I’ve given my life to causes of freedom, justice, peace and public health. In the years after my retirement, that last cause, public health, has expanded to an understand that human health is totally dependent on the health of this big blue ball of a planet that we call home. The earth itself is sick, and it threatens to get worse.
Also in the years since my retirement, I’ve increasingly understood the critical importance of thinking globally and acting locally.
For me, this means I am already hard at work to elect Kari Birdseye for Benicia’s City Council this November.
Kari’s professional life has been stellar in seeking the good of our planet and the security of all life that shares air, water, time and space here. She is a warrior for wellness and an anchor for hope.
You don’t get too many like that in your own small town.
Kari is a kind and gentle soul. She is a mom and loving spouse, a longtime resident of Benicia, a trusted friend to many in our community, and a tireless worker for our schools.
Kari is chair of Benicia’s Planning Commission, serving on that Commission for 7 years. She showed leadership on that most important of our city’s appointed bodies when Benicians rallied against Valero’s dangerous and dirty plan to bring crude oil by train across California’s mountains and into our small town. The Commission studied the issue in depth, listened to the concerns of the public, and stood Goliath to the massive influence of Texas billionaires. I believe Kari was a key factor in stopping crude by rail here in our hometown.
Speaking of Texas… as of right now, the so called “Working Families” Political Action Committee (PAC) reports that it has a fund of $232,386.88 which it will spend here in Benicia to elect its favored candidates to our City Council. We can’t stop that. Federal law permits corporate Texas giants to spend as much as it wants on whatever it wants. The PAC’s $232K is nearly 7 times what a Benicia candidate can spend under Benicia’s voluntary campaign expenditure limit. And the PAC will surely be expanding its war chest beyond that $232K, as it did in 2020 when it spent over a quarter million dollars.
Big Oil will try again to buy our 2022 election – will try. But Benicia voters will have the last word, because THIS is a cause of freedom, justice, peace and public health, right here in “B Town”. We will think globally, and act, very much locally.
Make a commitment today. Sign up now to endorse, place a yard sign, contribute financially and volunteer. Visit KariBirdseyeForBenicia.com.
I don’t know…. I got soooo tired of the Donald show every morning for four-plus years. I was sick of being sickened. Maybe I still am, and especially now that the January 6 Commission is filling our heads with the inside scoop on Tyrant Trump and his treasonous enablers. Seems fitting to take a breather. So here’s a bit of fun from this week’s comics, and a seriously funny Jimmy Kimmel video at the end. Enjoy?
Please join Benicia Black Lives Matter in our commemoration and celebration of Juneteenth at the Benicia Veterans Memorial Hall on First Street on Sunday, June 19th from 11 am to 5 pm. (Not at the Camel Barns as previously posted here.) There will be speeches, history, music, dance, vendors and children’s activities to honor Black history and culture as well as a few family activities for Father’s Day. For more information see below.
Juneteenth – Our Second Independence Day
As our calendar works its way towards mid-June, we are looking forward to observing the new National Holiday of Juneteenth to honor those who were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and Constitutional Amendment of 1863.
Although Juneteenth is known as the “Second Independence Day,” it’s really the “First Independence Day” for many. The freedom some gained when England released its hold on the Americas when we won the Revolutionary War in 1783 did not affect a great and important part of our population. In fact, the term “freedom” at that time only applied to those empowered by the color of their skin, their gender, and the coins in their pocket. The practice of slavery— impacting the Africans brought to and sold in the United States, the subjugated Native Americans, and, to a lesser extent, those indentured—continued to experience immense growth over the next century.
According to the US Census Bureau, in 1790 there were nearly 700,000 enslaved people in the US, or approximately 18 percent of the total population. This included ninety-two percent of all people of African descent. By 1860, there were over four million slaves in the South alone. Of the total Black population living in the United States at that time, about 89 percent were living in slavery.
Early abolitionist work began in the 1780s with a handful of people, most of whom were from the Northeast. The movement was slow to gain momentum. In the 1830s Black leaders such as Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and John Brown brought more public awareness to the injustice of slavery. By the 1850s there was just enough recognition of the horror and inhumanity surrounding slavery to begin real change. At the height of the Civil War, on the eve of January 1, 1863, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. Finally, at midnight, all enslaved people in the United States, including those in the Confederate South, were declared legally free.
But some states, especially those in the Confederacy, held on to their claim to slavery for as long as they could. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective immediately, the South refused to recognize the Constitutional Amendment. It took time for the hard-earned proclamation to be honored, and its execution was rolled out state by state. The Confederate state of Texas was one of the last states to comply. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865 – more than two years after the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation – when Union troops arrived in Galveston. The Union army, as commanded by the President, announced that enslaved Black people in the State of Texas were free by executive decree. June 19th came to be celebrated within the African-American community local to Galveston before it spread to other parts of the US, and is now known as “Juneteenth.”
The City of Benicia has its own history of slavery. According to an article written by Ian Thompson for the Daily Republic in 2012, our city included six African Americans among its population of 480 people in 1850. One of the six was a man named Adam Willis, who came from Missouri to Benicia with his enslaver, Singleton Vaughn. Willis also became one of the first free African Americans in town when he was emancipated by a Benicia courtroom on September 27, 1855. A second Black resident was a former Bear Flag veteran named Joseph McAfee. McAfee was part of the Western Underground Railroad that freed slaves in pre-Civil War California, when there was still dissent over whether slavery should be legally allowed or banned in our newly recognized state.
Although Juneteenth has been long celebrated in the African-American community, most Americans remained unaware of this important event and its significance until very recently. This is the second year that Juneteenth is listed as a Federal Holiday, commemorating the history of and triumph over slavery. It is also a marker of the work in progress and the work ahead as we move towards a more equitable society.
MORE ABOUT BBLM’S 2ND ANNUAL JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL
● The festival will take place from 11 am to 5 pm at the Veterans Memorial Hall at 1150 First Street.
● Everyone is welcome—this is a family event!
● There will be food and drinks vendors along with small businesses selling everything from cosmetics to fine art and literature.
● A formal staged program with speakers, and performances. Readings will start at 1 pm. There will be time to shop and enjoy the music, food, and drink before and after the
presentation.
● Families can look forward to fun educational activities, including a scavenger hunt with prizes, a craft table with art, a storyteller, popcorn, and cotton candy.
● We’ll have a free Father’s Day culturally appropriate gift for fathers and father figures, and an opportunity to have a family photo taken for a suggested donation between 2 and 3:30pm.
March For Our Lives crowd is inspired by Benicia High School Youth and Community Leaders
Benicia March for Our Lives 2, June 11, 2022. Photos by Constance Beutel (video below)
By Roger Straw, June 11, 2022
Benicia moms and high school youth organized a local rally and march on Saturday, June 11, to call attention to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S., and to call for sensible legislation to make our schools – and our communities – safer.
A crowd of around 300 rallied at Benicia’s First Street Green overlooking the Carquinez Strait. Attendees received free blue t-shirts with white lettering, “MARCH FOR OUR LIVES” and the colorful crowd heard inspiring speeches before taking to the sidewalks and marching up First Street and back to the Green.
Organizer Alicia Brewster served as MC, welcoming the crowd and thanking everyone, including co-organizers Becca Cannon, Jacquie McCue and others.
Leadoff speaker was Terry Scott, chair of Benicia’s Arts and Culture Commission. Scott shared his experience at Kent State University in 1970 when he witnessed the killing of 4 students and injuring of 9 others. Then he turned to our current epidemic of gun violence, asking, “How high are we willing to set the price to defend an amendment that has been outpaced by technology? How is being shot at schools, malls, churches, grocery stores an expression of freedom? Is it time to agree that the original intent of an antiquated amendment has been co-opted?”
Benicia School Board President Sheri Zada recalled the horrific 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland Florida. That AK-47 massacre triggered the March For Our Lives movement, and Zada was one of the organizers of Benicia’s 2018 March. Zada recalled, “I was with my husband Alan, at lunch one day, crying… and I said, ‘You know what, I can’t just sit by and do nothing.'” She offered sobering statistics, “More than 170 school shootings have happened since Parkland, Florida. 170! Over 950 school shootings have happened since Sandy Hook in 2012…. You’ve got to realize that it’s an epidemic in our country. Guns are the leading cause of death in American children and teens.” Zada got enthusiastic applause as she wondered what can be done, “Well, the first thing I did when I got into office is that I made sure there is a resolution passed in our School Board that would not allow our teachers to be armed, ever.”
Three students representing Benicia High School followed.
“I am here speaking to you today because I am fifteen, and I am tired,” said Bella Cannon, Sophomore Class President of Benicia High School. Bella’s litany of “I am tired” statements illustrated the sorry state of so many of our kids in schools these days. “I am tired of being scared to go to school every day. I am tired of being worried about my 10-year-old sister and 13-year-old brother when we all leave the house every morning….I am tired of worrying if we are all going to make it home.”
Benicia High’s 2022 senior class valedictorian Juhi Yadav followed, and made a profound point, “If you want a gun, the government says that you get to have it, virtually unconditionally. You have a right. But is it right that you have it?” It took a minute, but the crowd’s understanding slowly bloomed, as did the applause. Yadav continued, “In response to tragic and despicable instances of violence, like that in Texas just weeks ago, lobbyists and lawmakers love to enter a fantasy world, where guns are used to protect innocent families from armed gunmen. At every step of the way, they ask, but what if just one of these teachers had been armed – how would the story have changed? The answer is painfully clear. It wouldn’t.”
Benicia High Junior Michael Delgado added a rather stark and shocking perspective. “Three weeks ago, when we heard the news that nineteen children had been murdered in a public school, none of us were surprised,” he began. “These children are the pure among us, the innocent among us, and the most vulnerable among us. They are our future. Time and time again, we watch, and stand idly by, while they are taken from us. A society which allows its future to be slaughtered is a sick society….”
Benicia Poet Laureate Mary Susan Gast concluded the pre-march ceremonies, sharing three poems. Tragically and movingly, the first poem, by former Benicia poet laureate Johanna Ely, was written four years ago, on the occasion of Benicia’s 2018 March For Our Lives, a poem titled, I am tired of waking up to the faces of dead children…. Dr. Gast then read two of her own poems, beginning with One Who Survived Uvalde, describing the heartbreaking story of Miah Cerrillo, who survived the Uvalde massacre by smearing herself with blood of a dead classmate and playing dead. Gast’s final poem, A Plea to Legislators began, “Deliver us from slaughter,” and ended with the crowd joining in a crescendo of cries, “Do something. Do SOMETHING. DO SOMETHING!”
The sidewalks of First Street, Benicia – June 11, 2022
Marchers returned to the First Street Green for closing remarks and a commemoration of 21 flowers for the 21 who were murdered in Uvalde Texas.
Benicia Mayor Steve Young, file photo
Benicia Mayor Steve Young reported that “There has been a mass shooting every day since Uvalde, and 1500 since Sandy Hook.” He added, “In 1994, Congress passed an assault weapons ban, and in the next ten years, mass shootings declined by 43%. Republicans undid the ban in 2004, and mass shootings have increased 239%. Coincidence?” The Mayor’s best line came at the end, and got a big cheer from the crowd: “The only way to stop a bad politician with a vote is with a good citizen with a vote!”
Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown, file photo
Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown added, “Together, we need to elect US senators who believe in our cause. Background checks, a 30 day wait to get a gun…. An example is the recent Tulsa shooting at the hospital. He bought a gun at 2 and by 5pm, 4 were dead plus the shooter. We might say enough is enough, but the effort must be daily until November 7. 2022.”
Mel Orpilla, staff, and US Representative Mike Thompson, file photos
Mel Orpilla, Senior staff for Benicia’s U.S. representative Mike Thompson, read a message from Thompson, who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Taskforce. Thompson has long led an effort to pass universal background checks. “This week,” wrote Thompson, “the House passed two vital bills that join my Bipartisan Background Checks Act and the Enhanced Background Checks Act as gun violence prevention legislation that the House has sent to the Senate.” He continued, “The bills we passed will save lives by raising the age to purchase an assault rifle, restricting large capacity magazines, going after gun traffickers, stopping ghost guns and bump stocks and requiring the safe storage of firearms. The pressure is now on Senate Republicans to do their job and vote for these policies that are overwhelmingly supported by the American people.”
Closing ceremony
ProBonoPhoto.org, photo by Mary Martin DeShaw
The rally concluded with a touching memorial reading of the names of the nineteen children and two teachers murdered in Uvalde, Texas. As the names were read, March speakers, organizers and supporters were thanked one by one, and presented with one of nineteen individual flowers representing those we lost in Uvalde.
Video of Highlights by Dr. Constance Beutel (28 minutes) Return to top
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