Election day brings plenty of decisions

By MYRTLE OSNER

Thought you'd have an easy ballot this March? Think again! On Tuesday, March 2 you get to vote on all three levels: national, state, and local.

A while back, California changed its presidential primary time to March, thinking we would have a head start over the old June date. Already the candidates are positioning themselves, storming the country, hoping for your vote. Be aware that you only get to vote for the party in which you are registered. So if you want to vote for a Green (or whatever) and you aren't registered with them, be sure to fill out a voter affidavit and get it to the County Elections office no later than Tuesday, February 17 (Monday 16 is a holiday). It MUST REACH THEM BY THAT DAY. Remember, you must re-register if you have moved, changed your name or did not vote in the last general election.

STATE BALLOT MEASURES

Proposition 55: the Kindergarten-University Public Education Bond Act. Bonds are how the state borrows money to build buildings for education, and require a 55% vote.

Proposition 56: called the "Budget Accountability Act" and is a complex measure designed to revamp the system. It would require the following changes in the legislature's budget process:

• permanently forfeit the governor's and legislators' salaries for every day that the budget is late.

• requires the legislature to remain in session and work on only budget-related legislation until the budget is passed.

• reduce the vote to adopt the state budget from 2/3 to 55%.

• requires the state to create a "rainy day" fund of 5% in times of surplus.

Both the League of Women Voters (LVW) and the California Tax Reform Association (CTRA) say that this is the real reform that California needs to become fiscally healthy.

Proposition 57: a one-time bond of $15 billion, to retire the state's deficit. Gov. Schwarzenegger is touting this as the solution to all our ills. Others point out that paying off this bond measure will saddle our children with huge debt (bonds PLUS interest on them mean they cost us a lot more than the original amount we voted for). If Prop. 57 passes, the LWV and CTRA believe California is headed for a Third World credit rating.

Proposition 58: a constitutional amendment requiring the enactment of a balanced budget.

Each election, California’s League of Women Voters analyzes of the Pros and Cons of each ballot measure. Free copies of these Pros and Cons will be available in all Stanislaus County libraries courtesy of Modesto’s LWV. Arguments on the issues are presented without recommendations.

Also available is the Easy Reader, a joint project of the California Library Assn. and the League. Easy Reader gives a clear, brief description of the ballot, complete with pictures of the presidential candidates. Look for a stack of these tabloid size publications at your library or call the Modesto League, 524-1698.

LOCAL ELECTION

Four measures will be on various ballots. The only one which will be on all county residents' ballots is Measure P, renewing the one eighth cent sales tax devoted exclusively to support our library system. The League of Women Voters supports this tax because it is required to maintain the system in its present excellence. Stanislaus County was the first to institute this tax when libraries almost were lost. No other source of earmarked funding is available.

• Measure Q is for the Oakdale Fire District.

• Measure R is a school bond for Riverbank schools for $14 million and requires a 55% vote.

• Measure S is a school bond for Valley Home for $1.4 million., also requiring $55 % vote.

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors holds elections in March, with staggered terms. This year, three supervisorial seats are on the ballot.

These are four-year terms. A candidate forum will be held Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m. in the Board Chambers, lower floor, Tenth Street Place. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters, it is televised and open to the public. Questions must be submitted in writing.

• District l: Incumbent, Pat Paul, includes east Modesto and the cities east of it, and north of the Tuolumne River. Challenger: William O'Brien of Riverbank.

• District 2: Incumbent, Tom Mayfield. Includes area east and south of the Tuolumne River (but not Ceres): Turlock, Hughson, etc. Challengers: Rick Applegate, Ted Howze, Brad Bates

• District 5: Incumbent, Paul Caruso. Includes south of the Tuolumne River: Ceres, Patterson, area west of Turlock, and other west side cities. Challenger: Jim De Martini.

REGISTER TO VOTE, AND VOTE MARCH 2.

Radioactive and toxic debris cleanup a sham
Edited and excerpted from Tri-Valley Cares Citizen's Watch:

"New Plan leaves toxic, Radioactive Debris in Environment"

Livermore Lab’s main facility was named a Superfund cleanup site in 1987. In 1990, the 11 square miles of high explosives testing facility in Tracy (Site 300) became a second Superfund site. These are two of the most contaminated locations in our nation.

Now a Bush appointee has proposed a "Risk-Based End States Vision." What passes for "vision" will become a nightmare for communities and the environment. It says that cleanup efforts will be abandoned except where there is imminent offsite migration of a contaminant plume at levels considered unsafe by the state and federal EPA into the surrounding residential, agricultural and commercial areas.

At the Lab's main site this would mean violating the law and turning off facilities that are already built and operating onsite to clean soil and groundwater.

Tracy's site 300 has its own deadly broth that includes radioactive tritium, uranium-238, toxic heavy metals, high explosive compounds, chemicals, rocket fuel, and some of the worst volatile organic compound spills in the country. At Site 300, under the "vision,” contaminants will be allowed to migrate and pollute pristine water freely. Since the final Record of Decision has not yet set cleanup levels, no one knows what those levels will be.

The Risk-Based End States Vision (RBES) is called "Accelerated cleanup" and is said to be cheaper. When you reduce the standards for cleanup it saves time and money, but leaves the area devastated with poisons. Having the Dept. of Energy take over the Environmental Management dept. at the two sites is akin to "leaving the nuclear fox in charge of the hen house (the cleanup), says Tri Valley CARES.  

Read the full article here

ACTION: For info go to www.trivalleycares.org. Email comments to the Department Of Energy at kearns2@llnl.gov or send letters to Roy Kearns, L574, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Livermore Site Office , P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551.

ELECTRONIC VOTING UPDATE: California officials work to safeguard elections
By LEE RYAN MILLER

In November 2003, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley mandated that all voting machines in California produce a “voter-verifiable paper trail” by July 2006 to ensure the accuracy of elections in the state of California. Congressman Dennis Cardoza has become a co-sponsor of a bill in Congress that would require this for the whole country in time for this year’s November election.

Last month, STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS reported on the dangers to democracy posed by the new electronic voting machines that are being introduced in the United States (“Electronic voting may imperil democracy,” Jan. 2004). A series of software errors and security flaws plaguing touch-screen and other new voting machines have alarmed computer experts nationwide and spawned a movement to mandate a “voter-verifiable paper trail” for all voting machines.

Currently, a voter using touch-screen voting machines or other similar technology has no way to know whether the computer is accurately recording his/her choices, and there is no way to do a recount in the event of disputed results. Secretary of State Shelley has required that when people vote in California, the voting machine produce a paper record that the voter can verify for accuracy. In the event of a dispute over the balloting results, this paper record can be checked to verify the accuracy of the electronic voting records.

Mr. Shelley stated the rationale for his action: “The core of our American democracy is the right to vote. Implicit in that right is the notion that that vote be private, that vote be secure, and that vote be counted as it was intended when it was cast by the voter. And I think what we're encountering is a pivotal moment in our democracy where all of that is being called into question.”

Legislation mandating a voter-verifiable paper trail nationwide has been introduced in both houses of Congress, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 2239 in the House of Representatives, S. 1980 in the Senate). Thanks in part to readers of STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS who contacted Congressman Dennis Cardoza in response to last month’s article, Mr. Cardoza has become a co-sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives. Other area congressional representatives have yet to take a position on this bill.

For more information, review last month’s article or visit www.verifiedvoting.org

ACTION: Call your congressional representatives to express your support for the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act. The toll-free number for the U.S. Congress is (800) 839-5276. If Rep. Cardoza is your congressman, let him know that you support his decision to co-sponsor HR 2239. If someone else is your representative, (1) ask what his/her position is on HR 2239 and (2) ask him/her to co-sponsor it. Call both Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein and (1) ask what the senator’s position is on S. 1980 and (2) ask that she co-sponsor it.

Modestan sees beauty and violence in South Africa
By LEE RYAN MILLER
Seventh in a series

January to May 2003 I lived on a ship that circumnavigated the globe. I was teaching political science on Semester at Sea, a program run by the University of Pittsburgh. Some 650 students participated, visiting nine countries and ten ports.

In this series, I present excerpts from my journal and commentary on the societies we visited.

Last month I described my visit with a group of students to a small “township” on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. “Townships” are communities of destitute people ringing South African cities. This month I visit Site C, the largest township around Cape Town.

We visited a local community center to attend a dance performance by a group of girls who were quite famous, and had performed for former President Nelson Mandela, as well as current president Thabo Mbeki.

Girls in the community, we were told, are frequent victims of sexual abuse after school. Women in the community had created the dance troop so that the girls would have someplace safe to go after school. The girls in the troop ranged in age from around 8 to 16 and were dressed in traditional African costumes. They had made rattles out of strings of crushed soda cans which each girl had tied around one of her ankles. They danced as one girl beat a drum and an older woman sang.

Most of the girls were topless. Clement explained that, traditionally, girls do not wear tops until age 18, but that some parents now require their daughters to wear tops—in the hopes of making rape less likely. In South Africa, rape often is a death sentence. Around one-quarter of the population is HIV positive. Life expectancy in South Africa averaged 56.7 years during the late 1990s. It is expected to fall to around 40 within the next five years due to the AIDS epidemic. Very few HIV positive South Africans can afford prescription medication to treat their condition, and few live long after they begin showing symptoms of the disease.

After the dance performance, we drove through the township’s commercial section. There were shacks selling all sorts of items like food and clothing, and others where you could get car batteries charged. (Many township residents, lacking electricity, power small appliances with car batteries.) We visited the disordered and quite dirty shack of a traditional healer. He had bunches of all sorts of herbs hanging from the ceiling, bottles of various types of spirits on shelves. The healer claimed that he was able to cure AIDS and said that, unlike Western drugs, his treatment was affordable to ordinary South Africans. But he cautioned that the treatment was very harsh (causing lots of vomiting and diarrhea), and that many people were unwilling to continue treatment until they were cured.

Next we traveled a short distance to a Rastafarian community named after the Jamaican-born black nationalist and social reformer, Marcus Garvey. Our visit to this community presented a refreshing contrast with the sad places we’d visited earlier. This community seemed to be a bit better off economically. People lived in permanent houses, rather than shacks. They wore clothing in good condition, and everyone was smiling.

South African townships are dangerous, and a Semester at Sea student had been mugged on a township visit the previous day. But I felt safe in Marcus Garvey. Clement, our guide, who had repeatedly warned everyone not to stray from the group during our previous stops, confirmed that Marcus Garvey was quite safe. He said that there was very little crime in Marcus Garvey, and that when someone commits a crime there, community leaders sit down with the wrongdoer and talk to him about what he did and why it was wrong. I felt like I had entered a hippie commune.

Using a microphone and loudspeakers, residents put on a reggae/hip hop concert for us. Regarding their relative affluence, Clement said that not long ago, the community had been very poor and had lived in the bush. Then, as the townships expanded toward their community, they had government build them houses. The residents of Marcus Garvey now grew their own organic food, and remained very community-oriented. “If you have a loaf of bread,” Clement explained, “you make sure to give some of it to your neighbors.” He said that they make money by producing and selling arts and crafts in the city. Before we left, they offered some of their work for sale to us. No hard sell here. If you were interested, that was okay; if not, that was okay as well.

The children in this community don’t go to school. The parents won’t allow it, for fear that their unique culture will be disrupted. They are trying to raise funds from Jamaica to establish their own schools. The kids were extremely well-behaved, constantly smiling, and always wanted to hold our hands.

Clement explained that although marijuana is illegal in South Africa, the authorities do not enforce the law in Marcus Garvey. Residents are permitted to smoke ganja weed—as is required by their religion—as long as they don’t smoke it or sell it outside the community. For our benefit, no one was smoking ganja weed during our visit. At the crafts fair they held for us, one man asked me if I’d like to buy some ganja. But when I explained that it was not permitted on the ship, he nodded his head, smiled, and said he understood.

In addition to exploring Cape Town and some of the surrounding townships, I also traveled far into the interior of the country to visit the Kagga Kamma game reserve. On the long drive, I felt like I had been transported back to California. Iceplants were everywhere (they are native to South Africa). Near the city, we passed through an agricultural region that looked like Oxnard. Most of the farmers were white, and those who labored for them had dark skins (Coloureds, in this case, rather than Mexicans). We crossed a mountain range that looked remarkably like the Santa Monica Mountains in southern California. We passed signs along the road for Ceres, Porterville, and Fresno. Gradually, the terrain became more arid, and we saw ostriches running free in a landscape dominated be what looked like sagebrush and wind-carved sandstone sculptures.

While at Kagga Kamma, we saw ancient rock art and lots of wildlife, and met some San (Bushmen) selling traditional handicrafts. (As we were leaving, I noticed that they changed from their traditional loincloths to western clothing.)

On the bus ride back to Cape Town, I had an interesting conversation with Inge, our guide, a middle-aged Afrikaner. She felt that Apartheid had been very unjust, and was pleased that it had ended. On the other hand, she was quite critical of the current government and claimed that it, in an attempt to improve the schools attended by non-while children, had bled the schools in white areas of teachers and resources, thereby lowering the quality of public education. She also blamed the government for the fact that wages had not kept up with prices, making life increasingly difficult for the middle class.

South Africa is a beautiful country, rich in culture and natural resources. But it is also beset by serious economic problems, a horrifying AIDS crisis, and an epidemic of violent crime. I pray that South Africans of all races and classes will someday soon be able to put aside their differences and work toward a brighter future.

• Learn more about the District Six Museum: www.districtsix.co.za
• Learn more about Semester at Sea: www.semesteratsea.com
• Read more stories from Lee Ryan Miller: www.LeerRyanMiller.com
• Read installment 1, Modestan gets a peek inside Castro’s Cuba
• Read  installment 2, Modestan observes poverty and inequality in Brazil
• Read installment 3, part 1 of Modestan visits the Amazon Rainforest
• Read installment 4, part 2 of Modestan visits the Amazon Rainforest

• Read installment 5, Modestan Observes Legacy of Apartheid in South Africa

• Read installment 6, Modestan visits destitute South African township

Next month: population pressures threaten wildlife in Tanzania.

 Summit to prepare teens for college

For sixteen years, Modesto Junior College has held an African American Education Conference and Teen Summit. Some 400 students from area Junior High and High Schools usually attend. This year's summit will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2004. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and speakers, workshops, and exhibits will be open till 4 p.m.

Crucial to succeeding in college, says Wendy Byrd, director of the Student Center at MJC, is becoming prepared during your high school years. The event is especially geared toward African Americans, but is free and open to all students.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Joe Marshall, director of Omega Boys Club of San Francisco. Dr. Marshall's reputation working with young men in that city is well-known. He has a weekly talk show, and his website is www.street-soldiers.org.

The evening wraps up with a dance sponsored by the Black Students Union of MJC. Admission is $5 at the door.

What would you do with $87 billion dollars?

President George W. Bush got $87 Billion (for one year) from Congress to continue the US presence in Iraq. What could the world do with $87 dollars?

The world can afford to meet the needs of people, as well as the environmental protections, that will ensure a sustainable future for future generations. But, not while it spends its money, energy and talent on wars. The United States, the wealthiest nation in history, could easily provide for the needs of its people, protect the environment, and help others around the world IF it chose to do so.

GLOBAL PRIORITIES

Estimated extra cost (billions/year) of meeting global or US need for:

• Family Planning: $17

• Ending Hunger: $24

• Primary Education: $6

• Housing/Shelter: $21

• Health Care/AIDS control $21

• Child Immunization: $1.5

• US Clean, Safe Water: $10

• US Reforestation: $20

• US Park Service Budget: $2

• Doubling US Renewable Energy Use: $1.9

GLOBAL REALITIES

Estimated amount spent (billions/year) globally or in the US on:

• US War in Iraq, 2003-04: $177

• Cigarettes: $400

• Advertising: $250

• Wine & Beer: $245

• Diet Aids: $40

• 1 Trident Submarine: $1.5

• Weather-related Disasters 2002: $55

• US Gambling 2002: $69

• US Cosmetic Surgery: $8.3

• US Military Budget 2002: $518.9

Compiled by the Population Coalition, P.O Box 7918, Redlands, CA. 92375. Statistics sources: Congressional Budget Office, UN Human Development Report, UNICEF State of the World's Children; USA EPA reports, DOA reports, and other official sources.

“Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." — President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 1953.

Homeless Shelter needs help

Modesto Council member Janice Keating has issued this list for temporary homeless shelter needs. Volunteers are also needed. Many of the items will be needed after opening, through April.

Items: linens, blankets, vinyl mattress covers, bottled water, jackets, pants, sweaters, socks, soap, paper towels, paper towel dispensers, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, toilet seat protectors, hygiene kits (with toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, hairbrushes, mouthwash, fem. hygiene supplies, etc.)

Office supplies, computer paper, pads, pens, pencils, dry-erase markers, paper clips and rubber bands.

Help needed for feeding people

At press time, help from community organizations and churches was needed to provide food service since there is no kitchen on site.