By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Hats off to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his You Tube video, shown in an article republished on San Diego Jewish World, that urges antisemites to turn away from hate for their own sake. Haters, he said, never win and end up broken. Even though hating might seem easier because one doesn’t have to change if one blames one’s problems on someone else, the harder course of changing oneself ultimately is more rewarding. Schwarzenegger made the video after a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where 1.1 million people were slain.
Schwarzenegger’s own father was a lower ranking Nazi, so the Auschwitz visit and the subsequent video were intensely personal for the body builder and movie star. He said forcing oneself to reexamine and change one’s beliefs is a tough mental exercise — comparable to the physical exercise of lifting weights — but it will make people stronger. He urged white supremacists and members of other hate groups to free themselves from any type of hate, whether it be based on religion, ethnicity, national origins, gender, or sexuality.
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Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) has helped to secure funding to expand “Pride Centers” at four San Diego Community College institutions — San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College and the San Diego College of Continuing Education (which has seven campuses from Barrio Logan to Mira Mesa.). At a news conference, where she was joined by her Democratic congressional colleagues Scott Peters and Juan Vargas, Jacobs told why she pushed for $1.2 million to fund these centers and a Youth Leadership Academy and Pride Youth Collective Programs for youth who have recently aged out of the foster care system.
“LGBTQ+ youth should be focused on living their lives, but instead many are dealing with mental health issues resulting from the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, policies and violence,” said Jacobs, who serves as vice chair of the Congressional Equality Campus and co-chair of the Transgender Equality Taskforce. “This finding will expand spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and allies to freely and safely be themselves and strengthen programs that create community and teach advocacy skills.”
Included in the $1.2 million appropriation is money for a regional coordinator who will liaise with various local agencies providing services to LGBTQ+ students.
Peters and Vargas also secured appropriations to help other groups of community college students. Peters announced a $1 million grant to finance a Gateway to College and Career program at the San Diego College of Continuing Education for former foster care youths. Nearly half of the youth who have aged out of the foster care system today are unemployed, and a third are or have been homeless, according to Peters.
“Community colleges are an integral part of our region’s educational landscape,” Peters said. “It’s my job to fight for funding that supports SDCCD’s mission to uplift generations of students, especially those aged out of foster care who enter a new world of opportunity and challenges.”
Vargas secured $1.2 million for Dreamer Resource Centers throughout the San Diego Community College system. “Dreamers and undocumented students deserve a fair shot at the American Dream like everyone else, and the great equalizer is a high-quality education,” Vargas said. “These Dreamer Resource Centers have the potential to positively benefit thousands of students by offering critical support and financial aid.”
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(Photo: Ballotpedia)
Barrett Holman Leak, who is opposing Sara Jacobs’ reelection bid, said she will campaign for “term limits, affordable housing and effective homelessness solutions, pro-teacher changes to federal education policies, fighting for better economic parity for military families, seeking funding for ethnic organizations that have not been given funding but are asked to or forced to scramble to provide community resources, small business owner support, voting right, LGBTQ+ rights, Medicare for all, pro-choice, and more.”
In a news release the candidate described herself as a “multiethnic Black Jewish woman” and a ‘member of Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El in the Del Cerro neighborhood of San Diego.”
She added that “brokenness and chaos have come to our daily lives in San Diego — homelessness and economic disparity that is crushing families, youth and young adults, military families, multicultural communities and senior citizens. It is time for justice and change in San Diego and not only lip service to that. I have worked actual jobs and been through many life experiences.”
Leak contended that Jacobs did not have the kind of real world experience that she did, and thus was out of touch with people in the 51st Congressional District.
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The Jewish Democratic Council of America has decided to become involved in judicial races, endorsing Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz in her race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court over former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. The court currently has a 4-3 split between Conservative and Liberal justices, so this election for the seat of a retiring Conservative justice, Patience Roggensack , could flip that majority.
In announcing the endorsement, Halie Sofer, the JDCA’s CEO, said, “Judge Protasiewicz is the only candidate in the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election who shares our values. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will decide matters of critical importance in the lead-up to — and beyond — the 2024 election.”
She said that Kelly “exemplifies right-wing extremism. His victory would pose a direct threat to democracy, voting, and abortion rights in Wisconsin, and he opposes essential government programs including Social Security.”
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San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, a member of the Jewish community, tells of one of his efforts at ‘tikkun olam” (improving the world) in his recent District 9 newsletter. “For over a decade, community members organized and advocated for no-cost transit passes for San Diego youth,” he wrote. “We were told the passes wouldn’t be used. We were told young people would abuse the system. We were told ‘no’ in a hundred different ways. Fortunately, none of those ‘no’s’ was enough to stop the community from fighting. Finally, last year, in partnership with Mayor [Todd] Gloria [of San Diego] Mayor [Catherine] Blakespear [of Encinitas] and Supervisors [Nathan] Fletcher and [Nora] Vargas, we were able to tell the community ‘yes.’ The other week at SANDAG headquarters, less than a year after launching the Youth Opportunity Pass Pilot Program, we celebrated five million rides. That is five million rides buy San Diego youth who wee looking to access the opportunity to learn and grow and pursue their dreams and do it while establishing transportation habits that will help our community reach our climate action goals.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com