Author: Danielle Levy

Every Tuesdays a full page ad in the Los Angeles Times flaunts the produce of the 99cents Only Stores, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, eggplants, berries, bananas, cauliflower, apples, and a lot more, a growing list in varying amounts for 99cents. What is striking is the discrepancy between those prices and those of any supermarket. One may during special sales and for a limited time get something for 99 cents, when one more than likely can get a pepper or a pound of apples. The low prices beg the question, how can they be possible? There’s a grower, farm workers, a distributor, a grocery chain and somewhere in there a middle-person or two. Each must make a profit. For some, like the farm workers, profit is more expandable than for others. It could be that the price is too low to be fair to all those involved. In an era when we are so conscious about carbon footprints and the benefits of organic, we may need to become more conscious of one more issue, fair trade, that is to ensure that no one is exploited, that no one suffers in the process of getting food to our table. Yes, some of the people who shop at the 99cents Only Stores are on tight budgets, and that is a concern since including fair trade into the goods we consume does raise the price. And yet some would be the very people who would benefit from the increase in wages and benefits of fair trade practices. For those of us who would not directly benefit, there is the issue of conscience and of knowingly participating in what would help many others. Fair trade already matters in goods such as carpets and some coffees, but it ought to apply to across the board.

A group of volunteer firefighters made up of low risk prison inmates has been living and training in several sites around the city of Los Angeles, sites where they are supervised and confined. One of those site, at Mt. Gleason burned down during he last Malibu fire which they helped conquer. Malibu, it is to be noted, is in one of the highest fire danger zone in the country. Not long ago a site for the replacement for the Mr. Gleason facility was announced: a Malibu fire station. Some of the neighbors loudly complained, one, an actor on the West Wing, organized to rally support to defeat the proposal. Soon after the fire Chief announced they would look for a site elsewhere. A Los Angeles Times editorial called the whole incident an example of NIMBY in Malibu. It does make an observer wonder, if the not-in-my-backyard attitude will carry over to the next time there is a fire in the area and suggest that only non-prison inmates fight the fire and save the neighborhood and its lives. One can, of course safely predict this won’t happen. What seems clear though is that the real danger of living in a high risk fire area is smaller to those who objected than the possible danger of a volunteer prison inmate firefighter living under lock and key doing something criminal. I, for one would disagree. For one thing the danger from people whose reality base is tainted by prejudice, and whose idea of reality doesn’t make a distinction between the actual and the possible, may turn out to be an underestimated threat to our society.

President Obama’s popularity is sinking, and commentators as much as many voters are beginning to blame him for his policies, his governing style, his ethos, his personality. Most of those same people a year ago assessed Obama differently. To him then he was a savior figure who was so intelligent, so in control of his emotions, so drama-phobic, so cooperative, so incisive, so savvy, so capable, so refreshing in his approach, so unafraid of criticism, that his campaign’s claim that he would reform Washington, end the war in Afghanistan, pass healthcare, fix the economy, take the needed steps about climate change and immigration was like a done deal. Of course he would, why not, he was this superhuman figure that had emerged from a mostly single parent household, had been deserted by his father, distinguished himself at Harvard and had written 2 bestselling books. Now, a year later when the promised agenda incessantly attacked from a numbers of groups from left to right is in jeopardy, the problem must be with him. Must it? Could it be that Mr. Obama wasn’t seen clearly in the first place, that the euphoria that had led to Obamamania has dissipated removing the rose colored glasses and what now stands before those voters and commentators is a more down to earth capable and unusual but nevertheless human president? And if that’s so, he doesn’t bear full responsibility for his slide, but those who didn’t see him clearly to begin with, those who projected their own wishes and agenda, who wanted a savior more than a president, do.

Nevada has always been known for being more permissive than most states, at least when it came to brothels. It is not something the state legislators want to talk about, lest they be perceived as legitimizing what has traditionally been illegitimate. Brothels were places where men would go to find women for a few hours. They’d pay their money, get their caresses plus or minus, and leave. Now Nevada is trying to open a brothel employing men. There are those who think the idea won’t fly and there are others who object on the ground that such places may attract homosexual activity. Whether it’s homophobic or sexist, the objections speak of prejudice. What’s OK for heterosexual males is not OK for heterosexual females or for gay men?