Protect the People or Sell Us Out to CEMEX
The proposed Rockfield expansion isn’t just another project, it’s a direct threat to our health and our future. Fresno already has some of the worst air in the country. Families here breathe more pollution, kids have asthma at high rates and far too many die early from diseases tied to dirty air.
Expanding CEMEX’s Rockfield Project means piling on even more pollution to communities already overburdened. That’s not growth, it is negligence.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher. Cement is one of the dirtiest industries worldwide. Approving this expansion would lock in decades of carbon emissions, at a time when California is supposed to be cutting emissions. If Fresno County signs off on this, they’re not just hurting us locally, they’re setting us back for decades.
The Board of Supervisors has to decide whose side they’re on. Are they with the people of Fresno, who deserve clean air, safe water and a livable future? Or are they with CEMEX, a multinational polluter looking to cash in while we pay the price with our health and our kids’ futures?
That’s the choice in front of them. Protect us or sell us out. Fresno County’s legacy depends on what they do next.
Erika Guzman Cornejo
California Environmental Voters
Orwellian “Peace Prize” Winner
Maria Corina Machado is an absurd choice as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Her dedication of the prize to Trump is only the latest in a series of actions that demonstrate her focus on restoring a right-wing government to Venezuela—a government that will follow the dictates of the United States and allow U.S. access to the exploitation of Venezuela’s oil.
Some of the actions that disqualify her from the point of view of “peace” are briefly outlined here. In 2002, there was an attempted coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. Machado, on behalf of her party Súmate, signed the Carmona Decree that established the coup government in April 2002 and abolished the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and the constitution of Venezuela. She and Súmate were both financed by the United States through the National Endowment for Democracy.
Machado has called for foreign military intervention in Venezuela repeatedly. She sent a letter to Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel and Macri as president of Argentina in 2018 asking for their assistance in “regime change.” She has made the same request of the U.S. government repeatedly. She has expressed support for the U.S. attacks on small boats in international waters and off the coast of Venezuela. The death toll so far is 27 people. Experts and human rights groups have deplored the attacks. Even in the unlikely event that these boats had drug traffickers on board, that would not make these people armed combatants.
Daphne Eviatar, director of Amnesty International’s Security With Human Rights program said of the Sept. 15 attack, “This is an extrajudicial execution, which is murder.”
Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said, “All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple.”
Machado has also voiced support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, and has said that, if elected, she would move Venezuela’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Her political party, Vente Venezuela, signed cooperation agreements with Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Vente Venezuela called this “a historic and very important step,” and announced that their cooperation will include “political, ideological and social matters, as well as advancing issues related to strategy, geopolitics, and security” describing this as an “operational partnership.”
Machado is a supporter of U.S. unilateral coercive economic sanctions against the population of Venezuela, measures proven to have substantial effects on public health, with a death toll similar to that of armed conflict, disproportionately affecting children.
Leni Villagomez Reeves
Auberry
Green Party Update
The Fresno County Green Party thanks all the Green Party candidates running on Nov. 4 throughout the country. More than a dozen won. This was a good result for an off-season election with little financial input but a lot of bold inspirational support from real people who care for the direction of our nation.
In California, the media focus was on Proposition 50—a $285 million taxpayer-paid political advertisement for Gavin Newsom’s 2028 Presidential ambitions.
The Green Party advocates for proportional representation that ends the gerrymandering corruption of both major parties.
Other winners were Colorado voters who overwhelmingly passed a measure that adds $95 million in assistance to the state’s Healthy School Meals program by lowering tax deductions on taxpayers making $300,000 or more.
The biggest news was the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City where anti-Trump, anti-corruption and anti-AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) feelings were at an all-time fever pitch.
When all is said and done, despite the hard work, it’s not about winning an election but how well you rule. We’ll find out soon enough for all the lucky candidates. Good luck, you’re going to need it.
Richard Gomez
Fresno County Green Party
