Action Committee (CAAC), Black United o Sacramento Val-ley (BUF) and others or an aernoon o riend-ship, as we gather to welcome the Caravan toSacramento, and to break bread together at theOak Park United Methodist Church, 3600 Broad-way, Sacramento, 5–8pm.Tis 20th anniversary event is a potluck, reeand open to the general public. Please bring adish to share.We are seeking co-sponsors o $25 (individu-als) and $50 (organizations) to help with the shipping costs and eventcosts. Sponsors will be listed on all outreach materials. Co-sponsors canmake checks payable to: BUF (Black United Fund o Sacramento Valley (a 501c3)). Mail to SABC, P, O. 5528, Sacramento, CA. 95817, Attn: Pas-tors or Peace Event 2009. Please include your name, address, phone andemail contact inormation.Friends o the Cuban people are also invited to donate essential goodssuch as construction supplies o all kinds (carpentry, plumbing, electri-cal, painting, etc.) or rebuilding aer recent hurricanes. Educational andmedical books (English and Spanish only), new educational and medicalsupplies, unctional computers (Pentium III orbetter) and accessories, bicycles, Bibles in Spanish,and nonperishable dry oods in actory-sealedpackages are also very helpul. Items are being col-lected at the oce o the Black United Fund: 410444th Street (at 16th Ave.), Sacramento.
Please call 916-484-5025 to arrange a time ora volunteer to receive your donation.
Your sup-port and participation are deeply appreciated.I you want to know more about our work and about upcoming cara- vans please contact John Waller, National Cuba Caravan Coordinator at212-926-5757 or by e-mail at
cucaravan@igc.org
or visit:
www.pastors-orpeace.org.
For more inormation please contact:Faye Kennedy, Caravan Coordinator or Sacramento County ayek@springmail.com or (916) 484-5025
The 20th US Pastors or Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba
Is coming to Sacramento Saturday, July 11, 2009
Please join us or anaternoon o riendshipas we gather to welcomethe Caravan and break bread together.
Tank you again, Paulette and distributionteam, or keeping
BPM’s
print-orm available tothe community or so many cherished years.Details to come about the new online ormat at
www.bpmnews.com
.
Paulette in front of the US Capitol with other CodePinkers for the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war inMarch 2008.
3 Because People Matter July / August 2009
www.bpmnews.org
By Cres Vellucci
I have been very healthy most o my lie. Itall came crashing down in February o this yearwhen I ound mysel in the hospital withouthealthcare insurance.Like tens o millions o Americans—thegovernment says 48 million are uninsured buthow long can that g-ure remain the samewith millions o peoplelosing their jobs andbenets?—I did not havehealth care because Icould not nd it at a reasonable price.I did receive care, but was le with a $40,000bill or our days o treatment. Hal o the bank-ruptcies in the US are related to medical bills.Millions more Americans don’t seek medicalhelp, or simply cannot get it, so they wait untilthey die or are critically ill beore seeking care.Tey lose more than their money or credit—they lose their lives.Although I was aware o the health care crisisin this country, my unexpected stay in the hos-pital gave me a whole new perspective. It gaveme a glimpse o what people can do i they ndthemselves in a similar predicament. In short, notall is lost.First, seek treatment or an emergency situa-tion whether you can aord it or not. Hospitalemergency rooms cannot deny you care, andyour lie could depend on receiving that care. Youcan deal with the circumstances o the bills later.I waited two days to go to the emergency room. Itdid not cost me my lie, but it easily could have—I suered a small stroke, and le untreated evenor a mere ew hours can lead to death or perma-nent paralysis.Second, don’t worry about paying the bill. Yourhealth comes rst. Hospitals have what they call“charity” payment plans that can allow you to pay at a reduced amount, or they can orgive the debtin its entirety.Tere’s also the County o Sacramento Medi-cally Indigent Services Program (CMISP)—allcounties have similar programs, largely paid or via Medi-Cal, that can pay medical bills, andaord you aer-care.Tis program is largely unadvertised, as is thecharity program at hospitals. It’s not by accident.People might easily seek care in increasing num-bers i they knew this “universal” coverage wasavailable.CMISP can pay or your bills without any co-pay/deductible i you earn something ar belowthe poverty line—in 1984. Apparently, accordingto sta I spoke with, the gures representingcost-o-living have not been updated or 25 yearswhich unairly skews it so you have to be below“dirt poor” to escape a co-pay/deductible. How-ever, the co-pay can be very low, and certainly nothing compared to thousands, or tens o thou-sands o dollars in medical bills. And the county will give you time to pay.Tird, investigate other options. As a Vietnam veteran (I was draed),I discovered, thanks toa hospital worker whomentioned it, that Iqualiy or health carethrough the VeteransAdministration. Again, they may have a co-pay,but it is low.None o this would be necessary, and peoplewould not be unnecessarily dying, i we haduniversal, single-payer health care in place in thisstate, or country.But don’t hold your breath.As was said on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS inMay (
www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/watch2.html
), once upon a time Senator Obamasaid he supported universal single-payer healthcare, and that aer the Democratic Party retook Congress and the Presidency (which they have) itwould be ours.Fast-orward six years, and now PresidentObama, under a ull press o the insurancelobby, is saying single-payer, universal heathcare is “impossible.” We all know why—the sameHMOs, insurance and drug companies whokilled the health care plan in the Carter and Clin-ton administrations are about to do it again.Te consequence will be millions o Americansnot receiving desperately needed urgent healthcare. We’re not talking about losing a chance togo to the doctor with the snifes (never a goodidea whether you have insurance or not). We’retalking about the kind o care one should receiveas a basic human right—to prevent or treat amajor disease or ailment.“What we’re up against, essentially, is the healthinsurance industry…the people who are on top,who could have an enormous amount o inu-ence, are too araid o the health insurance indus-try. And in some serious ways, they are as in bedwith them as Wall Street and the banks were inbed with the Congress and have gotten their way,with their kind o bailout,” said Dr. Sidney Wole,acting president o the non-partisan group PublicCitizen, as heard on the Bill Moyers
Journal
onPBS.According to the Center or Responsive Poli-tics, more than $46 million in 2008 was given by the insurance industry to the campaigns o Dem-ocrats and Republicans to maintain the industry’scontrol over health care (
www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F09
).Te Green Party is the only national politi-cal party to support ull universal single-payerhealthcare.It’s a real shame.Single-payer would cover every Americanregardless o employment, income, ability topay, age, and prior medical condition. Everyonecould enjoy guaranteed quality health care,including prescriptions, and no American wouldace nancial ruin because o illness or injury.Everyone could choose his or her own physician,health care provider, and health care acility. Itwould cut national health care costs by as muchas a third and reduce what working Americanspay or health coverage.Medicare (which would be made universalunder Single-Payer) has three percent adminis-trative costs, which is highly ecient comparedto the 15-30 percent administrative costs (prots,paperwork, CEO salaries, etc.) o or-prot insur-ance. Plus, it covers everyone. Private HMOs andhealth insurance companies increase their protsby denying treatment to people with medicalemergencies and by denying coverage to thosethey consider “high-risk.”Finally, single-payer would boost the ailing USeconomy and provide relie or businesses, sinceit would cancel the high expense and burden o employer-based health care benets.It seems Americans understand. Polls showpopular support or a national health care pro-gram that guarantees universal coverage (
www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html
).I understand. I’m recovering rom my stroke,and my eyes are wide-open to the need to pushor universal, single-payer health care now, beoreeven more people die on the altar o insurancecompany prots.
My Story
It’s time for single-payer, universal health care
I did receive care, but waslet with a $40,000 bill or our days o treatment.
Artwork: Kjersten Jeppesen
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