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Facts about Memorial Day

Reporters Desk
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Facts about Memorial Day
  1. Memorial Day began as a response to the Civil War.

Memorial Day was a response to the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War. The tremendous loss of life and its effect on communities led to several spontaneous commemorations of the dead.

In 1864, women from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, put flowers on the graves of their fallen soldiers from the just-fought Battle of Gettysburg. The next year, a group of women decorated the graves of soldiers buried in a Vicksburg, Mississippi, cemetery

Waterloo, New York, began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866. Although many towns claimed the title, it was Waterloo that won congressional recognition as the “Birthplace of Memorial Day.”

  1. Major General John A. Logan made Memorial Day official.

General Logan was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans. On May 5, 1868, he issued General Order No. 11, which set aside May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”

  1. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day.

The holiday was long known as Decoration Day thanks to the practice of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths, and flags. The name “Memorial Day” goes back to 1882, but the older name didn’t completely disappear until after World War II. It wasn’t until 1967 that federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name.

  1. Memorial Day is more of a franchise than a national holiday.

Calling Memorial Day a “national holiday” is a bit of a misnomer. While there have been 11 federal holidays created by Congress—including Memorial Day and Juneteenth—they apply only to federal employees and the District of Columbia. Federal Memorial Day, established in 1888, allowed Civil War veterans, many of whom were drawing a government paycheck, to honor their fallen comrades without being docked a day’s pay.

  1. CBS helped identify one of the Unknown Soldiers.

“Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” That is the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns, established at Arlington National Cemetery to inter the remains of the first Unknown Soldier, a World War I fighter, on November 11, 1921. Unknown soldiers from World War II and the Korean War were subsequently interred in the tomb on Memorial Day 1958.

An emotional President Ronald Reagan presided over the interment of six bones, the remains of an unidentified Vietnam War soldier, on May 28, 1984, a.k.a. Memorial Day. Fourteen years later, spurred by an investigation by CBS News, the Defense Department removed the remains from the Tomb of the Unknowns for DNA testing.

The once-unknown fighter was identified as Air Force pilot Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, whose jet crashed in South Vietnam in 1972. “The CBS investigation suggested that the military review board that had changed the designation on Lt. Blassie’s remains to ‘unknown’ did so under pressure from veterans’ groups to honor a casualty from the Vietnam War,” The New York Times reported in 1998.

Lieutenant Blassie was reburied near his hometown of St. Louis. His crypt at Arlington remains permanently empty.

“Gun Control” at the Pentagon? Don’t Even Think About It.

Norman Solomon
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“Gun Control” at the Pentagon? Don’t Even Think About It.

New outcries for gun control have followed the horrible tragedies of mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. “Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died,” President Biden declared over the weekend during a university commencement address. As he has said, a badly needed step is gun control — which, it’s clear from evidence in many countries, would sharply reduce gun-related deaths.

But what about “gun control” at the Pentagon?

The concept of curtailing the U.S. military’s arsenal is such a nonstarter that it doesn’t even get mentioned. Yet the annual number of deadly shootings in the United States — 19,384 at last count — is comparable to the average yearly number of documented civilian deaths directly caused by the Pentagon’s warfare in the last two decades. And such figures on war deaths are underestimates.

From high-tech rifles and automatic weapons to drones, long-range missiles and gravity bombs, the U.S. military’s weaponry has inflicted carnage in numerous countries. How many people have been directly killed by the “War on Terror” violence? An average of 45,000 human beings each year — more than two-fifths of them innocent civilians — since the terror war began, as documented by the Costs of War project at Brown University.

The mindset of U.S. mass media and mainstream politics is so militarized that such realities are routinely not accorded a second thought, or even any thought. Meanwhile, the Pentagon budget keeps ballooning year after year, with President Biden now proposing $813 billion for fiscal year 2023. Liberals and others frequently denounce how gun manufacturers are making a killing from sales of handguns and semi automatic rifles in the United States, while weapons sales to the Pentagon continue to spike upward for corporate war mega-profiteers.

As William Hartung showed in his Profits of War report last fall, “Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion since the start of the war in Afghanistan, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors. A large portion of these contracts — one-quarter to one-third of all Pentagon contracts in recent years — have gone to just five major corporations: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.”

What’s more, the United States is the world’s leading arms exporter, accounting for 35% of total weapons sales — more than Russia and China combined. The U.S. arms exports have huge consequences.

Pointing out that the Saudi-led war and blockade on Yemen “has helped cause the deaths of nearly half a million people,” a letter to Congress from 60 organizations in late April said that “the United States must cease supplying weapons, spare parts, maintenance services, and logistical support to Saudi Arabia.”

How is it that countless anguished commentators and concerned individuals across the USA can express justified fury at gun marketers and gun-related murders when a mass shooting occurs inside U.S. borders, while remaining silent about the need for meaningful gun control at the Pentagon?

The civilians who have died — and are continuing to die — from use of U.S. military weapons don’t appear on American TV screens. Many lose their lives due to military operations that are unreported by U.S. news media, either because mainline journalists don’t bother to cover the story or because those operations are kept secret by the U.S. government. As a practical matter, the actual system treats certain war victims as “unworthy” of notice.

Whatever the causal mix might be — in whatever proportions of conscious or unconscious nationalism, jingoism, chauvinism, racism and flat-out eagerness to believe whatever comforting fairy tale is repeatedly told by media and government officials — the resulting concoction is a dire refusal to acknowledge key realities of U.S. society and foreign policy.

To heighten the routine deception, we’ve been drilled into calling the nation’s military budget a “defense” budget — while Congress devotes half of all discretionary spending to the military, the USA spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined (most of them allies), the Pentagon operates 750 military bases overseas, and the United States is now conducting military operations in 85 countries.

Yes, gun control is a great idea. For the small guns. And the big ones.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of a dozen books including Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State, published this year in a new edition as a free e-book. His other books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

The Women of Machista

RLn
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The Women of Machista

By Vera Magana, Dining and Cuisine Reporter

The Indian room, then Auggie’s Tavern Bar, used to be on the corner of 10th and Pacific Avenue. The pandemic saw to it that a new bar, Machista, reside in the space next. Co-owners Monique Mojarro and Jessica Vazquez, both 30 years old, founded the women-owned bar in April 2021 but didn’t officially open it until April 2022.

Friends since high school, they’ve done everything together, including joining the restaurant and hospitality industry. Jessica owns another bar in Santa Fe Springs called the S&P.

The idea for Machista came about a year and a half ago. After looking at numerous locations they came back to the town where their families lived and came across the 952 S. Pacific Avenue location and began renovations during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite all odds.

Both had left toxic relationships when they decided to build a bar intended to be a safe space for women, particularly of Hispanic heritage, thus, Machista was born. Monique explained that “Machista” describes women who are powerful and in control.

Monique’s favorite drink is called “Puta,” a Spanish slang word. It is made of cucumbers. Jessica’s favorite is “La Toxica,” which tastes like a chili mango Mexican candy. Their craft cocktails named after derogatory terms towards women that they were called in their past relationships was a brave move to embrace themselves and the power they have since gained.

Though the bar has feminine sensibilities, Monique, who is also a casual longshore worker, said she wants to welcome everyone.

“I was saving to buy a house but did this instead,” Monique said. “I plan for there to be one-on-one contact and for this to feel like someone’s second home.”

Mondays to Thursdays, they will have daily drink specials and different food vendors every day. Check out their empowering vision and how they were able to turn a bad experience into something positive.

Machista

Time: Monday to Sunday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Details: 424-431-9520

Location: 952 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

Celery on Steroids

Ari LeVaux
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Celery on Steroids

I first felt the power of lovage in a box of Rapunzel brand vegetable bouillon with herbs. After my first taste, I had to double-check the label to make sure that it was, indeed, meat-free. Then I read the fine print to figure out why.

Along with some familiar suspects — garlic, celery, parsley, dill, basil, turmeric, brewer’s yeast, salt, and oil — the bouillon contained this crazy little ingredient called lovage. I figured it was the missing link to complete the flavor of this satisfying elixir. I searched the grocery stores around town and found two more brands of vegetarian stock that also contained lovage. These brands also had rich, deeply satisfying flavors.

At the local herb store, there was a small jar of dried lovage root hiding behind the lungwort in what appeared to be the Harry Potter section. It had a smoky, musky flavor that was not what I was looking for in food. Probably great for spells and stuff, but not for soup stock.

A lovage plant. Photo by Ari LeVaux

Levisticum officinale was first brought over by European settlers, who used every part of the plant as a vegetable, herb, or medicine. Obscure yet ubiquitous, the plant now grows wild from Florida to Saskatchewan. Lovage is a tenacious plant, happy to be ignored, with no immediate relatives. Distantly related to celery, parsley, and dill, it has the flavor of supercharged celery and makes your mouth a little numb, like Sichuan pepper. This tingling action, like a low-level electric current, makes it a great garnish or topping, as a little goes a long way. This flavor also lends itself to drink mixing.

The Missouligan is a lovage-based drink from Missoula, Montana. It’s named after a softball team and is composed of gin, huckleberry shrub, and club soda. You serve it with a lovage straw – aka, the hollow stalk. “Folks who really love lovage can muddle a leaf or two at the bottom of the glass,” explained the drink’s co-creator, Marc Moss, who has multiple lovage plants in his yard. It’s a lovely combination, with the bitter, aromatic lovage harmonizing with the juniper berries of the gin, amidst the earthy sweetness of the huckleberries.

If you don’t have lovage plants of your own, good luck finding any fresh lovage straws. Based on my experience at the herbs store I’d be hesitant to order any lovage products from afar. So this is a gardening column as much as a cooking column. I’d order some seeds right now. If you have any extra after planting, you can chew on them in the church to help stay awake, as the early New Englanders did.

I finally scored my lovage at the farmers market, in the form of a potted plant for sale. I brought it home, where it emerged as the toughest plant in the yard. Like a weed, lovage thrives on being ignored, but it doesn’t spread (maybe it would if I gave it more water.) Every year the lovage grows tall and beautiful, with more flavor than I could enjoy in ten lifetimes.

Finally, with fresh lovage of my own, I sipped Missouligans and messed around with broth making. First I used the ingredients on the Rapunzel label. It was so good I had to let down my hair. But I actually prefer a simpler version, with just lovage, carrot, onion, and celery. After cooking everything together and straining the chunks I was left with an aromatic broth as hearty as it was thin. I used it to cook a pot of black beans. They turned out savory and meaty — even when I didn’t add pork — thanks to that satisfying whiff of lovage.

Lovage Bean Soup

The beans take on an extra savory tone, thanks to the lovage. And if you’re inclined, add pork. This recipe leans south-of-the border, deep into bean country. In this context the lovage is a nod to the fragrant epazote. Serves 6

  • 1 lb dry black beans, or three 16-ounce cans
  • ½ cup chopped fresh lovage, including leaf, stem and root
  • 8 medium carrots, whole
  • 8 stalks celery, chopped coarsely
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • One large onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch parsley, chopped in half, with one green leafy side and one side of mostly stems.
  • ¼ cup cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon celery salt
  • 1 tablespoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • 1 lb pork belly, ham, or bean pork of choice, in large chunks
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the beans until soft. If you have a pressure cooker or instant pot use that. If not, soak the beans overnight and cook them for a few hours until soft.

Add the lovage, carrots and celery to a large pot of water. If you have a pasta basket insert use that for easier removal of chunks when the time comes.

In a pan, fry the onions in the olive oil on medium until the onions turn translucent, about five minutes. Turn the heat to low and add the parsley stems and cook until the onions start to brown but not quite burn, about ten minutes. Add the parsley leaves and stir it around for a moment, and turn off the heat.

Add the fried onion and parsley to the pasta boiler, along with the dry spices and vinegar. Let it continue cooking until the liquid has reduced to just below the basket. Then strain the chunks — or remove the pasta basket with the chunks ­— and add the cooked beans to the stock. If using canned beans, include the liquid. Add the pork if using. Put the pasta cooker and veggies back in, on top of the beans, and simmer for at least an hour, seasoning with salt and pepper. Simmer it for hours if you can, all the way down to thick beans. Serve with rice and chopped onion or chives. And minced lovage leaf.

Random Letters: 5-26-22

RLn
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Random Letters: 5-26-22

Fort Bragg Is a Drag

After the White supremacist terrorist massacre in Buffalo, New York on May 14, isn’t it finally time for the city of Fort Bragg, California to change its name?

No more lame and laughable excuses, Fort Bragg! Allowing this town in Mendocino County to continue to be named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg is evil, not to mention extremely divisive, blatantly racist, and unnecessarily provocative. And… California was never part of the Confederacy!

Fort Bragg’s city council members have the power to ditch the name Fort Bragg by a simple majority vote, but the current council members have inexplicably chosen not to do so. Give them a call at 707-961-2823.

Jake Pickering, Arcata, CA

Steve Bannon Is Planning a Coup

My Fellow Progressives:

The smoking gun of the conspiracy to retain Trump as our ruling Autocrat has been revealed! What more do we need to wake the Independents and rational moderates in both major parties to the continuing, existential threat?

If we cannot cut this cancer out of our body politic, we are destined to lose our democratic Republic.

Bill Roberson, San Pedro

White Supremacy in America; Mainstream Pathology

White supremacy in America began when 20 Black Africans were unloaded at Virginia’s Jamestown in 1619. They were there as human chattel in perpetuity for the next 240 years.

Government sanctioned slavery ended in 1865 with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to free America’s slaves. But more to a point, did white supremacy end? Well … just ask Emmett Till’s family or Ahmaud Aubery’s family.

The Civil War and the ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments should have put an end to white supremacy. But that’s not what happened. Following the Civil War, the push for reconciliation was so strong that the war’s victors willingly lost sight of the reason the war was fought in the first place and refused to punish supporters of the institution of slavery and sedition, and Supreme Court rulings such as Plessy v. Ferguson preserved white supremacy into a generational curse.

This latest mass killing, resulting in ten dead and hundreds more mourning in Buffalo, New York is a case of more Black bodies being sacrificed at the altar of white supremacy. Same story. Different black church. Where’s the outrage? There’s been a few heartfelt prayers sent out to the survivors. But it feels like this shooting will disappear from the news, as proms and high school graduation photographs fill our social media feeds.

We know Republican politicians won’t speak out against white supremacy, god-be-damned the party of law and order. Where are all the Democrats on this issue? Where is the voice of all those Christian fundamentalists who cherish life so much? What about the news media? All are invited to stop playing mumblety-peg around the radicalization of white youth.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but unless there is a well-orchestrated protest by all of America’s people against white supremacy, Black bodies will continue to be sacrificed at the altar of white supremacy.

America … We are at a crossroads. Will racism and white supremacy continue to be America’s all-consuming and unsolvable problem? Is genocide America’s only way out of its own manufactured peculiar institution.

John Gray, San Pedro

Liberate Ukraine

It is not the Ukrainian people that are attempting to expand NATO power but rather it is Vladimir Putin who has engaged in intimidation to prevent the will of the people (both Ukrainian and Russian) from being heard. Why else would he stoop to such underhanded tactics to block various means of communication among the citizens of Ukraine and Russia? Why is Putin forcing Russia to return to the Cold War utilizing political strong-arm tactics such as violence? Vladimir Putin, you have had over twenty years to acknowledge Ukraine and have failed them by your own choosing. The days of your despotic regime are finally coming to an end as it appears the desire for freedom will continue to sweep among the Eastern European nations as well as Russia.

Accordingly, let the call go forth among all citizens of Ukraine that your brothers and sisters of democracy {from all over the world} are with you during every trial and tribulation you may encounter during this crisis. To the people of Ukraine, the trumpet of freedom beckons you to rise in protest and louden your voice to preserve your sacred heritage, promote your children’s future and obtain the blessings of liberty we all cherish. Ukraine, the hour of your redemption is at hand. As you the rightful citizens move forward to reclaim your own country, rise and strike! In the name of those who were murdered fighting for everyone’s rights, rise and strike! To push back this evil regime, rise and strike! Let no one continue to fear this man. Every Ukrainian must be strong and fight on for their freedom. Rise and strike!

Vladimir Putin, you little weasel…let Ukraine go!

Joe Bialek, Cleveland, Ohio

Music By the Sea Back After a Three-Year Hiatus

Hunter Chase
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Music By the Sea Back After a Three-Year Hiatus

Music by the Sea started 27 years ago, when five people sat in a room at Angel’s Gate Art Center, and decided that the bandshell, the stage at Point Fermin Park, needed to be used more often. Out of that discussion came not just Music by the Sea, but Shakespeare by the Sea as well.

Since then, Music by the Sea has performed at Point Fermin every summer, aside from 2020 and 2021, on account of the pandemic.

“We’re actually telling everybody this is our 25th anniversary,” said Mike Caccavalla, one of the original founders of Music by the Sea.

The event will have five performances this year, the first on June 26, then every Sunday through July.

While a select few bands have already been chosen, for the most part, even Caccavalla does not know which bands will be performing.

“We do a lottery,” Caccavalla said. “In the past, I have picked the bands, and it’s just gotten really hard.”

Caccavalla finds the lottery system to be significantly easier. He switched to it five years ago. He tells the bands a month ahead of time where the lottery will be held. This year’s lottery will be at El Principe, a Pacific Avenue nightclub. It starts at 7 p.m. on June 1.

“The bands show up, they put their names in the hopper,” Caccavalla said. “We pick it, and if you get picked, then you’re in the show.”

Anywhere from 30 to 40 bands usually come to the lottery. Three bands perform every Sunday for six weeks. A total of 18 bands will perform, but only 14 slots are available, as some have already gone to bands that have helped with the event.

Caccavalla’s biggest struggle with Music by the Sea is acquiring funding, as it costs about $42,000, and he has raised about $7,000.

“We still got a long way to go,” Caccavalla said.

The event has already held one fundraiser this year, which was held at El Principe, and the next one will be there as well, on June 4. It will also have a fundraiser at California Harley-Davidson in Lomita on June 18.

In addition, Caccavalla has set up a GoFundMe page, and a Venmo that people can donate to. It’s also had help from unexpected places.

“A private person had a party Saturday night at their house, and 75 people showed up,” Caccavalla said. “They called me, and they said, ‘Hey, can we pass the hat for Music by the Sea?’ And I said sure, and they raised $300.”

Caccavalla sent out a fundraising letter to 560 people, telling them he will raffle off prizes each Sunday, and that he’ll hang up banners for all six Sundays for $300.

The money goes towards paying for security, paying the bands, and the overhead.

“We got to pay the employees that work for the city,” Caccavalla said. “We don’t pay ourselves. We’ve never collected a dime for doing this.”

Caccavalla owns a t-shirt business and makes the shirts for Music by Sea. When he is not able to raise enough funds in time, he takes money out of his company.

Music by the Sea is not a nonprofit itself, but it umbrellas under a nonprofit named Unite to Fight Blood Cancers. Any money raised from the event that is left over after expenses goes to the nonprofit. The last few years they have had about $3,000 left over.

Caccavalla said that the process of acquiring permits hasn’t been that difficult.

“The permits aren’t that hard, because I go through the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks,” Caccavalla said. “They work with me on that.”

However, he has had trouble in the past. A few years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department wanted Caccavalla to hire extra security, and another time the LAPD wanted him to put up fencing in a specific way that forced attendees to walk past the police stationed at the front of Point Fermin.

Caccavalla said he hasn’t heard that many complaints from neighbors, with one exception.

“There is one person that lives on the block, and I’m not sure if they still live there or not, but they complain about everything that goes on in that park,” Caccavalla said. “I actually go to the neighbors and let them know that I’m doing this.”

Steve Ernst, who describes himself as a “stage daddy,” but really helps Caccavalla in any way he can, has helped with the El Principe fundraisers.

“The ones we’ve done have generally like seven bands playing for a day,” Ernst said. “And that’s like herding cats … when you get that many moving parts, and the time frame, and you get people offstage, and the new group onstage, and make sure all festivities are going at the same time, it gets to be a handful.”

Ernst has helped Caccavalla with Music by the Sea since 2012. He is a musician himself, and his band, In Contempt, sometimes plays during the event.

“If you look, you can see the guy needs a lot of people helping,” Ernst said. “It’s a community event, and it’s a big thing. And it’s a lot for one person to take on.”

Ernst said he is far from the only person to help, there are plenty of others as well.

“It’s a good event,” Ernst said. “It should draw more attention. I mean, you’ve got one of the great places on the West Coast to hear music on a Sunday afternoon, be in a park, look out at the ocean.”

Music by the Sea is put together totally on donations. California Harley-Davidson is hosting a BBQ fundraiser and Pop-Up shop to help raise money for the event on June 17 and 18.

Details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/music-by-the-sea-fundraiser-bbq-tickets-343267170347

Music by the Sea Bands

By Melina Paris

Music by the Sea will be choosing more bands by raffle on June 1. The concert series will run for six Sundays, three bands per day from 12 to 5 p.m. Listed below, find just a few of the bands on the lineup so far.

Down the Hatch

The classic rock band is comprised of Wayne Moore on guitar and vocals, Alex Martinez, bass and vocals, Paul Carlos on guitar and vocals, and supporting member Kraig Ross on bass. Down The Hatch have been together for 16 years and played all over San Pedro including many past Music By The Sea seasons. The band will play the closing day of Music by the Sea, July 31.

Details: www.facebook.com/downthehatch310

In Contempt

A classic rock ’an’ soul band, known for its soulful lead vocals and a repertoire of great songs from the ’60s to the present that make you want to dance and groove.

Bass player Stephen Ernst is not only a band member but also a man who wears many hats for Music by the Sea. The San Pedro resident and IT consultant said a lot of things have to happen everyday in order to put on these events.

Details: www.facebook.com/InContemptBand, and www.youtube.com/user/InContemptBandMusic

Five Bucks

A Cheap Trick tribute band, Five Bucks formed last October. Five Bucks comprises five Harbor Area natives: Vince Giobbe on guitar, Tom Berg on guitar, Mark Williams on bass, Daren Howe on drums and Erny Galven, vocals.

Five Bucks will play the closing date of Music by theSea at 12 p.m.July 31.

 

Bass and the Billionaire

James Preston Allen
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Bass and the Billionaire

An epic battle for the soul of Los Angeles

If these were normal times, the regular exercise at the ballot box is simply choosing the lesser of two evils. But these are not normal times. It is a Trumpian worldview that defines the times in which we live. America is divided and being manipulated between factions with campaign lies, propaganda and accusations to persuade you to vote against your self interests based on fear of crime, economic uncertainties and prejudice.

Sure, the billionaire mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is far more savvy than Don-the-Con could ever hope to be, but still his attack campaign against Rep. Karen Bass is as corrupt and misleading as anything that I’ve ever witnessed in my 50 years of voting.

Caruso’s $30 million advertising blitz reveals one very important truth — billionaires are now so emboldened that they actually believe they have the right, if not the privilege, to buy elections. Clearly, if money is speech, which is supported by the Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010, then Caruso is shouting louder than anyone else in the election to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti. Shouting doesn’t make him right.

However, like all propaganda, the more it gets repeated the more people tend to believe it, except when it’s over done. What do they say about a lie that is repeated often enough? Advertising is to propaganda like softcore porn is to the hard core version — tantalizing and provocative but never revealing and neither one delivers any physical satisfaction. Caruso’s ad campaign is thus hard core and not aimed at your reason but punches well below the belt like a porn video. If he were selling any product other than old tropes on crime and homelessness, he’d be making another fortune on political snake oil.

Enough about another fake Democrat trying to buy this election. Karen Bass is the real deal when it comes to being dedicated to fixing the problems of Los Angeles. She was raised here, went to public schools here and worked in the medical field in LA and was a political organizer before ever entering politics.

I’ve said it before, Karen Bass is probably the most qualified woman to ever run for mayor of this city! That she knows how to bring diverse and disparate interests and people to the table to solve problems is a sign of her commitment to inclusion. And that she knows that the City of Los Angeles annually leaves millions of federal dollars unapplied for that are available to address a multitude of problems is only a plus. Hey, she even was considered to be on the ticket with President Joe Biden as vice president so she definitely has access to the White House and to Congress. Would Biden or Kamala Harris even return a call to Caruso?

In other parts of this country, the battle lines are clearly delineated between the Big Lie insurrectionists and an array of Democrats who still believe in having a republic. Yet, here in the City of the Angels, this civic divide is more muted, subtle if you will. Caruso, now supported by another fake Democratic Councilman Joe Buscaino, and then LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, are all running far to the right of center on knee-jerk reactionary fear mongering tactics. Fear in politics is the foundation for tyranny in a democracy and reason and truth are the antidotes to it. We know this from 2,500 years of history. In fact the very term democracy comes to us from the Greek word demokratia, as do other terms.

The Greek word dikasteria, or the public courts, according to Aristotle, “contributed most to the strength of democracy.” This is due to the fact that the judges exercised almost unlimited power. Interestingly, there was no police force, and so the common people filed and argued their cases themselves, and the verdicts were given by majority rule. This concept of original democracy starts to sound a bit like “defund the police” as opposed to “let’s hire more cops.”

My point here is that our democracy hangs in the balance between moving to a more fair, equitable and inclusive secular government OR moving towards a repressive tyranny, oligarchy and theocracy. We’ve already seen what five anti-abortion Catholic judges on the Supreme Court have brought us. And I’m not about to endorse anyone who comes close to filling those definitions like Caruso does.

So clearly LA doesn’t need a Monopoly billionaire running the city like his own personal fiefdom. What’s needed in the words of Thomas Jefferson: To cure bad government is not more laws but more democracy.

And we might say what we need now is not more police to arrest people but for the justice system to enforce the laws more equitably regardless of financial status. Because of this, I have grave doubts that a billionaire, regardless of his past philanthropy and civic appointments, would be a trustworthy holder of the honor of being mayor for the future of 4 million Angelenos.

I do, however, find it very curious and significantly gratifying that it’s an extremely well qualified Black woman with years of experience that will be the one to defend our democracy.

Meals on Wheels Feeds More People with Less Money

Hunter Chase
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Meals on Wheels Feeds More People with Less Money

“If we didn’t feed these people no one would.”

Prior to the pandemic, the San Pedro chapter of Meals on Wheels fed about 35 people on average. Now they feed 125 people five days a week, 50 of them for free.

The reason they were able to expand was because of government funding that was available when the pandemic started. Now that money has run out.

“We are desperately trying to raise funds,” said Susan McKenna, president of the board of Meals on Wheels San Pedro. “This tiny organization is feeding 50 people for free every five days a week.”

Meals on Wheels San Pedro only has two paid employees, a chef and an office administrator, and they’re both part-time. Everybody else is a volunteer, and there are between 100 and 120 of them.

“It’s totally a volunteer-driven organization,” McKenna said. “Of course, all the board [members] are volunteers. And at this point, with finances being the way they are, the board members, I can say every single one of them has a task that they do that we couldn’t afford to pay people for.”

This includes a board member who is a graphic designer, who is in the process of designing a new website and a woman who runs a marketing company, who has been helping write grant applications.

“It’s a lot of micro-fundraising, because we’re all very busy,” McKenna said. “We don’t really have staff, or those people you’d find at a lot of nonprofits.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, the San Pedro chapter of Meals on Wheels got funding from Council District 15 and the Los Angeles County Supervisors. But that funding dried up in November 2021. Prior to the pandemic, it relied mainly on private donations.

“When I first joined the board, four or five years ago, Meals on Wheels historically had not actually asked for funding,” McKenna said. “We’re an extremely frugal organization. So, we had just private donations. And they would occasionally get a little chunk of money, but that was it. As a board, they had not ever applied for grants or sought out funding sources.”

McKenna said that since December, that has been a big learning curve for the board, seeking out sponsors and other sources of funding. While they have not been wildly successful, they have recently received funding from the three San Pedro neighborhood councils.

McKenna said some of their clients have no support structure.

“They are mostly seniors, and mostly homebound,” McKenna said.

While Meals on Wheels has always been a paid service, some clients are charged $8.50 per day for their meals, McKenna says the meals are heavily subsidized, as what they charge does not cover all expenses. But about 50 of their clients are sponsored, and do not pay anything.

When the funding ran out, the board considered scaling back its operation.

McKenna and the chapter’s chef, Mike Caccavalla, called everyone who the organization was feeding for free, and warned them the program might change.

“It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do,” McKenna said. “To talk to these people that have just no options. And so, it didn’t take very long for us to start down that list before it became apparent that if we didn’t feed these people no one would.”

Not every client gets food all five days, some only need it one day a week, or three days a week. The volunteers deliver two meals each day, a hot meal, and a cold one. In addition, the chapter recently started a program with the LA Food Bank, which will deliver a box of groceries to houses of Meals on Wheels clients once a month.

“If you are homebound, and you can’t get out to the other food donors, it’s very nice to have a box of groceries in the house,” McKenna said.

McKenna said the chapter is mindful of things like too much sodium and fat, and has been moving away from prepared foods to making food from scratch.

While it can be hard to keep track of so many clients’ likes and dislikes, Caccavalla said he tries to appease them as much as he can.

Caccavalla said he is supposed to work five hours a day, but usually it turns into more than that.

“Certain things that can get done, can only get done in the afternoons,” Caccavalla said. “Today I’m behind because we had our bakers come in to bake up the fresh … cakes that our clients are going to get this week.”

Caccavalla said that he and others make it a point to try to go out on delivery routes to speak with the clients.

Caccavalla spoke of something that happened a week prior, when he went to drop off a meal to a client after hours, because the client wasn’t there when a driver initially tried to deliver it, and the client did not leave a cooler outside.

“I dropped it off after hours, and spent an hour and a half at his house, just talking to him,” Caccavalla said.

Meals on Wheels San Pedro buys food from big distributors, but also receives donations. It gets produce from Feed and Be Fed, as well as food donations from the YWCA. Restaurants and bakeries in San Pedro support the chapter as well, including The Chori-Man and Babouch Moroccan Restaurant.

“When our kitchen had to close for some work, Babouch [Moroccan Restaurant], in COVID let us use their kitchen during the day, and then they cooked during the night, for absolutely no rent,” McKenna said. “The generosity of regular people is what sustains San Pedro Meals on Wheels.”

While the chapter never stopped serving people, it did have to change drastically when the pandemic began. It had to move its volunteers outside, as it could not use as many inside.

Its volunteers include office workers, people who take carts downstairs, and kitchen volunteers. In addition, there are drivers and delivery people, who will take the food to the clients.

“Routes can take from, depending on your familiarity and the distance, one to two hours,” McKenna said. “So, there’s a significant amount of driving. And we’re just immensely grateful to those volunteers who do that.”

Meals on Wheels San Pedro operates out of the First Presbyterian Church of San Pedro. It has been there since its founding 50 years ago. The chapter pays rent for the kitchen, but McKenna said it is not much. She said if they weren’t paying so little for rent, they would not be able to feed as many people.

The chapter mainly delivers to San Pedro, but has clients in Rancho Palos Verdes and Wilmington as well.

McKenna said that some of the volunteers have volunteered to pay for clients.

“Because of a whole lot of generosity, a very practical sort of generosity, small donations, and produce, and goods, we’ve been able to keep it going,” McKenna said.

War and Remembrance: The Death of Joseph Anzack Jr.

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War and Remembrance: The Death of Joseph Anzack Jr. 

By Doug Shepardson

It was 15 years ago this month that Joseph Anzack Jr., private first class, United States Army, faced impending death on a dark and dusty road during America’s long war in Iraq. You remember the Iraq war, don’t you? In 2002, the U.S. propaganda machine was working overtime to convince us that Saddam Hussein threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. In March of 2003 American forces invaded Iraq and shortly thereafter President George W. Bush declared ‘Mission Accomplished!’ The allied armies had prevailed and the evil dictator had been removed from power. But four years later the horrific bombings and bloodshed in Baghdad were still going strong.

Joseph Anzack Jr. was just 20 when he died; a kid barely out of his teens. Classmates from Torrance South High remembered him as friendly and easy-going. He played on the football team and dreamed of a career as a military officer. When Joseph died, the local papers ran stories about how he was an authentic war hero. That may be. But the ugly truth is that Joseph also died as a victim in a much larger wartime tragedy.

The official story was that on a hot, May night in 2007 Joseph and his squad were ambushed while on patrol. There was a fierce firefight. Most of the American soldiers were killed and Joseph was taken prisoner. Hundreds of his fellow troopers spent the next several days searching for him and his body was finally found over a week later.

But there is more to this story. Here’s what really happened. Joseph and seven comrades were ordered to go out on a nighttime patrol. Their mission was to park near a certain village and to keep a lookout for possible enemy movements. There they sat, sweating in the dark in their two unarmored Humvee utility trucks. A rag tag group of Arab fighters spotted the vehicles. Allah be praised for providing such an easy target! The enemy crept closer and then let loose with a fusillade of bullets and RPGs. Joseph and his squad fought back and called for help on their radios. Tragically, they didn’t stand a chance. It took a backup platoon almost 40 minutes to get there. When reinforcements finally arrived, they found the two Humvees in flames and the dead bodies of the American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter. But Joseph Anzack had apparently been taken alive as a prisoner. Eventually his body was discovered in a shallow of the Euphrates River, showing gruesome signs of torture.

To this day, there are still people that believe the Iraq war was justified; that it was not based on the lies of disingenuous leaders; that Americans always fought honorably for causes that were pure and just. And now another terrible war is with the world again. Every night we watch from the comfort of our living rooms on our wide screen televisions the destruction of Ukraine villages and cities by the bloodstained hands of the Russian invaders. How can the Russian soldiers be so cruel? we ask ourselves. How can they rape and kill innocent civilians? American soldiers would never do that!

Actually, during the war in Iraq, they did. You may recall that Joseph and his fellow soldiers were positioned near the village of Mahmoudiyah. The village where a few months earlier five U.S. Army soldiers gang raped a young Iraqi girl, Abeer Hamza. She was just 14-years- old. Her name meant ‘fragrance of flowers.’ After the American goons were done with her, they shot her in the head. Then they shot her mother and father and six-year-old sister and set their house on fire. The villagers were completely outraged by the rape of the girl and the murder of her family. There wasn’t much talk about ‘forgiveness’ — they wanted revenge for what the American invaders had done to this beautiful child and her family. An ‘eye for an eye,’ as God himself sternly commands in the Book of Exodus. In the following months there were several attacks on American troops where individual soldiers were taken prisoner and then painfully tortured for several days before they were finally killed. Including Joseph Anzack Jr., the good-natured kid from Torrance.

Abeer and Joseph both perished as lamentable victims of an eight-year undeclared war in Iraq. A war that was orchestrated by shrill lobbyists from the oil industries and the pro-Israeli think tanks. Eight years of pointless destruction, $400 billion dollars wasted, and thousands upon thousands dead. And on that long scroll of those who died in Iraq, civilian and military, you will find, somewhere in small print, the names of Joseph Anzack Jr., age twenty, and Abeer Hamza, age fourteen. Two kids in the flower of youth, with their own childish dreams of a future they thought that they could reach out and embrace.

This short commemoration was written to be a brief reflection on the tragic death of Torrance’s Joseph Anzack Jr. that occurred fifteen years ago this month. But perhaps it may also serve as a cautionary tale of how a complacent public can be easily manipulated by the highest levels of government power. There was a vigorous propaganda effort by the Bush administration to claim that Saddam Hussein posed a danger to Western nations by his possession of “weapons of mass destruction.” Putin and his cronies claim that Ukraine poses a existential threat because the government in Kiev is filled with “pro-Nazis extremists who want to attack the Russian motherland.” Both of these are and were bold-faced lies.

Let us all hope and pray that someday there truly will be peace on earth. Real peace, where young people like Joseph Anzack Jr. and Abeer Hamza are not forced to fill the tragic and horrific roles of war hero or war victim that have been painfully and tragically foisted upon them.

Doug Shepardson is a fine artist who once resided in the Harbor Area. He now lives in Sugar Land, Texas

Catching the Fire Next Time

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Catching the Fire Next Time

By Chris Villanueva, Photojournalist

My colleague, Raphael Richardson, or Raph, called moments after I saw the alert. The police scanner app on my phone alerted me that fire crews were dispatched to Peck Park. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported that a fire was called in at 6:15 p.m., to the canyon west of the park. I went outside my house in search of the telltale smoke cloud that should have been hovering nearby. I didn’t see it, but Raph assured me the fire was real. Only then did I see the smoke.

I grabbed my camera and jacket and caught a ride with a cousin who was already going out. We traveled up Summerland Avenue, then turned on to Elberon. I jumped out and made my way closer before meeting up with Raph. The smoke was so bad we couldn’t even see where we were going or tell where exactly the fire was at that point.

We got there trying to find a place to go shoot some photos. I was kind of lost until I found a spot to capture still photos, but I was just getting bombarded by debris like ash and black charred stuff from the fire. I ran back home to retrieve my fire protection media gear. I have a wildland jacket similar to the ones firefighters wear with a helmet with the word “Media” emblazoned on it and a pair of goggles.

This fire only burned about an acre of grass and brush. By 8 p.m., crews stopped the spread of the 10-acre fire, but it posed a threat to neighbors above the canyon.

Most of the fire was situated off of Golden Rose Street. There was another fire about a week or two earlier. By the time I got there, firefighters had already got it knocked down. The earlier fire seemed to have been ignited around the same area. From what parkside residents have told me, there’s an encampment area down in the stream bed. But I’ve never been able to get down there because it’s steep and I don’t want to hike down by myself.

Fires seem to happen a lot around this park area. While the May 12 fire was described as a brush fire, the fire the following day in nearly the same area was determined by LAFD to be a rubbish fire with no structures burned. Then there’s the earlier brush fire on April 28. The fire department was unable to determine the cause of ignition. In any case, I always find myself at the same lookout point taking photos of these fires. I had posted some decent pictures of a small fire in the same area about a year ago.

But on May 12, helicopters performed water drops over the canyon into the evening, and crews remained on the scene through the night. Officials said there were no injuries reported, no structures were threatened, and there were no calls for evacuation. A week after the blaze, RLn learned that the investigation was closed without a determination of whether it was arson or any other cause. But many residents who live adjacent to the park suspect it was caused by the area’s unhoused neighbors encamped in the thickest brush of Peck Park canyon. Could these be some of the people that have been pushed off the sidewalks with the anti-camping ordinance? But the fires that keep happening at the same location are just one layer of the issues at Peck Park.

A few months ago, there was an armed robbery at a Subway in Park Plaza — a robbery that turned into a police chase. The suspect fled to Peck Park, pointing his gun at park goers. The police locked down the park and searched for four hours. Even with the K-9 unit, they were unable to find the gunman. Residents believed the gunman escaped by way of the drainage ditch leading out into the neighborhood.

Back in December 2021, two teenagers were shot near the skate park, but for some reason, we weren’t able to get any information on them.

A Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter attempts to stop a fire at Peck Park. Photo by Chris Villanueva

When I got there, the emergency personnel were taking the victims away. The victims appeared to be teenagers. We didn’t stick around for the investigation because we couldn’t see anything — it was pitch black. Other shootings in the area seemed to have caused the San Pedro shooting to sort of fly under the radar. No one talked or even mentioned it.

We’ve had a few fires in and around my neighborhood. I’ve called the police numerous times after hearing my unhoused neighbors fighting or screaming for help. When officers arrive to investigate, they come back to me saying they didn’t see anything. That’s because the unhoused were hiding under the bridge. Every time I call the police about the bridge, they have no idea what I’m talking about. This has led to some frustrating conversations.

Before COVID-19, I had an encounter with two homeless people yelling for help for presumably their friend who was experiencing an overdose. The pair went to the gas station and had the workers there call emergency personnel. The police arrived and searched the area for the transient without success. I engaged the officers on the scene and suggested that they search a hidden cove. I don’t think they took me seriously. They called an air unit to aid in the search. The police were eventually successful, finding the body hidden exactly in the area I told them to search. The guy was dead.

A few months before the May 12 fire, two women had flagged me down for my attention because their companion, a young woman, was experiencing a heroin overdose. I quickly learned that the two women were the mother and sister of the young woman, who was unconscious and lying face down when I got to her. I turned the young woman over and did my best to keep her alert by shaking her. The sister and mother didn’t want to get the police involved. I argued with the family, that if the police did not come, the young woman would die. They said they were going to take the woman home and put her in a bathtub full of ice. I fended the sister and mother off until help arrived. The mother ultimately ran off. She didn’t want to deal with the police and fire department.

The woman stayed alert until the fire department arrived, but her eyes were so glazed over. I told the fire department personnel, “Hey, this is probably gonna be a heroin overdose. I just talked to her sister and they said she does heroin.”

The firefighters took her away in an ambulance. I don’t know what happened to her, but I think about her from time to time, wondering if she lived. She appeared normal. She didn’t look like she used heroin. But seeing something like that and nothing seemingly being done about it… it kind of pisses me off.

I’ve lived in Pedro in that neighborhood for 30 years. We had big gang problems years ago, but this, what we are experiencing now, feels all new. And considering what is going on with the fires, drugs, homelessness, and the violence… My brother had his car stolen out here. Then my neighbor’s car was broken into, then another neighbor’s car was stolen a month before that. So, there’s just a lot that’s been happening. It just sucks.

Terelle Jerricks contributed to this story.

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