Reflections on CA Props 30, 34, 37

Today was not as emotional as the day after the 2008 election. After the presidential race (phew) and the historic victories for LGBT and Asian American communities across the nation, I was also watching closely for the results on California propositions 30, 34, and 37.

Prop 30 - Increase Education Tax - Passed

I'm excited at the margin with which this passed. The tides are turning, however slowly, toward more equitable taxation, and increased willingness to pour money into our education system. Now, the question of whether our education system is even effective is a whole other issue. When are we going to start reducing standardized testing (and the millions of dollars that go to the College Board, Princeton Review, and Kaplan), and spend more of that money on teachers, providing students with enrichment beyond the classroom (and, I daresay, beyond computers), and better food in schools? 

Prop 34 - Repeal Death Penalty - Failed

When I was a sophomore in high school, I wrote an impassioned essay about why I believed in capital punishment. My arguments were based mainly, I recognize now, on wanting vengeance. My feelings on how I would want to punish someone who badly hurt someone close to me haven't changed, but my perspective on whether the state ought to be allowed to do so has. I no longer believe in capital punishment. I don't even believe in our current prison system. Evidence shows a significant probability that innocent people are put to death. There's also the matter of the hypocrisy in criminalizing murder and then using murder as a punishment. I look forward to the day when California joins so many developed nations in abolishing capital punishment. 

Prop 37 - Label Genetically Modified Food - Failed

Big agriculture and companies like Monsanto have so much power that It didn't surprise me that this proposition didn't pass. I would have to see it pass, if only for the spectacle of stickers declaring genetic modification that would (likely) be slapped on to nearly everything in grocery stores. Since humans began practicing agriculture, we've employed genetic engineering; the difference (and problem) today is that the modifications are often made to increase productivity and transportability rather than for nutrition. Beyond getting the companies to employ these practices to stop, we have to begin to find other ways of feeding ourselves.

So there have been victories and setbacks, and the exhilaration of election night will fade, but it's not going to be one election or one ballot that will create the world we want. It happens every day, bit by bit, and it's happening constantly. It has to.

Indeed ! "@andiran: Now the work continues. RT @arc_rinkusen Now the work begins."
— Rinku Sen (@ARC_RinkuSen) November 7, 2012

Tomorrow is Election Day

I mailed in my ballot on Saturday. This election has come so quickly. Hopefully Tuesday's results will lead us to four more years of Obama, and in California: GMO labeling on our food, more money for education, and no more death penalty. 

One voter guide I used to help me in my decision-making:

I'm sure we must, we can, and we will eventually change our two-party system, but I voted for Obama because I don't think that it can happen in this country from the top down. Is it possible to convince enough people to elect a Green Party or Independent President before there's a significant presence in the rest of our government?

Bilingualism is Good for You // Time to Rethink Prop 227

A recent New York Times article, The Benefits of Bilingualism, presents that studies have shown cognitive benefits to being bilingual:

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle. 

...

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

This signifies that it's time to take a long, hard look at our monolingual education system and how it came to be, as well as consider its impact on the quality of our public education system.

Los Angeles DREAMs

I had an eerily calm commute from Downtown LA to my current residence in the South Bay yesterday. Heading south at two in the afternoon on the 110 through South LA has not been that clear on a weekday in-- ever. No congestion passing USC, no slowing-down at Gage or Manchester. 

One thing about having a commute is that I've come to appreciate Los Angeles public radio much more than before. I'm not a big podcast-listener so I never subscribed.

Today I was listening to KCRW when UnFictional came on. I got to hear American Dreamer, the story of a talented jazz saxophonist who could not gain admission to college because of his undocumented status. It was a timely broadcast-- this week is a DREAM Act Week of Action to pressure Congress to finally pass the DREAM Act, giving undocumented students a path to citizenship. 


A few of the actions happening in Los Angeles:

Wednesday Dec. 1, 2010:
* Phone Banking at the “I Believe in Dream Act in 2010″ Call Center
Morning Shift: 6AM- 10AM
Evening Shift: 6PM-10PM
Asian Pacific American Legal Center 1145 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Thursday Dec. 2, 2010:
Press Conference and Rally
* “Nation supports Dream Act and Trutanich wants to punish supporters?!”
8AM
210 W Temple St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Friday Dec. 3, 2010:
* Coming Out in Support of Wilshire Dream 9 Allies
8AM
Press Conference and Rally
210 W Temple St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Read more:

• Daring to DREAM: In Memory of Student Warriors Tam Tran and Cynthia Felix
• DREAM Act could generate $1.6 trillion (I'm not one for number crunching, but whatever gets this passed.)
• Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Announces Support for DREAM Act
• CA already has legislation in place to assist undocumented students

and now they will have to face us.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I biked home this morning, but I held them back. I said to myself the things that I said to people last night in phone conversations and via text message: Whatever happens, we will be strong, we will keep fighting, change is happening and it will keep happening. We won't stop. Whatever happens, we will not stop. I held those words fiercely and shared them freely last night.

At this particular moment, however, I am thinking to myself We lost-- how could we lose? How can this be real? And I think of the Mayor of San Diego who gave a speech about how he had planned on veto-ing the city council's resolution against Prop 8, and how when the resolution lay before him, when he had to face the statement he would make if he vetoed it and stood in support of Prop 8, he could not. He could not bring himself to say to a whole group of people in the community that they were less, that they were undeserving. His voice was nakedly emotional as he said to his constituency that he knew not all would agree with him, but that he had to follow his heart.

And I wonder, what was in the hearts of the 52.1% of California who voted in favor of a proposition that contains the words "Eliminates the right"? How can they use a document that is supposed to grant and protect rights in such a twisted, unfair, malicious manner?

And I wonder, how they will face us? How they will face all of us who are hurt beyond measure, those of us whom they have decided are less than they, those of us from whom they have taken away so much.

And I wonder, how dare they. How dare they do this to their friends, relatives, children. How dare they do this to their community. How dare they insert their hate into the law.

And, helplessly, I wonder what else I could have done. What else I should have done. The sense of failure is deep and piercing.

When I sat down in front of my computer, I braced myself for the reactions I knew I would find. I prepared myself to give more words of strength and comfort.

But I broke, tears and sobs welling up from the intense disappointment and pain that so many of us share. I know: We will be strong, we will keep fighting, change is happening and it will keep happening. We won't stop. Whatever happens, we will not stop.

It is an historic day: a man of color stands as our president-elect.
It is an historic day: all of us who stand for equality have been called to action.

Yes, I feel weak and wounded in this particular moment.

No, I do not feel defeated. We are not defeated.

Ride the Metro and (Maybe) Run into the Mayor

I was browsing MetroRiderLa and the "Daily Transit Links Roundup" included this article which states that Mayor Villaraigosa is going to begin taking the bus once a week.

Resurrecting a pledge to use more public transit as Los Angeles grapples with gridlock, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has begun stepping aboard more buses and rails to encourage Angelenos to leave their cars at home once a week.

"If I said to everybody, `Get out of your car and take public transit,' the likelihood of people doing that isn't great," Villaraigosa said Tuesday after arriving on the 710 Metro bus to catch the Purple Line at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

"So the goal is: Get out of your car once a week. I want to model that."

Villaraigosa's "Go Metro with the Mayor" effort is a pledge from his first 100 days in office to ride public transit once a week. While he said his work schedule prevents him from using it more frequently, the overall goal is to lead by example.

But the real test of Villaraigosa's leadership will be whether he can stick to the new routine.

It's a model Los Angeles - and the nation - needs as mayors in major cities gush about the benefits of public transportation but don't always practice what they preach.

I hope that Villaraigosa succeeds. It's not easy to plan even a single workday around public transit when you are accustomed to driving, but if the mayor can do it, maybe more people will be willing to give it a try.

I ride my bike to work when I don't have to run any errands that require driving, and sometimes that means I only get to bike to work once a week. It's not so bad, though, since I live only 1.5 miles from work, and hopefully more people will find living near their place of business a viable option. With the number of fancy condominiums and lofts going up all over Downtown, that actually has a chance of happening (for those who can afford it, anyway).

If enough people follow the mayor's example, maybe we'll be able to see the thick haze of smog over the skyline clear just a little bit.