On Senate Candidate Barbara Lee
“If the U.S. can fund an $886 billion defense budget, we can afford Medicare for All. If the U.S. can fund an $886 billion defense budget, we can afford the Green New Deal. If the U.S. can fund an $886 billion defense budget, we can afford to cancel student loan debt.”—Rep. Barbara Lee
Should Barbara Lee win her bid for the U.S. Senate, she would become the only elected African American woman in the U.S. Senate. Lee’s Democratic Primary opponents—Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter—are both considerably more conservative and pro-corporate than proud progressive stalwart Lee.
Lee has been proven correct time and again for the many politically difficult decisions she has made in Congress, including having courageously cast the only vote in the House of Representatives on Sept. 14, 2001, against the Bush-Cheney regime’s reckless carte blanche Authorization for the Use of Military Force that created the catastrophic failure known as the “War on Terror.”
Lee will continue to speak truth to power as a U.S. Senator and to oppose pointless, counterproductive genocidal wars. Truth is exactly what Californians want and need from our elected Democratic leaders in perilous times such as these.
Jake Pickering
Arcata
Re “Naming a Street after Cesar Chavez Is a Privilege”
First, it is a privilege to name a street after the renowned labor movement leader Cesar Chavez. Both 1 Community Compact and I applaud the idea of honoring his significant legacy with a Fresno city street. But, let’s also be clear: The City of Fresno doesn’t just want to rename one street after Chavez. Instead, it wants to rename three historical iconic city avenues (Kings Canyon, Ventura and California) after him.
We believe the decision to rename these avenues to Cesar Chavez Boulevard is in itself divisive. Furthermore, we believe the renaming of streets of this magnitude—that practically cover the width of our city—without robust community engagement is an injustice. We believe in doing so, public trust has been violated. Moreover, we feel intentionally misled and misinformed regarding procedures and opportunities for open community engagement on this matter.
Our city council should have considered alternative streets to honor Chavez. One proposal that should have been discussed is renaming P Street (and Abby Street) to Cesar Chavez Boulevard. This would make more sense as P Street runs in front of Fresno’s prominent City Hall and the adult school already named in honor of Chavez. Wouldn’t that be a prestigious and reasonable alternative?
Pastor BT Lewis
Fresno
