The May meeting was packed full of interesting speakers and topics. The Club heard from two speakers, Lora Jo Foo and James McFadden, on SB 1138, a bill that puts a moratorium on fracking and oil well stimulation until a study is completed affirming fracking and oil well stimulation is not harmful to California’s public health and environmental and economic sustainability. The two speakers provided both a political (from Lora an activist) as well as a technical perspective (from James, a physicist) on the issue of fracking and its harmful effect on the environment and how it’s dividing Democrats.
The next speaker was Jessica Bartholow from the Western Center on Law and Poverty (and a Mills College graduate) who spoke about the 50th Anniversary on the War on Poverty. Jessica provided a great chronological background on the programs implemented by President Lyndon Johnson. These programs helped reduce the number of elderly people living in poverty by 59 percent. Jessica shared with the Club her personal connection to the work she does having grown up in a family that drifted in and out of poverty. Overall, the two topics provided lots of thought-provoking information and discussion.
