The Arden-Arcade Community Table is coming up this Saturday, Feb. 20. The event — a food, toiletry, and diaper distribution — will last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m or until supplies run out. To ensure supplies don’t run out too soon, we encourage you to donate money or items to the event including:
Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento is sponsoring a resolution calling on the Democratic Party of Sacramento County (DPSC) to support “by-district” elections for the San Juan Unified School District. The resolution – also sponsored by the Sacramento Latino Democratic Club, JFK Democratic Club of Sacramento County and Elk Grove-South County Democratic Club – will be voted on this Thursday, Feb. 11, at the DPSC’s monthly membership meeting starting at 6 p.m.
Text of the Resolution
WHEREAS, The California Democratic Party and Democratic Party of Sacramento County have called for the replacement of at-large local election methods with district-based elections (CDP 2018 Platform: Political Reform; DPSC Resolution 2017–21; and DPSC Resolution 2019-05), in furtherance of the Democratic Party’s commitment to upholding voting rights protected by the California Voting Rights Act and the federal Voting Rights Act; and
WHEREAS, The San Juan Unified Board of Education utilizes an at-large election system, which dilutes the power of neighborhoods to elect local representatives, unfairly protects well-resourced incumbents against challengers, and places a significant electoral obstacle before candidates and communities of interest that lack access to the money and resources needed to compete at-large, especially diverse and economically disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS, By-district elections allow neighborhoods and diverse communities to elect representatives of their choice, allow candidates to be viable without the need to fundraise prohibitively large sums of money, and better reflects the values of the Democratic Party than at-large election methods; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Democratic Party of Sacramento County declares its support for the ongoing effort to transition the San Juan Unified Board of Education from using at-large elections to by-district elections; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Democratic Party of Sacramento County encourages all residents of San Juan Unified School District to join in this effort to ensure that the San Juan Unified Board of Education can finally have a truly representative electoral system.
Food, toiletry, and diaper distribution event was postponed due to severe weather
ARDEN-ARCADE, Calif. – The Arden-Arcade Community Table has been rescheduled for Saturday, Feb. 20, and will last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until supplies run out. The event – a food, toiletry, and diaper distribution – will still be held in front of Kico’s Mexican Food at 2324 Arden Way.
Our friends at the California Nurses Association (CNA) are hosting a local car caravan this Saturday, Feb. 6, to urge state legislators to pass California Guaranteed Health Care for All (CalCare).
CalCare, similar to Medicare for All, would guarantee health care as a human right in the state of California by providing comprehensive, high-quality health care for all. The California Nurses Association has been leading the fight for guaranteed health care for decades and is actively working to introduce a new single-payer bill in the state legislature.
“The nation has long looked to California for inspiration and guidance in the national fight for universal health care,” says CNA president Zenei Triunfo-Cortez. “We’ve come closer than any other state in history to passing guaranteed health care for all our residents. The nurses will always do what it takes to protect our patients, and we know CalCare will save lives.”
The event will be part of the nurses’ kickoff day of action with car caravans in 23 cities across California. Participants will practice physical distancing, wear masks, and adhere to other COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The Sacramento Area car caravan is set for: Saturday, February 6th at 1:00 p.m.
and will start at: West Wind Sacrament 6 Drive-In 9616 Oates Drive Sacramento, CA 95827
The caravan will begin with a short program, followed by a drive down an easy-to-follow route with signs on participants’ vehicles demonstrating clear support for guaranteed health care for all Californians. Participants will demonstrate from within their vehicles.
The organizers are asking participants to decorate their cars in advance – although some window signs will also be provided if needed.
Local food, toiletry and diaper distribution event delayed due to severe weather
ARDEN-ARCADE, Calif. – The Arden-Arcade Community Table scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 30 has been postponed due to severe weather conditions affecting the Sacramento region. The organizers – Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento, Arden Community Council and Mutual Assistance Network – hope to reschedule the event for a future date in February.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento is proud to announce Sacramento Councilmember Katie Valenzuela as the featured speaker at our Feb. 4 membership meeting. Valenzuela will be presenting for the People’s Budget Sacramento, an organization that promotes participatory budgeting (PB) for both the City and the County of Sacramento.
According to the Participatory Budgeting Initiative, PB is “a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget.” They further add that PB “gives people real power over real money.”
People’s Budget Sacramento plans to promote PB by presenting an alternative budget to the City Council of Sacramento that reflects the community’s priorities. They are also promoting more engagement in the budget process as well by recommending changes including participatory budgeting for the City and County but are not seeking formal charter changes at this time.
“The foundational principle of the People’s Budget is simple: residents deserve more of a voice in how our money is spent, and budget spending should reflect community needs and priorities,” said Valenzuela on behalf of the organization. “Since our inception, we’ve engaged thousands of residents through our survey tool, and advocated at the City and County for spending decisions that reflect community priorities. This year, we’re hoping to work with decision makers to build a participatory, community-led budget process for the 2021-2022 budgets, and hope for support from the progressive community in Sacramento to make that vision a reality.”
The program is scheduled to begin at the start of the membership meeting at 7 p.m. The presentation is expected to last approximately 40 minutes and will be followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers.
The meeting will be held over Zoom due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For security reasons, the meeting credentials will only be sent to subscribers of the club’s email list. Guests are welcome to subscribe by going to wellstonedems.club.
More information about People’s Budget Sacramento may be found on their website at peoplesbudgetsac.com.
ARDEN-ARCADE, Calif. — Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento along with the Arden Community Council and Mutual Assistance Network will be hosting the Arden-Arcade Community Table, a food, diaper and toiletry distribution, on Saturday, Jan. 30. The event will be held in front of Kico’s Mexican Food on 2324 Arden Way and will last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until supplies run out.
The Community Table is geared towards serving the community of Arden-Arcade but anyone in need is welcome to partake.
“People in Arden-Arcade are facing many challenges since the pandemic began including not having enough to eat,” said Magali Kincaid, Wellstone’s political director and a lead organizer for the event. “We need to come together as a community and take care of each other.”
The event is intentionally located in the western half of Arden-Arcade, which has both a higher poverty rate and lower school test scores than the eastern half.
“Western Arden-Arcade is very vulnerable to economic downturns,” said Austin Schlocker, CEO of the Arden Community Council. “Holding an event like this is an opportunity to not only provide for those in need but to also bring our community together so we can build back better when the pandemic is over.”
Participants can either walk or drive up to the event and grab what they need. Available items will include canned food, fresh bread, soap, toothbrushes, and diapers and shall be distributed first come, first served. Participants must wear face masks and adhere to state and local social distancing guidelines.
The organizers are asking for additional donations so that as many residents can be served as possible. There are three ways to donate. To donate items in advance, contact Magali Kincaid. To donate items on Jan. 30, bring them to the event. To donate money, send payment to the Venmo account @JDKincaid.
This will kick off a month of campaigning every weekend for our endorsed candidates and legislation so we score progressive wins up an down the ballot this November.
It happens every year on #MLK day and during #BlackHistoryMonth, and it’s happening right now. Well-meaning people share his more palatable, more agreeable statements while avoiding the simple fact that MLK held very radical views throughout his life 1/
Tommie Smith#blackhistorymonthIn 1951, 7-year-old Tommie boarded a labor bus with his family and moved to California. Forty miles south of Fresno, outside a town called Stratford, Smith worked the cotton and grape fields and dug irrigation ditches; sometimes he slept in them to keep warm. And it was there that he developed his first inkling of how racism manifests in American life.By high school, Smith knew he wanted a college education. In 1963 he started at San Jose State, where he won a scholarship to play basketball his freshman year. Sophomore year he ran track. Then football. He was a natural at every sport he tried. The next few years brought world records, an NFL draft selection by the Los Angeles Rams, the Olympics, and finally, a bachelor’s degree in sociology.Smith and Carlos’s famous gesture of protest was, in fact, a Plan B. The previous year, they had co-founded the Olympic Project for Human Rights along with a young sociology professor at San Jose State named Harry Edwards. Their initial plan was to boycott the games unless the International Olympic Committee met four conditions: hire more Black assistant coaches, restore Muhammad Ali’s title as the world heavyweight boxing champion, replace Avery Brudage, the longstanding and openly segregationist president of the IOC, and disinvite South Africa and Rhodesia, both African states under white-minority rule that intended to send all-white teams to the games. Not all of the conditions were met, but Smith and Carlos decided to compete anyway. If they medaled, they’d use the opportunity to get their message out another way.As Smith, Carlos & Norman made their way off the field after the awards ceremony, spectators jeered them. The next day, the two were ejected from the Olympic Village and given 48 hours to leave the country. Norman returned to his native Australia a pariah.Although Norman met the qualifying standards a full 13 times to compete in the 1972 games, he was not sent to Munich. The International Olympic Committee attempted to strip Smith and Carlos of their medals. Both men received death threats. After college, Smith was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals and earned a master’s degree from Goddard College. In 1978, Smith took a job as head track coach and professor of physical education at Santa Monica College, where he remained for 27 years.Forty years after the Mexico City games, when Usain Bolt set three world records at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Smith presented him with one of the shoes he wore that night in 1968. 12/www.gq.com/story/tommie-smith-1968-olympic-fistThank you Tommie Smith. You are a legend and we honor you (and John Carlos) today!!! www.nytimes.com/2020/06/13/sports/tommie-smith-protest-colin-kaepernick.htmlwww.smithsonianmag.com/articles/olympic-athletes-who-took-a-stand-593920/www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tommie-smith-with-drawn-arms-documentary-colin-kaepernick-230152327.html... See MoreSee Less
Filmmakers Glenn Kaino and Afshin Shahidi chronicle the last impact of Olympian Tommie Smith's iconic protest, the decades of backlash, and his connection to Colin Kaepernick.
Martin Luther King #BlackHistoryMonthIt happens every year on Martin Luther King Jr. day and during Black History month, and it’s happening right now. Well-meaning people share his more palatable, more agreeable statements while avoiding the simple fact that MLK held very radical views throughout his life, and those views are just as applicable today.Here are a few of our favorite quotes…“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”—A Time to Break the Silence: April 4, 1967The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and racism. The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power. - King to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) board on March 30, 1967.“…the price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro and other minority groups is the price of its own destruction.”—The American Dream: July 4, 1965“White Americans must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society.”—Where Do We Go from Here? 1967“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”— Where Do We Go From Here: 1967Today, may we as a community recommit ourselves to racial justice, to anti-racism, to a more equitable and just community here in City Heights and well beyond.Let us honor MLK for his unwavering fight against the three evils: racism, economic exploitation and militarism. www.cityheightscdc.org/stories/mlk-quotes-too-radical-to-be-white-washedwww.peoplesworld.org/article/mlk-theres-something-wrong-with-capitalism/www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAdALrzgAQ0... See MoreSee Less
democracynow.org - It was 50 years ago today when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. He was just 39 years old. We turn now to a...
Shirley Chisholm“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”Today we honor the trailblazer, American politician, educator and author Shirley Chisholm. 1/#UnboughtAndUnbossed#BlackHistoryMonthwww.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholmBorn in 1924, Shirley Chisholm was many things: nursery school teacher; author; the first Black Congresswoman; and in 1972, perhaps most impressively, the first Black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States.In 1964, Chisholm ran for and became the second African American in the New York State Legislature. After court-ordered redistricting created a new, heavily Democratic, district in her neighborhood, in 1968 Chisholm sought—and won—a seat in Congress. There, “Fighting Shirley” introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and championed racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, in 1977 became the first Blk wmn & second wmn ever to serve on the powerful House Rules Comm. Discrimination followed Chisholm’s quest for the 1972 Democratic Party presidential nomination.She was blocked from participating in televised primary debates, and after taking legal action, was permitted to make just one speech. Still, students, women, and minorities followed the “Chisholm Trail.” She entered 12 primaries and garnered 152 of the delegates’ votes (10% of the total)—despite an under-financed campaign and contentiousness from the predominantly male Congressional Black Caucus. “I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.”Thank you Shirley Chisholm for trailblazing the way for many of us today. /8www.history.com/news/shirley-chisholm-career-milestonesShirley Chisholm “isms”: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”“Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society because that talent wears a skirt.”“At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.”“Be as bold as the first man or woman to eat an oyster.”www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/unbought-and-unbossed-when-black-woman-ran-for-the-white-house-180958699/www.genderontheballot.org/5-shirley-chisholm-quotes/... See MoreSee Less
