Commentary
Opinion: Rob Bonta for California Attorney General
Due to Sen. Harris’s soon to be ascension to the Vice Presidency, and Gov. Newsom’s selection of Secretary of State Padilla as V.P. elect Harris’s replacement to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Newsom has been gifted the ability to make appointments, to the incredibly consequential statewide offices of Attorney General and Secretary of State.
Gov. Newsom recently announced his historic nomination of Sen. Shirley Webber of San Diego, who if selected would be the first black woman to serve as CA Secretary of State. Gov.
Newsom again has the power to make another historic nomination, by selecting Asm. Rob Bonta of the 18th assembly district, who would be the first Filipino American Attorney General in state history.
Rob grew up watching his parents work with Caesar Chavez for the United Farm Workers of America to organize Filipino and Mexican American farmworkers.
Watching his parents work to achieve peaceful social, racial, and economic justice, for United farm Workers inspired him to pursue a career in public service.
To prepare himself for a career in public service, Rob obtained his Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School after attending Yale College and Oxford University in England.
He later served as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco, where he represented the City and County and its employees, in addition, he worked as a private attorney fighting to protect Californians from exploitation and racial profiling. Rob was undefeated at trial, never losing a jury verdict for his clients.
Asm. Bonta has had many accomplishments in his career but among the most consequential have been his legislative work and accomplishments during his tenure as a California State Assemblymember. He has been focused on reforming our criminal justice system and addressing systemic and structural racism, by working on legislation such as SB 10, signed into law in 2018, took a transformational step forward to correct a fundamental injustice by abolishing the for-profit, private, predatory money bail system. AB 32, signed into law in 2019, ends the use of for-profit, private prisons and detention facilities in California. AB 32 made California the first state in the nation to ban both private prisons and civil detention centers. AB 1196 (Co-Author with Asm. Gipson) bans the use of certain police chokeholds (carotid artery restraint). AB 1506 (Joint Author with Asm. McCarty) ensures a thorough, independent, and outside investigation will be conducted when a law enforcement officer is involved in a shooting of an unarmed Californian that results in death.
I have also personally worked with Asm. Bonta to address issues that affect his constituent’s safety that use public transit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the AC Transit District like all other municipalities, businesses, and individuals were in desperate need of procuring personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves, masks, face shields, and hand sanitizer for its employees. It was in this time of urgent need that I was able to turn to my friend Asm. Rob Bonta, for help in securing hand sanitizer.
Asm. Bonta was able to leverage his relationship with Saint George Spirits distillery in Alameda and facilitate AC Transit receiving a donation of more than five gallons of hand sanitizer.
It is for the reasons I have listed, the commitment he would have to all Californians, and the commitment to using the powers of the Attorney Generals’ office to do good in the public interest that I wholeheartedly endorse Asm. Rob Bonta’s nominations as California’s next Attorney General!
Mark Williams is AC Transit Director, Ward 4 Alameda County Democratic Central Committee – member elect 20th Assembly District 20.
His titles are for identification purposes only and this piece is solely his personal opinion.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024
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Bay Area
Grieving & Growing: A Healing Garden in West Oakland Is Helping Bereaved Loved Ones Glow Again
As a natural order of the human condition, we cannot escape death. Akin to life and living, death and dying are a part of our journey as spiritual beings having a human experience here on Earth. One thing we know for certain is that we will all lose someone we love or someone who loves us. And, yet still, as natural as death is, the pain and sorrow we endure when losing loved ones is beyond compare and often ridden with heaviness, regret, despair, confusion, guilt, and self-blame.
By Chanae Pickett
As a natural order of the human condition, we cannot escape death.
Akin to life and living, death and dying are a part of our journey as spiritual beings having a human experience here on Earth. One thing we know for certain is that we will all lose someone we love or someone who loves us. And, yet still, as natural as death is, the pain and sorrow we endure when losing loved ones is beyond compare and often ridden with heaviness, regret, despair, confusion, guilt, and self-blame.
And when our loved ones are taken from us before their predestined time as a result of excessive use of police force, gun violence, homicide, suicide, among other unanticipated traumatic encounters, our shock, bereavement, and grief reactions become compounded, exacerbated and challenging to weather.
Is it possible to heal from the suffering that comes with grief and loss, which often feels endless, cyclical, and labyrinthine? Is there a way out? A way through grief?
While serving as a Psychiatric and Psychological Care Specialist in the United States Air Force, I evaluated, counseled, and intervened with patients at the Travis Air Force Base who were deemed a danger to themselves and others. These experiences profoundly shaped my understanding of mental health.
Despite my background as a Mental Health Technician, the sudden loss of my younger brother to suicide following our father’s unjustified killing by police while unarmed with his hands up in a church parking lot left me with feelings of professional failure and personal shame. These tragedies forced me to reevaluate my priorities, leading me to focus more on making a genuine difference in grief processing, community building, and communal healing.
Driven by my brother Immanuel aka Apollo’s artistic legacy, ancestral guidance, and our shared grief, my family and I founded the Long Live Love Foundation in West Oakland’s “Ghost Town” on June 13, 2020, to honor our dearly departed.
For, the love we hold for our ancestors lives long and for all time. Using my brother’s music and message of love as guiding principles, our missions are to offer a safe supportive communal healing space for those coping with loss and to empower survivors through indigenous, holistic and alternative restorative tribal ministry practices and vital resources.
One of our cornerstone projects is our Long Live Love Healing Garden. A sanctuary for healing, this serene space hosts wellness weekends, drum circles, yoga, and various events, offering solace and respite for those navigating grief and celebrating life.
This year I’ll be the Master of Ceremonies for our much-anticipated 5th Annual Apollo Carter Legacy Weekend on June 8th and 9th in which performers and artists from all walks of life unite for a celebratory weekend overflowing with music, poetry, spoken word, song, dance, and other performing arts. Our Open Mic Stage is a magnet for talented artists eager to express themselves, their hearts, and their spirits, beckoning them to dazzle the community with their unique gifts.
RonKat Spearman of Parliament Funkadelic will be blessing our stage on Sunday, June 9th, as well as other local bands. We’ll be spreading the joy further by gifting the community with fresh, organic fruits and vegetables courtesy of Oasis Community Farm. It’s a celebration of talent, community, and wholesome goodness! To buy a ticket, sign up to perform, donate, join us in our mission, and learn more about our work and how you can support our cause, visit us at longlivelovefoundation.com.
About the Author
Chanae Pickett is co-founder of the Long Live Love Foundation in West Oakland.
Commentary
Opinion: Will Verdicts Help Black Voters See the Truth?
The news of Trump’s historic 34 guilty verdicts are about a week old. Has it sunk in that the man who insists on being the Republican nominee for president is the former president known officially as CFDT34? If the name sounds like a dangerous radioactive isotope, it is — to our democracy.
By Emil Guillermo
The news of Trump’s historic 34 guilty verdicts are about a week old.
Has it sunk in that the man who insists on being the Republican nominee for president is the former president known officially as CFDT34? If the name sounds like a dangerous radioactive isotope, it is — to our democracy.
CFDT34 is my coinage of a new acronym that we all should adopt. It’s shorthand for “Convicted Felon Donald Trump,” with 34 being the number of criminal counts of guilt.
We need to say CFDT34 aloud as a constant reminder. Too many Americans are in denial. Or just lying.
Especially, CFDT34 himself.
Trump insists it’s all a “fascist” witch hunt, but the verdicts were based on an avalanche of evidence. The defense failed to refute the statements of the National Enquirer’s David Pecker who admitted his role in the Trump campaign to catch, then kill, stories that threatened Trump’s candidacy.
The defense didn’t even attempt to explain Hope Hicks, an ally who delivered the damning testimony that Trump knew about the arrangement to pay off Daniels. Hicks was in tears telling the truth. The defense never countered.
And then there were the checks and invoices and ledger entries, that spelled out the whole scheme. The payments were lies, called “lawyer fees” but they really were reimbursements to attorney Michael Cohen who had used his own money to pay off Daniels.
Minor stuff? Not when done with the intent to violate election law. The payoff was intended to influence the election and it became an illegal campaign contribution as well.
And the hero is New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the African American man who led the prosecution. Bragg got justice for all voters denied the truth in 2016.
Contrast Bragg with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla). the key African Americans lying for CFDT34.
Scott and Donalds lack the courage to honor the rule of law. Rigged case, they say. Never should have been prosecuted. Where was the crime?
All of it baloney.
Prior to the historic verdicts, there was some historic polling.
Black voters were seen as abandoning Democrats, with Biden scoring just 70% of the vote. Four years ago, Biden was at 81%.
CNN called the pre-verdict polling the best results for the GOP among Black voters since Nixon.
The age breakdown is more telling. Black voters aged 50 and up were about 85% for Biden. Those who recalled civil rights battles were holding steady for Democrats.
Among Black voters under age 50, a new divide was revealed. A reported average of polls showed young Blacks were 27% for Trump, with Biden at 64%.
Nearly a third of young Blacks were for Trump prior to the verdicts. But what would young Blacks think now? Would they back a person like Trump, a man who comes with racist baggage like the Central Park 5 saga, and is now a convicted felon?
I haven’t seen new data yet. But with Biden and Harris stepping up their attention on the Black community, talking about economics and pocketbook issues, I’d expect a turnaround when young Blacks hear the lies and the overall hypocrisy among the GOP.
About the Author
Emil Guillermo, an award-winning journalist, and commentator has covered race and politics in Hawaii, California, and Washington, DC. He has worked in newspapers, TV and on radio was host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
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