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Category: Ethics

  • A Letter from Biden, Israeli and Palestinian Humanity, but the Bombing Continues

    Thousandsofvoices

    Picture of part of the thousands of voices calling for ceasefire, led by Jewish Voices for Peace, at New York's Penn Station. 10/30/23. 

    By Scott Steward

    The White House has acknowledged that there is a war against Hamas. There are also many encouraging humanitarian words for Palestinians and Israelis contained in the November 1st letter from Joe Biden. (see letter below).

    The murder of Israeli's is unconscionable, but how many more thousands of penned up unarmed, starving Palestinian women and children will have to die, at the hands of one of the world's most sophisticated military nations, before ceasefire?   

    While the President’s reply is far better than the inflammatory language coming from much of our leadership, Joe Biden's letter is not enough to deter the conviction that we need to continue to make space for Palestinian voices – today and tomorrow – for everyone's sake.

    The United States policy toward the Israeli, and the Palestinian people, has not contributed to a sincere and consequential path to peace.  Most suggested concessions to the Palestinians have been, in the majority, equated with treason to Israel.  That sanctimonious position is a mistake and has justified 75 years of oppression and has fostered and allowed extremists, who are willing to resort to violence and terrorism, to determine much of the circumstances of Israel and Palestine.

    We need to speak to the humanity of the Palestinian right to exist in peace and speak to the security of Israel to live in peace.  We need to listen to the voices of peace that exist on both sides (and around the world).

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  • In Shocking Press Release, Davis College Republicans Oppose Calls of Violence Against People of Jewish Descent

    I found this on the Facebook page of a group calling itself "Davis College Republicans".  This group is stating its opposition to calls of violence against people of Jewish descent and condemns posts by an assistant professor calling for attacks on 'pro-Israel' journalists and their children. 

    Furthermore, this group is doubling-down on its commitment to the principles of free speech and open dialogue, but also believes that there are limits to these principles when the speech includes threats of violence and harm against any group or individual. 

    Most shockingly, this group says that it remains dedicated to upholding the values of civil discourse, open debate, and respectful dialogue, and firmly believes that disagreements should be met with discussion and understanding, not with threats or intimidation.

    Now that we are aware that a group exists on the UC Davis Campus with values such as these, and openly states these values, the question for all of us in Davis is:  what are 'we' going to 'do' about 'it' ?  😐

    If you don't believe me that a group with such values could exist so close to us, on our beloved UC Davis Campus, here is their press release, in their own words:

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Davis College Republicans
    October 23, 2023
    Contact: James Murray, Communications Director
    daviscollegerepublican@email.com

    Davis College Republicans Oppose Calls of Violence Against People of Jewish Descent

    DAVIS, CA- In the past week, Assistant Professor of American Studies Jemma Decristo posted tweets advocating for attacks against, pro-Israel Journalists, and their children. Davis College Republicans unequivocally denounce and condemn these posts.

    On October 10, Decristo posted a tweet containing disturbing language expressing threats to "Zionist journalists" who "have houses with address, kids in school" and "they should fear us more," ending the post with emojis of a knife, an axe, and blood.

    The Davis College Republicans wish to make it abundantly clear that we unequivocally denounce and condemn these posts. While we hold firm to the principles of free speech and open dialogue, we also believe that there are limits to these principles. Threats of violence and harm against any group or individual are entirely unacceptable and fall far outside the parameters of protected speech.

    We stand in agreement with the official statement released by UC Davis, emphasizing the importance of protected speech within our community. However, it is crucial to stress that the tweets in question do not align with this protection, as they promote violence and fear. In order to maintain a respectful and intellectual discourse within our society, we must collectively reject such violent rhetoric.

    Davis College Republicans remain dedicated to upholding the values of civil discourse, open debate, and respectful dialogue. We firmly believe that disagreements should be met with discussion and understanding, not with threats or intimidation.

    DCR is a local College Republican organization dedicated to growing the conservative movement on the UC Davis campus and in surrounding counties. For more information visit our Facebook and Instagram pages @DavisCollege Republicans.

  • Ceasefire

    By Scott Steward

    As of yesterday’s UN, report there are over 5,000 dead in Gaza, 14,000 injured,1,000 missing. Instead of a ceasefire, more bombs. The tragedy is leading to a multi-regional war.

    Visiting-garamendi

    Dean Johansson, Karahan Mete (behind the sign) Alan Hirsch (also behind sign) Scott Steward Mohammed Mohammed (not a typo – the name is first and last) and Ed Diggs. I don't know the name of the person in the plaid

    The US has the power to stop this, but if you don’t speak up for peace, you will find we are primed for war. Look at how we declared a war on Iraq under false pretense. We entered Afghanistan after the Russians spent two decades failing to quell anti-west fundamentalism, that before we even started our twenty-year war there also ending in retreat (better that than continue).  

    What amount of good work could have been done with $21Trillion dollars over those 20 years? (the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars). How much more understanding and common ground could have been gained with people wearing or not wearing hijabs. What amount of good work could we do for Palestinians and Israelites with the hundreds of billions and tens of thousands of lives we are about to lose on a war there?

    For some in the US, the Israeli Palestinian conflict is the way into a war with Iran. US troops are all about the conflict zone and surely some will be killed.  Self-defense could then be cited as the rational for our further involvement.  Correctly or not, Iran will be identified as the source of hostility and loss of life. The Arabophobic hegemony will have its war with Iran. That plan is obvious and stupidly tragic. The lives of Palestinians and Israelis would be an afterthought.  Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians, Americans – everyone needs to condemn this plan.

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  • I-80 Whistleblower: Caltrans Steamrolls Eviro-Laws to Widen Freeways

    Caltrrans whistleblower Jeanie ward-waller

    Jeanie Ward-Waller, former Caltrans deputy director of Planning and Mode Development until she noted likely environmental violation on I-80 project

     

    By Alan Hirsch, YoloMobility

    News of a high-level Caltrans whistleblower hit the national media in recent weeks with stories in the Sacramento Bee, LA Times and Politico. But when you meet former Caltrans Deputy Director of Planning and Modal programs Jeanie Ward-Waller, you learn that she was forced out of Caltrans and into a public whistleblowing role by just one action.

    She spoke via Zoom at a meeting of the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) on Thursday 10/19. In her opening remarks she said:

    • She misses her colleagues of six years who are doing good work to evolve Caltrans.
    • “We need good people in government.”
    • Caltrans has an important role in maintaining our existing highways.
    • Achieving a well-functioning transportation system is her life’s work and she misses being engaged.

    She said her demotion and effective firing were a total surprise. Her story of how it happened started when she noted that Caltrans District 3 seemed to have misappropriated extra funds from a pavement rehab project to rebuild shoulders in a wider and more expensive way so that they could be easily converted to extra lanes. Technically it would not count as widening until the stripes for these lanes are painted. Widening the freeway had not been approved by elected officials or undergone the required public and environmental review process.  One thing she didn’t mention: the amount of misappropriated funds in question is likely on the order of tens of millions dollars — part of the $240 million I-80 Yolo Causeway pavement rehab project, which is separate from the I-80 widening project.

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  • Think PG&E Rates Are Too High? They Are in Imminent Danger of Skyrocketing Into the Stratosphere

    By Dan Cornford

    Davisites should be aware of what I was not aware of until a week or so ago.  Your PG & E bills are set to go way up and proposals are being made to further dis-incentivize solar power.  We are about to be a hit with a barrage of proposals that took me some time to disentangle.   PG & E and other major utilities are hitting consumers from three different angles.  In two instance the CPUC will likely make a final decision on proposals at its November 2 meeting.  So, if you share my concern, please read this article and take some of the actions I suggest at the end of it—most will take only a few minutes of your time.

    I am sure I need not regale you with info on PG & E moral and legal culpability for a whole series of recent fires going back to 2017, but PG & E culpability for such events ( read the entry on PG & E in Wikipedia) goes back decades not to mention the San Bruno pipeline explosions of 2010 that killed 8 people and injured 58.

    After the rash of major fires, 2017-2022 and findings of PG & E’s legal culpability, there appeared to be some brief prospect of meaningful state intervention by Governor Newsom and the state legislature as PG & faced the prospect of bankruptcy and our governor threatened a public takeover of PG & E.   But this came to nothing, and unsurprisingly in view of the fact that PG & E has regularly made large donations to the campaigns of Governor Newsom and many others in the state legislature.

    https://www.abc10.com/article/news/investigations/governor-newsom-most-state-lawmakers-took-money-from-convicted-felon-pge/103-2414790f-3a19-4411-92c2-fe23b519d646

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  • Response from Celebration of Abraham

    Dear Friends,

    We are overwhelmed with grief over the violence in Israel and Gaza. We know that the feelings of many of the members of our community regardless of their religious tradition are raw. Folks are exhausted and confused as we all try to understand the atrocities visited on our brothers and sisters that are resulting from the conflict. As the Celebration of Abraham tried to discern how to respond, we received the International House email that expressed that group’s distress and then affirmed the statement developed by the University of California Davis Cross-Cultural Center. The carefully crafted statement of the Cross-Cultural Center reflected the Celebration of Abraham’s thinking and, so we like International House are choosing to uphold the following statement:

    “While no statement or message can encompass the historical breadth and political depth of this complex conflict, we want to acknowledge that the language and narratives used by media and in various statements can compound and increase feelings of vulnerability and distress.

    We recognize that words matter and are concerned about dangerous rhetoric that can lead to increased anti-Arab sentiment, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. This impact can include but is not limited to, people feeling unsafe emotionally and physically due to doxxing, surveillance, threats, and fear of voicing their opinion or perspective.

    As a community, we encourage folks to be mindful of where they receive information, apply critical thinking skills when evaluating sources, and be open to deepening their knowledge around multiple perspectives.”

    We, like International House, thank the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center for naming concerns and encouraging thoughtful consideration. We also thank the International House for reminding us that if we work to deepen our knowledge of others and practice deep compassion, we can realize what connects us as humans is stronger than the difference that divides us.

    With a prayer for peace for all,

    Helen Roland Cramer, Chair

    Celebration of Abraham

  • YoloSol: Acorn traditions workshop on Nov. 4, subscribe to the YoloSol newsletter

    Dear Friends,
    We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new website for the YoloSol Collective. Special thanks to David Abramson for working on this while also caring for an infant!
     
    Please sign up for our newsletter here to keep in touch with our ongoing programming around issues of land and water in the Yolo bioregion: http://eepurl.com/iBVCAg
    More details below.
     
    In community,
    Juliette Beck
     
    Dear Friends,
     
    YoloSol extends a fall season's greeting to all of you!
    We are an intergenerational "artivist" collective dedicated to sharing stories of the pasts, presents, and futures embedded in the landscapes and waterways of the Yolo bioregion.
     
    We center the voices and stories of marginalized communities, especially Patwin-Wintun culture bearers, youth, and the diverse immigrant communities that make up the Yolo cultural tapestry.
     
    We look forward to working with you to cultivate ecological justice, well-being and restorative stewardship of our shared home.  
     
    In community,
    Diana, Marlen, Anuj, Juliette, Adnan and David
    – founding members of YoloSol Collective
    Please join us on Saturday November 4, 2023, 4-6:30pm for
    Presented as the inaugural event of the International House World Tour Series, this is a two-part Welcoming to Wintun Homeland.

    4:00pm – 5:00 pm: A hands-on family-friendly workshop on Wintun acorn preparationwith Diana Almendariz (Patwin/Wintun cultural practitioner/artist)

    5:15 -6:30 pm: A community conversation on the intersection of Indigeneity and Diaspora with Diana Almendariz, Stan Padilla (Yaqui artist), Danny Manning (Maidu/Diné, Fire Chief, Greenville Rancheria)

    Please RSVP here.
    This event is made possible by funding from the City of Davis. Arts and Cultural Affairs Fund.
     
    View original artwork by Diana Almendariz and collective member Adnan Beteha.
     
    Read the inaugural blogpost by Adnan on Putah Creek Futures: 
     
    "I am meant to flood. I am meant to meander. I am meant to be free, and one day I will be all of that again."
    YoloSol is pleased to partner with Davis Rep on HEAR FIRST, a one-of-a-klnd audio piece for outdoor listening featuring songs, stories, and urgent messages about the land beneath our feet.
    Copyright for artwork remains with the artists.
    October 2023 YoloSol Collective

  • Caltrans’ data shows 100mph rail upgrade 15x more cost-effective than road widening

    Study: Average speed difference trivial if toll lanes added; HOV lanes don’t work.

    1 SEGMENT WIDENING

    By Alan Hirsch, Yolo Mobility 

    If you read deeply and critically into Caltrans documents, you will often find a number of things  acknowledged- inconvenient truth not always shared with elected officials.

     City and County elected officials rely on agency staff to give honest and complete presentation of objective findings.  However, the reality is elected official are very vulnerable if an agency’s staff is committed to pursue a pre-ordained solution. Staff can bending their analysis or make strategic omissions of information in their presentation. These are rarely caught by elected official who don’t have time to read, much less understand the reports.

    Then it’s up a rare whistleblower and or nerdy gadflies to protect the public interest by catching this, and making public comments to elected who otherwise don’t have time to read everything.

    But in the end, it up courageous electeds, who are willing to both listen to the outsiders, and are then open to changing their minds, if the agency solution is be questioned if its pre-ordained solution is in the public good.

    This manipulation of data  does come from all Government agencies, or even most, but this Machiavellian approach to public policy can hard backed  into  the culture of some.

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  • Council to Remove Downtown Tree Protections

    Wrap banding

    Trees damaged by light strings

    City Staff Ask City Council to Remove Protections for Downtown Trees Tonight

    by Colin Walsh

    Please let City Council know Davis wants its downtown trees protected. Email  CityCouncilMembers@cityofdavis.org, or call and leave a comment between noon and 4pm today (530) 757-5693. You can also attend the City council meeting tonight – it is expected to be heard at 8pm.

    For 20 years Davis staff have put lights in Downtown Davis Trees, often damaging the trees, even though it is a violation of Davis City Code.  Over the summer the City went to do regular trimming and maintenance for downtown trees and had to remove all of the lights because the situation had gotten so bad, damaging trees and causing unsafe conditions with exposed electrical outlets and wires. Now the City wants to put the lights back up and are proposing to change the law to do so – but are including no protections for the trees to assure no more trees are damaged by the lights.

    It is possible to have a tree lights program for downtown trees, but there needs to be best practices for how to install them and funding to maintain them or take them down before they harm trees. The proposed Davis plan does not include any of that. They are just changing city law to eliminate tree protections.

    Many other cities ban tree lights completely. Some cities limit lights to 1 or 2 month a year because wires wrapped around trees inevitably interfere with three growth and can even kill trees. Still other cities have permit processes that assure inspection and a revenue stream for maintenance. Davis is opting for none of those, and just eliminating the law that protects trees.

    Please let council know hurting Davis trees is not OK!

    For more information the City staff report is available here:

    https://documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/2023/2023-10-03/06-Modification-of-Municipal-Code-Chapter-37.pdf

  • Al’s Whatever Thing (Formerly Al’s Corner) – October 2023

    image from www.sparkysonestop.com

    Not much going on in Davis these days . . . coming up short on starter topics . . . #sigh# . . . anyone?

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