By Walter Davis

Editor’s note: This memoir, submitted this week, provides eyewitness insights into turbulent times in our nation's history as well as the strength of a remarkable woman and her son.

July 1, 2010 (Birmingham, Alabama)--In 1915 when Mrs. Davis was a little girl, she could not go into the front door of most restaurants and public places like bus terminals. When traveling her family was not allowed to use the public restrooms in gas stations along the way because of the pigment in their skin. Finding a hotel was a challenge and crooked police could stop, search, rape, and kill as they pleased.

 
By Walter Davis
 
August 28, 2010 (San Diego) -- The Glenn Beck “Restore our honor” rally at the National Mall recently illustrated the continued short-sighted view point of the far right, and the left’s inability to arrest it. In speeches replete with religious over tones and nationalistic fervor, the Beck-Palin Tea Party rally was an insult to those who truly want freedom.

By Walter Davis

May 31, 2010 (San Diego) -- Heidi looks over the green grass at the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. She remembers how her parents were shipped here with her from California and put into an internment camp with other German American citizens. Italian Americans and Japanese Americans were held as well. German American citizens who played German music during World War II could be turned in by their neighbors, arrested and shipped away from their families to internment camps. They could be charged with being dangerous aliens. Some have never been seen again.

Arab Americans and Latin Americans are facing this same kind of injustice today.

 

As the Country Suffers, Leadership Fails
 
 
By Walter Davis
 
April 30, 2010 (San Diego)--With the economy in the tank and American families suffering, a deadlocked government continues to look after the interests of the corporations. These are tough times for the American family. So many teens seem not to have hope; young adults do not seem to be able to realize their true potential. Our world class education system has been gutted while the war machine never seems to run out of money.

Wasteful and mean policies of the right

By Walter Davis

April 11, 2010 (San Diego) -- Eugene Davidovich was acquitted last month of all charges along with most of the other citizens arrested in Operation Green RX. As reported, only one citizen, Donna Lambert remains within the clutches of the District Attorney. Operation Green RX was a misguided arrest sweep of people authorized to use medical marijuana. It has now become a national embarrassment to our local government.

By Walter Davis
 
January 2010 (San Diego's East County) -- It is unlikely that many in this country would intentionally choose to deposit waste material in their water and then drink it. That is the prevailing choice with fossil fuel burning vehicles that spew toxic gases in the air at baby stroller level, as they travel down our neighborhood avenues.

By Walter Davis
 
December 23, 2009 (San Diego)--Richard struggles with the large blue recycling receptical in his effort to find plastic bottles or treasured aluminum cans to fetch money to help put his child through college. Employed, he is an honorable man; he is honest, caring, devoted – determined to provide the best for his family. He never imagined he would be going through his neighbors’ trash to support his child in school.

LEFT HOOK COLUMN

By Walter Davis

Eugene Davidovich is a Navy veteran. His service connected health issues resulted in his doctor authorizing medical marijuana. Now, he faces four felony charges and the possibility of a long jail sentence.

According to Americans for Safe Access San Diego, the local District Attorney is aggressively pursuing users of Medical Marijuana in San Diego. Aggressive arrest tactics are reportedly in place despite state laws that make medical marijuana use legal and the recent federal guidelines that indicate federal authorities will not be pursuing charges against medical marijuana users in states where such use is legal.

November 9, 2009 (San Diego) -- After pushing through the Federal Reserve Act and signing it during holiday recess in 1913, even President Woodrow Wilson realized the Federal Reserve was not good for this country:  "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Federal Reserve into existence (1).

Today after the markets of 1929 and 2008, we can see that President Wilson was right. We will never be out of debt as long as the Federal Reserve exists.