Poetry scholarship a success

On Thursday evening, May 24, it was my great pleasure to present the 2018 Joel Fallon Poetry Scholarships at the Benicia High School Awards Night. One scholarship went to Caitlyn Clark, an extraordinary slam poet and performance poet who has distinguished herself in the world of poetry since she was 14; she will go to Yale in the fall and be a member of the slam poetry team there. The other scholarship went to Natalie Trowbridge, another remarkable young poet; many of us heard Natalie at the scholarship fundraiser in April and may have met her in the course of her internship at the Benicia Public Library.  Both Natalie and Caitlyn will graduate in June from Benicia High School.
As you may be aware, the JFP Scholarship is intended to be given to one graduating senior from Benicia High School and one from Liberty High School each year.  This year, however, there were no applicants from Liberty and four from Benicia High.  The interview team was asked to determine how to proceed. The decision was that our commitment is to award two scholarships per year, and although the two scholarships are reserved for one senior from each high school, the scholarships are not restricted to one award per high school when there are no applicants from one of the schools.  We remain committed to actively recruiting applicants from each high school.
Many thanks to the interview team consisting of our Poet Laureate, Johanna Ely, and former Poets Laureate Ronna Leon and Don Peery.
And tremendous thanks to all of you who donated to the scholarship fund and who helped make our fundraiser an incredible success!
Poetry is powerful and life-transforming.  That’s something to which we can all attest, and it’s what Joel wanted to recognize with these scholarships.

Mary Susan Gast,
Joel Fallon Poetry Scholarship chair

Solano needs Tom Ferrara as sheriff

Tom Ferrara has spent his life working in law enforcement and has the knowledge and experience we need.  He has upped the number of concealed weapon permits in Solano County from 400 to 4,000 permits with no problems.  This has greatly increased the safety for the public at no cost to the taxpayers.  Tom knows there is a limit in the number of people that can be arrested and has created programs to train inmates for jobs so that they can improve their life and not continue to return to jail.  At $155 a day or $56,575 a year per inmate kept in jail, these programs should save the public a lot of money.  This should also be a great public relations item for companies that hire former inmates that have completed the programs. Also, Tom uses volunteers to do overtime.  That way, he gets the best people that enjoy what they do at a minimum of cost.   And finally, Tom is open to new ideas from others to improve the Sheriff’s Department.
Tom is the clear choice for Sheriff and needs your vote.  Please vote for Tom by June 5.

George Guynn Jr.,
Suisun City

Vote for corporate free candidates

I want to remind readers that politicians that take donations from corporate lobbyists and super PACs are working for corporations and not you, the voter. Please research candidates before you vote and try to vote for corporate free candidates. These are the people trying to work for you. *   A perfect example is lieutenant governor candidate Gayle McLaughlin– and no, I do not work for her) I met Gayle at a glyphosate forum in Napa and I marched with her in Santa Rosa on May Day. If you aren’t familiar with her story, its definitely worth reading about. She is a true people’s hero. *   One of her plans is to use her office as lieutenant governor to unite all kinds of civil rights groups and environmental groups and health awareness groups so that we can organize and mobilize and keep each other aware of the issues that we are facing. A really great example is the fight in Vallejo to prevent the Orcem cement factory from going in to an area within range of many schools and residences. Folks in Eureka or San Diego will have no idea what’s been going on or how the people have been fighting it- what’s worked and what hasn’t. And when we are finally successful in stopping this horror story, Orcem may try to inflict their asthma inducing particle clouds somewhere else. Maybe it will be near you, and it will be useful to have that communication available through that kind of progressive alliance.
So again, please vote on June 5 and vote for corporate free candidates. Thank you.

Jason Kishineff;
Congressional candidate, California’s 5th District

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