The Orange Guy and his minions aren’t the only ones who can pour it on with a gazillion acts in every direction almost daily. Resisters all over the U.S. are organizing, showing up, using our individual and collective voices, and creatively calling attention to the crisis that is tearing down our government and attacking our friends and neighbors.
Let’s all find a time this week to join in saying no to injustice, no to corruption, no to authoritarian rule, no to Kings! See below:
Here’s a list of protests and important events for the week of March 29 – April 6.
Tues., April 1, 2025, 6 PM NOT-A-PROTEST! – SHOW UP TO SUPPORT Benicia City Council – on passage of Industrial Safety & Health Ordinance https://www.bisho.org April 1 Council agenda
By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, Mar 23, 2025
My wife and I recently returned from a vacation in Australia, a land of beautiful beaches, other natural splendors, kangaroos galore and remarkably friendly people concerned about what America’s current course means for their country.
From Worries to Outrage to Sorrow
Chats with friends and other folks we met Down Under, along with glimpses of Australia’s national news, illuminated a lengthy list of worries in a land where “No worries” is a favorite catchphrase.
The lead TV news story one night was how Trump’s tariffs would hurt Australia’s crucial steel and aluminum exports. Arguments over how to handle him loom large in its national elections this spring.
His televised Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triggered considerable press coverage and doubts about America’s reliability: Australian “officials, politicians and diplomats woke up and watched, slack-jawed, as the spectacular theatre of the Trump-Zelenskyy confrontation played out in the Oval Office and on their screens.”
Many folks we met highlighted his erratic economic policies and statements as threats to the global economy, and more specifically to the Australian stock market and their retirement savings.
One couple understandably fretted over their daughter’s plan to visit the United States in August, even wondering whether there would be a civil war here by then.
Several individuals voiced fear about how an unstable individual with his finger on the nuclear button would manage tensions with China.
In view of Trump’s actions undermining Ukraine and his desire to make Canada the 51st state, others doubted his commitment to our equally loyal ally Australia, particularly in view of mounting Chinese economic and military pressure. (That pressure includes an unannounced, unprecedented live fire drill by Chinese warships in waters not far from Sydney and Melbourne last month, forcing dozens of commercial flight diversions.)
On our way out his door for our flight home, an outraged Aussie friend, by no means a political type, showed us a clip of Fox News host Jesse Watters somehow finding it “personally offensive” that Canadians don’t want “to be taken over by the United States of America” since “that’s what everyone else in the world wants.”
A few Aussies went as far as to share their sentiments on the state of the United States: “We feel sorry for you.”
The sorrow was certainly understandable. In fact, it was the way I sometimes felt during my international development career, when visiting societies repressed and ripped off by corrupt, autocratic regimes. Except the people in those societies typically did not vote such regimes into office.
Not Just Aussies
It wasn’t just Australians who were upset by what America is doing to itself and the world. We met others similarly alarmed. A white Zimbabwean mining executive, apparently no flaming liberal, was aghast at what Trump was doing to democracy and world order.
And then there was the diverse array of fellow travelers (so to speak) with whom we spent several days touring parts of Australia’s beautiful southeastern island of Tasmania. The thirteen participants hailed from America, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Russia and the United Kingdom. Except for the polite-to-the-point-of-reticence Japanese, they were troubled by Trump’s ascendance.
My wife and I hadn’t intended to indulge in so much discussion of American politics on a trip through a place about as far from America as you can get. But it kept popping up. And we couldn’t resist soliciting their thoughts.
The (anti-Putin) Russian warned that she saw the United States going down a path similar to what Russia experienced at the start of Putin’s reign. In a different chat, and despite my own confusion, I tried to explain to our new Irish friend why so much had gone so awry in our country.
The Lithuanian expressed trepidation over the fact that if Putin could get away with attacking Ukraine, her tiny nation was at great risk. She shared that right after Trump’s election Lithuanians held out hope that, just maybe, he might stand up to such potential aggression against their homeland (a NATO ally). But before long, they concluded that “He’s just an [expletive].”
If there was one comment that cut across the Aussies’ and the foreigners’ reactions to Trump’s election, it was, “How did this happen?”
Down, But Not Knuckling Under
My wife and I returned to America glad to be back home even as we knew home to be in crisis. But we also arrived to a blizzard of emails from friends and neighbors here, about matters local and national.
The local focus was the increasingly promising fight for Benicia (the small Bay Area city where we live) to enact an Industrial Safety Ordinance that would force Texas-based oil giant Valero to be more transparent and accountable regarding its Benicia refinery’s accidents and emissions. Things can change, but our City Council is barely a week away from the vote that will likely seal that deal.
The emails’ national focus comprised discussions of meetings, rallies, strategies and steps to save our freedom and survive Trump’s political onslaught. These initial signs of activism, admittedly in need of much refinement but repeated across the country, constitute seeds of hope in a bleak landscape.
Having just returned from abroad, I wish more than ever that Trump supporters in the United States could hear from folks in other nations, as a counterbalance to Jesse Watters’ jingoism. I wish they could appreciate why, halfway across the world and in many places in-between, so many foreigners fear that what’s happening in America harms not just us but them. I wish they could grasp why those foreigners so strongly back the fight against authoritarianism here.
While it’s ultimately up to Americans whether our democracy sinks or swims, we should take heart from such overseas sentiments. We’re down, but we’re not knuckling under. Our battle to save democracy is just starting.
Perhaps like some of you, I’ve been despairing lately about what America’s current course means for the country and the world. That course includes the Trump Administration: siding with Russia regarding its mass-murdering war on Ukraine; backing a German Neo-Nazi party; letting the world’s richest man gut foreign aid, thus facilitating thousands of poor people’s deaths; and otherwise preaching and practicing cruelty as policy. Combined with other Far Right transgressions in other nations, it’s left me eager for something to recharge my faith in humanity.
And then I saw the penguin, or more specifically a penguin nicknamed Dindim, or even more specifically the movie “My Penguin Friend.” The dramatization is based on the true story of a small penguin that got separated from its colony and soaked by an oil spill during the colony’s annual 5,000-mile migration from southern Argentina to near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, only to be rescued on the verge of death by an elderly villager. The Brazilian, Joao Pereira de Souza, nursed the bird back to health, whereupon it stayed with him and his wife for months before undertaking the return trip south.
The element that converts a heartwarming tale into incredible inspiration, though, is the fact that Dindim returned annually to Joao’s seaside home for eight years, each time spending months in his fishing village before returning to Argentina. When a fellow villager refers to the bird as a pet, Joao says no, he’s his friend.
If you see the film, you see why. Years before Dindim’s arrival, a tragic death led to Joao living a life of grief. The penguin’s friendship filled a void, restoring Joao’s love for life and community.
Which brings me back to America. I’m not hopeless by any means; I see sparks of pro-democracy resilience and resurgence. But when I also see so many developments here and abroad driven by lies, hate and retribution, I have flickers of doubt about not just where we are as a country, but where humanity is as a species.
In its small but heartwarming way, “My Penguin Friend” counters all that. It portrays admirable qualities that we humans are capable of, not least love for a stranded animal, considerable kindness and remarkable resilience. It testifies to the many wonderful, amazing things we don’t fully understand, including how a little creature decided each year to separate himself from the security of his colony’s migration to visit his friend.
The saga of Joao and Dindim reminds us that the best of humanity and the world is beautiful and that we can find that beauty in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
That being said, to call this film corny and sappy and a tearjerker would be a major understatement. It also takes some considerable (and unnecessary) liberties in telling the tale of the penguin and his human friend. But the movie remains true to its remarkable core story.
As someone who could use tears of joy rather than tears of sorrow these days, I heartily recommend it. So many sayings highlight how overcoming tough times hinges on hope, heart, determination or a village. I’ll add one more variation: It takes a penguin.
I believe that “My Penguin Friend” is available via Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube TV and perhaps other streaming services, but since I saw it on a plane and am out of the country right now, I can’t vouch for that for sure. Regardless, it’s worth searching or waiting for. (Being out of the country, I regrettably won’t be preparing a column for the next two weeks.)
Another thing well worth doing is attending or zooming into the Tuesday, March 4 City Council meeting, starting at 6 pm, at which it will take the crucial vote that will help prevent toxic pollution (including the kind of oil spills that nearly killed Dindim), explosions and fires at the Valero refinery and other hazardous facilities in Benicia. If the Council passes the proposed Industrial Safety Ordinance, which Council Members Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott as well as Fire Chief Josh Chadwick and Management Analyst Della Ohm have labored over for well over a year, we’ll join all the other Bay Area refinery-hosting communities that already have such ordinances.
BENICIA – Benicia officials expressed support for an ordinance that would regulate businesses like the Valero Refinery at a meeting Tuesday, despite concerns about possible legal challenges from Valero.
The latest draft of a proposed Industrial Health and Safety Ordinance that would monitor and audit “high hazard facilities” like the refinery was presented to Benicia City Council on Tuesday night.
Numerous public commenters expressed strong support for the ordinance, which the council expects to take up for a vote in a few weeks. The council made a few last tweaks to the ordinance that has been developed over more than a year.
Councilmember Kari Birdseye suggested that city staff make two revisions: to mention all agencies by name that the ordinance might affect, and add language requiring transparency of how much the city has paid using collected fines from all relevant businesses. Staff will bring the ordinance back at a future meeting.
While Valero was the major concern, the ordinance would apply to at least 12 facilities in the city, such as Interstate Batteries at 535 Getty Court and the Benicia Water Treatment Plant at 100 Water Way.
Public interest in better regulating Valero was particularly pronounced on the heels of an incident Saturday at the Martinez refinery in Contra Costa County, which is about 7 miles from Benicia. A hydrocarbon material leak at the Martinez Refining Company caused a fire that injured six people and triggered a health advisory.
Valero has had its own recent controversies as well. The company didn’t meet Bay Area Air Quality Management District requirements to monitor and report fugitive gasses from their operating equipment. Its refinery has been the site of several air pollution incidents, such as a 15-year leak of 2.7 tons of airborne toxins, for which the refinery paid a record $82 million to the air district last year.
However, Mayor Steve Young said he doesn’t consider Valero worse than other large oil refineries in the Bay Area.
“There are worse operators than Valero, as we just saw across the river,” Young said, referring to the Martinez Refining Company. “They are not the enemy, and they are not bad operators, but they obviously have some safety issues that we are trying to address.”
Benicia fire Chief Josh Chadwick said in a report to the council Tuesday that Benicia, as the only Bay Area city without an industrial safety ordinance, needs a program to better audit businesses producing potential health risks to nearby communities.
Chadwick said that recent incidents at “high-hazard facilities” showed the need for additional oversight. “Especially given what happened over the last weekend, it’s really essential for the public to understand that no regulation is going to completely eliminate the risk of industrial incidents,” Chadwick said.
The ordinance’s third draft specifically requires that, following an incident at one of these facilities, the city may audit and inspect the site, and the company must issue an Incident Notification Report within 72 hours. The city would then be able to publish the final investigation report on its website, with the ability to issue consequences such as fines or other penalties if a business refuses to comply.
But enacting the ordinance may jeopardize a revenue source for the cash-strapped city. Under a voluntary cooperation agreement, Valero currently pays $331,320 annually to the city. Under the new ordinance, that agreement would be moot, requiring an independent consultant to help the city create a new fee schedule. And Valero will likely sue over the ordinance if passed, Young said, which is why he’s concerned about passing it without an agreement in hand.
Councilmember Lionel Largaespada said he believes the city is entitled to strong regulations over industries working within its limits, but he advocated for tightening its language to be very specific about businesses and fees collected from them.
“Wherever we can be crystal clear about something, I think it only makes this ordinance better,” he said.
Councilmember Terry Scott disagreed, saying the city has spent more than a year on the ordinance draft and Valero has already responded to it in “a fairly threatening manner.”
“Local control matters. Many times we’ve asked them, ‘Come to the table,’” Scott said. “I think we can give them the opportunity in the next several weeks to send us another letter. Why do we have to go to them and establish another session to review the document with them?”
Birdseye also disagreed over whether to allow Valero to sit in on the independent auditing authority as a business owner given the potential conflict of interest. She opposed allowing Valero to have any influence, saying, “It is the fox in the henhouse.”
Benicia officials have already heard lots of feedback from the public about the matter, including from 178 people who responded to surveys between March 25 and May 19. Many people turned out Tuesday night, speaking for more than an hour, with most pleading with the city to pass the new version of the ordinance.
Some mentioned the potential for cancer and other health impacts which could result from toxic gas releases, while others pointed out how much stronger a safety ordinance can make local authorities seeking to protect and notify people as quickly as possible.
“This has been an issue that’s so important to Benicia,” resident Kathy Bennett said.
She added that the Martinez incident Saturday reflected the importance of having a safety ordinance in place.
“Because of there being an ISO in place in Contra Costa County, it did improve prevention and protection and responses, notifications and advisories to the community,” Bennett said. “And as we’ve also seen in the recent Los Angeles fires, an entire community can be destroyed in a single horrific event.”
“The big elephant in the room is Valero,” resident Diana Smith said. “But it’s been brought up that you have at least 12 facilities here that need that oversight. And Valero likes to come along and threaten us. How many millions of dollars would it take … to clean up that refinery?”
It is not yet clear when staff will bring the revised ordinance back to the council for a vote.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that no vote was scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting, which was for informational purposes and to correct Diana Smith’s name.
Sat., March 29, 2025 11 AM – NOON (and every Saturday)
Tues., April 1, 2025, 6 PM
Thurs., April 3, 2025, 5 PM – 6:30 PM (and every Thursday)
Sat., April 5, 2025 11 AM – NOON (and every Saturday)
Sat., April 5, 2025 – HANDS OFF! National Day of Action
Sun., April 6, 2025, 12 NOON – 1 PM (and alternate Sundays)
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