Dr. King’s dream and march, our nightmare and pain “I feel so broken hearted, I cried so many tears There was so much you gave me, to my heart, to my soul So much of your dreams that were never told There was hope for a brighter day Why were you, my flower, plucked away Oh, oh, I’m missing you Tell me why the road turns I’m missing you” —Diana Ross I miss my son. I miss hugging him. I miss looking in his eyes when he is excited. I miss us discussing his plans for his future. I miss sharing in his everyday experiences. I miss his smile. I miss his joy. All I ever wanted was for him to be in an environment where he can grow. My son was arrested at 19 years of age. He was sentenced t

David Barton’s opinion piece, “The view from downtown on BDS”, unfortunately relies on considerable misinformation, fact twisting, and ultimately resorts to the weakness of name calling. Mr. Barton says “the Co-op would like to leave politics out” of its choice of products. However, the Co-op makes political decisions all the time about products based on sustainability, supporting local farms, supporting fair trade, etc. Mr. Barton acknowledges that the Co-op is political: "The co-op … is subversive of the whole factory farming, corporate, pesticide-dependent, nonlocal, unsustainable farming and grocery model that many of us grew up with.” This is not an issue about keeping “politics” ou

This weekend, the sidewalk in front of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op was defaced with graffiti that included attacks on three individual members of the Co-op, two of whom are Board candidates and one is the sponsor of the Human Rights Initiative. One of the several graffiti statements read “Cody Potter and Susan Bush are bad news.” Potter and Bush are running for two open seats on the Board along with Phyllis Ehlert and two incumbents, Alicia Dienst and Ann Richardson. When asked whether employees were responsible for the graffiti, on-duty store manager Dan Shearer declined to answer on Saturday. Incumbent Board member Alicia Dienst was campaigning in front of the store on Sunday wh

The ongoing controversy about members’ democratic rights continues with a new twist at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. This week the Co-op Board placed a ballot argument on its website that many of its members are calling a fake. Charles Steven Arevalo is listed as its author. The ballot argument addresses a Board-proposed Bylaws amendment, which would prohibit the Co-op from using criteria related to “political opinion” or “national origin” in making purchasing or any other decisions. The Board's amendment was drafted in apparent response to members, who were trying to put a proposed human rights-based boycott initiative on the Co-op's ballot. “After refusing to allow Sacramento Nat

Before a packed room of Co-op Members, shoppers and others at its June 7 meeting, the Board of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op considered three items for the upcoming September ballot. A Bylaws amendment, proposed by Board President Steve Maviglio, would prevent the Co-op from making purchasing decisions on the basis of “political opinion” or “national origin.” Some members voiced support and several raised objections. One concern was that the proposed amendment could be used to prevent the Co-op from making purchasing decisions related to environmental or social concerns, since these are a matter of “political opinion.” For example, distributors of non-organic produce, Coco-Cola, or

Over 50 members of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op serenaded Co-op shoppers on the public sidewalk next to the Co-op on Friday afternoon, June 3, with back-up guitar, base, and tambourines. Holding colorful balloons and signs, members sang, “This is my coop; This is your Co-op” to the tune of “This Land is Your Land”. Several shoppers stopped and joined in: “We’re member owners, Our voices m-a-t-t-er, This co-op belongs to you and me.” The group also sang “Co-op Democracy” to the tune of “Personality”. Both songs are expected to be posted on YouTube soon (check www.coopdemocracy.org for an update.) Rally organizers, part of Sacramento Co-op Owners for Democracy and Free Speech, chose

Law professor Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow," spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 people at the Women’s Civic Improvement Center in Oak Park on Wednesday. The event was sponsored by a variety of local organizations, including the local chapter of All of Us or None, A Project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. The crowd was virtually mesmerized by the fascinating statistics about the devastating effects of the “War on Drugs,” along with the explanations of important details from relevant rulings from U.S. Supreme Court cases that drove home nearly every point made by Alexander’s seemingly encyclopedic recitation from memory. Although Alexander rea

Chants and cheers from nearly 800 concerned citizens filled the Downtown Sacramento streets on February 22 as the “Mommy Tsunami” protest walk finished its final leg from Caesar Chavez Park to the California State Capitol. The walk began on February 19 in Yuba City, where a group of Generation Y moms began a 60 mile journey to the Capitol in protest of Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed $1 billion budget cut to services for people with developmental disabilities. Participants, families, employees and volunteers from disability advocacy and support groups joined in the rally sporting bright red t-shirts baring a large target that read “A Budget Target Again?” Their message is that the propose

To celebrate International Human Rights Day, Friday, December 10, Sacramento area Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others concerned about human rights are invited to a community forum: Assuring Human and Civil Rights in Palestine/Israel. A diverse panel will address restoring the rights of Palestinians and protecting the human and civil rights of all who live in Palestine/Israel. The forum will be held in the Temple Ballroom of the Capitol Plaza, 1025 Ninth St., in downtown Sacramento. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for a sampling of light Middle Eastern refreshments. The program begins at 6 p.m., and admission is free. Dr. Hatem Bazian will provide a legal overview of the status of human and civil

Mu Sochua had a request of her audience: "I ask you to please monitor [my] case, because it's very very likely that I will go to jail," the native Cambodian said in a speech in Sacramento. The social worker and women's rights and democracy activist was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2005. About 40 people gathered Monday at noon in a conference room at the U.C. Center in Sacramento to hear Sochua speak. In the speech, presented by the World Affaris Council, she spoke about ending the sex trafficking of women and children, opposing land grabs and reforming the corrupt Cambodian court system. Sochua came to Northern California in 1973. She earned a degree in psychology from San Francisco S

Hours before Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcefully exiled to Costa Rica on June 27, he met with seven delegates from Sacramento. The seven were: Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council (SCLC); Bud McKinney, a sheet mill worker; Chris Bender, a union representative; Greg Larkins, president of IBW Local 340 and a political organizer for the SCLC; Arturo Aleman, a consultant, Kate Allen, a graduate student at UCLA and summer intern for the SCLC and Dion Archuleta, a canner at Campbell Soup in South Sacramento. The following is an account of their experiences in Honduras over a three-day period in which an alleged coup d’état took place. Background

"We're here to fight! Day and night! For our basic human rights!" That was just one of the chants shouted by both the disabled and their caretakers and supporters on their march from the U.S. Bank Building to the Capitol for today's sixth annual Disability Capitol Action Day. Coordinated by the Disability Action Coalition, the gathering of more than 2,000 people was held on the 10th anniversary of the Olmstead Court Decision, a landmark case involving plaintiffs Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson that set a precedent of helping the disabled to live in community settings as opposed to confined in homes and institutions. Despite being highly functioning and capable of living in a community, bo