El Cerrito Democratic Club

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 50^th 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.           

Having read and discussed Michele Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness we concur with reviewers who describe it as both devastating and an instant classic. We agree with Cornel West who sees it as “the secular bible for a new social movement” leading to a “democratic awakening focused on the poor and vulnerable in American society.”

Understanding “restorative justice,” the subject of our June meeting, is useful background for considering how we can constructively relate to such a new social movement.  Reading Michele Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, should convince all of us of the need for such a new social movement.

What is restorative justice?

Restorative justice “holds that criminal behavior is primarily a violation of one individual by another. When a crime is committed, it is the victim who is harmed, not the state; instead of the offender owing a ‘debt to society’ which must be expunged by experiencing some form of state-imposed punishment, the offender owes a specific debt to the victim which can only be repaid by making good the damage caused.”

 

What constitutes appropriate reparation is decided through a process of negotiation involving not only the offender and the victim but the respective families and social networks who have also been harmed by the criminal act.

The ultimate aim of restorative justice is one of healing. Through receiving appropriate reparation, the harm done to the victim can be redressed; by making good the damage caused, the offender can be reconciled with the victim and reintegrated back into his/her social and familial networks; and through such reconciliation and reintegration, community harmony can be restored.”

www.restorativejustice.org

 

 

Here are election results for the candidates and ballot measures the Club endorsed:

ECDC Endorsed Candidates	June 3 Results
Congress(CA-11)-Mark DeSaulnier	58.93% Win
Controller-Betty Yee	Still being determined
Board of Equalization-Fiona Ma	65.52% Win
County Auditor Controller-Ayore Riaunda	21.38% Loss
County Superintendent of Schools- Karen Sakata	60.87% Win
ECDC Endorsed Ballot Measures	June 3 Results
YES on E-Contra Costa Community College District Bond	57.41% Passed
YES on  H-West County School District Bond	45.91% Did not pass
Yes on L-Kensington Police and Community Service District Bond	48.75% Did not pass

 

Although the Club did not make an endorsement in the following races, here are the results:

State Assembly District (AD 15)-top two candidates

• Elizabeth Echols- 25.47%
• Tony Thurmond-25.85%

Secretary of State

• Alex Padilla-30.1%