August 2020 Community Alliance

We plan to resume a printed version of the Community Alliance in September.  If you are a subscriber, you will get a copy in the mail.  If you would like to become a subscriber, renew your membership or make a donation, go to: https://fresnoalliance.com/subscribe/ .  We can use the support as we begin reprinting the paper.  With your help, we will be one of the local businesses that survives the pandemic.

By James Mendez

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors (BOS) has failed to demonstrate leadership since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The most recent example of their failed leadership occurred on July 28. The BOS met with the Fresno City Council for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

This City-County joint meeting occurred due to pressure from the City Council, local organizations and Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula (D–Fresno). They met to discuss strategy on how to best deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Peter Maiden

Around 75 people attended a vigil in Fresno on July 18 in honor of Vanessa Guillen. The vigil was held at 717 N. Fresno Street, where a mural featuring her likeness had just been completed. The mural is one of a number of Guillen that have been painted across the country. As part of the Black Lives Matter movement, there have been several murals painted around Fresno recently.

By I. smiley G. Calderon

Americans are strong and caring people who will face a challenge and step up to the plate when their country needs them to and will do whatever it takes to help when the situation calls for it. Just don’t ask them to cover their face. Ever. Because that’s when all hell breaks loose.

By Pilar Marrero

When Imperial County emerged as California’s No. 1 hot spot in Covid-19 infection rates, it exposed three variables—low-wage workers, overcrowded households and inadequate healthcare—that make some regions a prime target for the coronavirus.

By Joel Eis

Things are getting interesting. History is getting more personal every day.

Street demonstrations are a great thing, but they’re not a movement. They’re an action to show how people feel about an idea, but people who are committed to making change can and should seek out other tactics to make real change in the world around us.

By Tom Frantz

This column has detailed the lack of integrity at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (air district) for a long time. Kevin Hall wrote about illegal and insufficient air district cleanup plans and cronyism with developers nearly 20 years ago. I have attempted to continue the tradition since 2013.

Lobbyists for developers, the oil industry and agriculture have guided the air district behind closed doors since its formation in 1993.

By Juan Trujillo

“It is important to call today to bring out the best in us, the legacy of the grandparents, the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples for the benefit of all humanity; in a global situation—due to the Covid-19 epidemic—this is a moment in which with solidarity we need to build a better future,” explains the indigenous Mapuche Juan Antonio Calfín, leader of the Intercultural Development Organization of Chile and member of the movement Minga (a community work) by the Pueblos.

By Eduardo Stanley

It is particularly disgusting to see how elected officials and other public servants are confronting the pandemic that is affecting so much of our community. For instance, the majority of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors are acting like there is nothing dangerous about it. They show contempt toward the most vulnerable sector of our society and seem to worry only about businesses.

Exercise Your Right to Vote in Person

Javier Aguirre, Lindsay

The back-and-forth regarding vote-by-mail and in person voting has become a bore. As has been discovered by Americans now that Ms. Liberty’s skirts have been lifted by a perverted, lascivious, dubious, duplicitous, racist President, even law and justice and equal rights have two sides. The accusations of voter fraud are true, albeit not to the extent promoted by the administration. On the opposite side, there supposedly are tight constraints and strict policies that guide honorable voting practices among Americans.

Gabriel Lerner

California Senator Kamala Harris should be the Democratic vice presidential candidate. An energetic and courageous leader, Harris deserves the support of the Latino community at this crucial moment in history.

Throughout U.S. history, the selection of a running mate

By Ruth Gadebusch

To you who would tear down statues, rename places and force others out of jobs due to views expressed decades ago: Whoa! Slow down! Rethink all this laundering of history. Are we so arrogant, so self-satisfied, so perfect as to fail to consider some future society judging us by the enlightenment of their era?

By Richard Iyall

I am peace. I am love.

I am the light from high above.

I am the light that shines within.

I am the spark that makes you grin.

I am a book upon on a shelf.

I am a soul; my higher self.

In 2019, members of Teatro Inmigrante (Immigrant Theater) performed the play, “Who is responsible? The Immigrant Crisis at the Southern Border,” at the Mosqueda Community Center. The play was written and directed by Agustin Lira and produced by Patricia Wells.

This year, through three small grants from the California Arts Council, the California Endowment and Fidelity Charitable, Teatro Inmigrante will continue

Find out what WILPF is up to:

Por Jenny Manrique

Mientras los enumeradores se preparan para tocar las puertas de los hogares que no han respondido al censo de manera virtual, la directiva del presidente Donald Trump que busca prohibir que los inmigrantes indocumentados sean contados para el reparto de sillas en el congreso, ha confundido aún más a los latinos que suelen estar subrepresentados en el conteo decenal.

Por Jenny Manrique

Cerca de 24 millones de estadounidenses podrían ser desalojados de sus viviendas a fines de agosto, mientras 15 millones de inquilinos ya viven en hogares afectados por la pérdida de trabajo o la reducción de ingresos debido a la pandemia del COVID-19.

Por: Jenny Manrique

Cuando la Junta de Supervisores del condado Imperial le pidió a principios de junio al gobernador de California Gavin Newsom mayor control local para lidiar con la pandemia del Coronavirus, organizadores comunitarios se mostraron indignados con la idea de abrir la economía sin tener en cuenta la alta tasa de contagios en sus vecindarios.

Los idiotas no desaparecen, solo se reciclan: los antimáscaras de 1918

Por Gabriel Lerner

Uno se puede desgañitar y enroquecer solo del estupor de ver como tanta gente se rehusa a usar barbijos – o máscaras – para no contagiarse del coronavirus  (y luego difundir la terrible enfermedad a su familia y amigos) y para prevenir contagiar a otros.

Por Gabriel Lerner

A lo largo de la historia de Estados Unidos la elección de un compañero de fórmula para  vicepresidente por parte de un candidato presidencial ha sido un complejo juego de ajedrez, donde se mezclan tanto elementos políticos como personales. Prevalece en las consideraciones la ausencia de atributos divisivos o negativos. Importa a qué comunidad representa la persona, su popularidad, su estado de procedencia y numerosos temas adicionales.

Por Francisco Duarte

Arte y  Resistencia. El asesinato en Mayo pasado del Afro Americano George Floyd a manos de la policía se convirtió en la gota metafórica que derramó el contenido del vaso de agravios dentro de esa comunidad. Miles de manifestantes han salido a las calles en busca

Juan Trujillo Limones

“Es importante llamar hoy en día a sacar lo mejor de nosotros, el legado de los abuelos, el conocimiento tradicional de los pueblos indígenas en beneficio de la humanidad toda; en una situación global —por la epidemia del Covid-19—, es un momento en el que con la solidaridad necesitamos construir un futuro mejor”, dice Juan Antonio Calfín, indígena mapuche, líder de la Organización Desarrollo Intercultural de Chile y miembro del esfuerzo Minga (trabajo comunitario o colectivo voluntario) por los Pueblos.