Posted inCitizen involvement City of Salem

Demand a Salem Climate Action Plan. Speak up on June 1!

Donald Trump doesn't accept the reality of global warming. He's working to reverse our nation's environmental protection efforts aimed at reducing harmful carbon emissions.  So this makes it even more important that Salem stand up for science, sustainability, and moving toward a 21st century economy that isn't based on outmoded fossil fuel assumptions of "drill, drill, drill" and "drive, drive, drive" (internal combustion vehicles). Salem needs a Climate Action Plan. Next Thursday, June 1, the City of Salem is holding a Strategic Plan Open House at the Broadway Commons from 6 to 8 pm. People need to speak up at…
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Posted inCitizen involvement Police facility

How citizen activism produced a much better Salem Police Facility plan

Yesterday Salem voters approved a second-try $62 million police facility bond measure. This is a good time to recollect how citizen activism led by Salem Community Vision (and Salem Can Do Better, an offshoot formed to oppose the first-try bond measure) prevented bad police facility ideas from being implemented -- which made possible the better plan approved by voters. Here's the "headlines" of eight citizen activism accomplishments. Stopping a police facility from being built at the Civic CenterStopping the Library from being converted to a police facilityStopping the idea of building a police facility anywhere at the Civic CenterStopping the…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council

Global warming denial on display at Salem City Council

Our nation has a reality-denying president in Donald Trump. Among other things that are objectively true, yet not to his tiny mind, he believes global warming is a hoax.  The last thing Salem needs is Trumpian City officials who refuse to accept the scientific consensus that global warming is happening, humans are the primary cause, and the world needs to take steps to reduce carbon emissions.  (See "Let's not let horrors of Trumpism infect Salem politics.") So when I watched part of the May 6 City Council work session on a Salem Strategic Plan, it was seriously disturbing to see…
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Posted inNational politics

Let’s not let horrors of Trumpism infect Salem politics

Yesterday's approval by the House of the dreadful TrumpCare replacement for the Affordable Care Act made me think: we've got to fight this sort of political craziness not only nationally, but also locally.  Understand, I'm not at all denying the need for us here in Salem to support the resistance to Trump -- who threatens to destroy the foundations of what makes American great, despite his lies about doing the opposite. I happily donated $50 to Act Blue yesterday after hearing about a campaign to fund 2018 candidates who will be taking on congressional Republicans who voted for TrumpCare in…
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