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¡Viva huelga! César Chávez Day 94 returns
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 3-31-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

"I love the smell of picket signs in the morning' — (Apologies to Robert Duvall, Francis Ford Coppola and Joseph Conrad)

Today is César Chávez Day under Nevada law.

The great union leader was born March 31, 1927 near Yuma, Ariz. Weakened by decades of work in the fields and near-death fasting to rally political support, he died at 66 in 1993.

Awhile back, knowing that César's siblings lived into their 80s or more, I asked his nephew, Ramon, a longtime Nevadan, if he thought that his work shortened his uncle's life.

Ramon had one word: "Undoubtedly."

César Chávez was no stranger to Nevada. Unbeknownst to most, he first came to Sparks-Reno in the early 1960s, long before he was an international figure. He met with Reno-Sparks NAACP matriarch and future president Dolores Feemster, who casually mentioned it at a César Chávez Day event a few years back.

By 1986, he was a global champion of workers' rights. On July 15 of that year, he came here to speak to a morning gathering of Machinists Union members. Local labor leaders prevailed upon him to schedule a second speech at the Musicians Union hall. Mayor Pete Sferrazza presented him with a proclamation naming that day César Chávez Day in Reno.

Not many people knew of his visit until Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Mike Norris printed a followup story. Why so low key? Chávez was traveling with two bodyguards. The United Farm Workers Union leader's life was under constant threat. (See CesarChavezNevada.com/)

These days, the threats to farm workers go further. They labor under horrible conditions in mostly non-union fields, and now COVID-19 stalks them. Red state governors, among others, have made it very hard for farm workers to get vaccinated.

Seven years ago this week, Oscar-nominated actor John Malkovich's A-list movie, "César Chávez", premiered nationwide. Get it. Watch it. Learn.

Malkovich played a villainous farmer with Michael Pena ("Shooter", "Crash", "Fantasy Island" ) as César, America Ferrara ("Superstore") as Mrs. César Chávez, Helen, and Rosario Dawson ("Men in Black II") as César's second-in-command, Dolores Huerta, who is likewise no stranger to Nevada. She has spoken here many times.

Two years ago this week, Ms. Huerta journeyed to Carson City to support a death-with-dignity assisted suicide bill before the Nevada Legislature. As I noted last week, the issue is now again before lawmakers.

César Chávez stayed active in the Silver State right up until his death. He spoke frequently to encourage Culinary Union strikers at Gomorrah South's Frontier Hotel. He thus helped Nevada workers win the longest work stoppage in U.S. history. (See CesarChavezNevada.com/)

In 2003, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative César Chávez stamp, which resulted in Nevada's first César Chávez Day celebration.

Two of its progenitors will speak before Truckee Meadows Community College Students today.

Four-term former Sparks Assemblymember Skip Daly's union, Laborers' Local 169, was an original sponsor back in 2003. I took over as executive producer in 2008.

After two postponements, the annual onsite event fell victim to COVID-19 last year. I have moved this year's celebration to Oct. 2 in the hope that Nevadans can once again gather in César's name.

Before then, chime in on Zoom at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 31. Skip and I will be joined by longtime Latina activist Elvira Diaz of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. The event goes until 5:30 (and perhaps longer) and will include a short documentary film.

UPDATE: Maria Zamora, a former Reno resident who marched with César in California throughout the 1960s and '70s has been added. She organized meal preparation and accommodations for volunteers and coordinated caravans to deliver food and supplies to workers and organizers in the fields. She was inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame in 2016.

Go to tmcc.edu/calendar, scroll down to March 31 and click on the César link.

Latinos are Nevada's fastest growing population. Witness all their political attention of recent times. César's impact and potential in rallying them will be an important topic of conversation. As will the Alabama Amazon union election, results of which may be announced by then.

Tune in. Turn on. Get involved. A good time will be had by all.

¡Viva huelga! If local bus system bosses force their workers to strike next June, the spirit of Chávez will march with us. It would have been far cheaper to enforce Gov. Sisolak's mask and safety mandates.

READ SOME HISTORY. Renters' rights are once again at issue before lawmakers at the ledge. For perspective, read the Barbwire of July 17, 2019, "Reno City Council passes rent control." Yes, it actually happened once upon a time. (See RentVolution.org/)

SUICIDE WATCH. The Terminator is harvesting more lives and Americans can't wait to travel and party. Parents want to see students graduate, or at least get them back in school and out of the house.

Dr. Fauci sez stay home, but we wanna contact our social diseases, hangovers or worse, from venereal to bacterial to viral. So we ignore at our peril the Mahatma of Moderna, the Grand Vizier of Pfizer, the Genius of Janssen. I'm glad I don't have his job.

Suicide is painless because it leaves your assassins blameless.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Viva huelga! Strike a blow for Nevada workers
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 3-24-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

"Effective February 2, 2021, there will be a federal mandate for masks to be worn on public transportation...Although the mandate was (sic) been escalated, our operators are not to enforce this policy whatsoever." So ordered Mr. Taquan Jackson.

DEADLY COUNTERPOINT. Starting this week, RTC Ride buses will offer free rides to anyone going to get a COVID-19 vax jab.

The vaccine won't have time to become effective against the virus you may well contract on the bus.

SUICIDE IS PAINLESS because it leaves your assassins blameless. (Pardon my insensitive rewrite of the Theme from M*A*S*H.)

A serious assisted suicide bill is now before the Nevada Legislature. I don't care about its merits or demerits, America already has all the suicide assistance it needs. They are called guns, which already account for more than half of off-yourself offerings.

Suffocation is number two with a bullet on the auto-adios hit parade. Number crunchers must soon add a sub-category. Call it Spring Break Syndrome.

Florida, Texas and Arkansas lead the current test marketing for the new off-yourself obsession. Just get naked, especially in your facial orifi, party with the crowd and let Mother Nature in. COVID-19 beasties will shortly turn your lungs into wet Kleenex so you can join your ancestors at the big beach party in the sky.

I must genuflect to a bit of fiscal conservatism here. Doctor-assisted "death with dignity" is very probably cheaper than filling hospitals with uninsured twenty-somethings sporting great suntans.

SUICIDE IS PAINFUL. Miciah Lee was a depressed African American 18 year-old who wanted to end it all. So Sparks police ended it for him. (Read District Attorney Chris Hicks' exoneration of the officers involved at NevadaLabor.com/)

It need not have happened. It also became a macabre precursor to the current Coronavirus worldwide plague.

After the SARS-CoV bug broke out in China in 2002, the Chinese government put an elaborate plan in place to identify future microbeasties and stomp them out. When COVID-19 appeared in late 2019, the system was ready.

They chose not to use it. Woebetide any underling who bears bad news to Beijing. Kinda like the Trump White House.

Courageous Dr. Li Wenliang sent up red-flag warnings and was arrested for his trouble. Forced to read a public admission of error, he was shamed nationally and died a few months later of the disease he identified. The pandemic was on. Despite the most odious efforts of President Xi Xin Ping's to rewrite history, today, Dr. Li remains a national hero in China.

A shooting de-escalation apparatus has been available in Washoe County since 2003. On the night of January 5, 2020, Sparks cops chose not to call the Mobile Outreach Safety Team (aka MOST) and shot the kid instead. (Pardon my lack of nuance, but as Bill Maher once opined, Americans don't do nuance.)

The officers had been informed by the kid's mom that he was mentally unstable and suicidal. They might have called MOST but instead opted for less. It will cost the city a ton of taxpayer money.

Assemblymember Lisa Krasner, R-Reno, has introduced "Miciah's Law," Assembly Bill 268, which will mandate that every law enforcement entity in Nevada develop a detailed plan to deal with such situations with an emphasis on de-escalation before termination with extreme prejudice.

Major aspects of law enforcement statewide are supporting the bill which gets its first hearing this Friday morning before the Assembly Government Affairs Committee. Turn on, tune in, participate. Links at NevadaLabor.com/

A more questionable proposal lies in Assembly Bill 58 which would shroud police misconduct investigations in total secrecy until results are announced, a process which could take years.

Unlike Mrs. Krasner's bill, this one has no published sponsors but was introduced by a legislative committee, an old ploy to deflect accountability.

Mrs. Krasner's co-sponsor is Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas. Joining them are Las Vegas Democrat Cameron C.H. Miller and LV Republican and Minority Floor Leader Tom Roberts.

TAKE THE CURE. Time for me to reiterate my simple cure for the complex problems plaguing the republic: End the war on drugs and start a war on war.

President Richard Nixon's War on Drugs will soon be old enough to collect Social Security. It acts as a price support system for drug cartels. Nixon knew treatment was the answer, not prisons. But prisons scored more votes.

We have plenty of money to fulfill the promise of America if we redirect toward production rather than destruction.

Illegal immigration will seriously diminish if oppressed citizens of south of the border banana republics are no longer ruled by drug lords.

During World War One, the great cowboy humorist Will Rogers announced a solution to stop German submarines from blowing allied shipping out of the water.

"Boil the ocean!" said Rogers. Make it so hot down there that U-Boats will have to surface where they could be easily picked off, he added.

When asked how he proposed to heat the seas, Rogers was ready: "That's a detail matter. I'm a policymaker."

In all of the above cases, simplicity oft gets subsumed by secrecy, egos and policymaker greed.

¡VIVA HUELGA! Monitor CesarChavezNevada.com for online César Chávez Day activities next week. The great labor leader was born on March 31, 1927 near Yuma, Ariz.

Sir Elton John once expressed similar feelings in a hit song.

I lifted the above quote by the great German playwright from the April edition of Harper's Magazine.

When you see it on a news stand, buy it for the cover story if nothing else. "Civil Warning: Are we living through another antebellum era?" by Elliott Ackerman is well worth the price of admission. He draws some scary parallels between the leadup to our Civil War and the treasonous putsch of January 6.

Late in life, the Rev. Billy Graham was asked if he could fix one thing about America, what would it be?

"Racism," he said without hesitation.

Our national disease persists more than 160 years after the shooting started.

Cloak it in whatever bright shining lie is most popular, but our tribal fear of the other shackles us still.

"The Other" is whomever is deemed not of our tribe: browns, blacks, those who walk funny or talk broken English and eat weird foods like pasta.

My Italian ancestors who came thru Ellis Island were once part of The Other. Because we were white most of the time (save for summertimes of blistering work in sun-drenched fields), we moved up the food chain.

Some of my tribe have forgotten who brung us. One of my relatives, whose son just returned after a year at sea aboard an aircraft carrier, posted a muttonheaded meme last week: "If you want to thank me for my military service, vote for candidates that put veterans before illegal aliens."

I asked what about veterans who ARE illegal aliens?

"I think they should be legal first, before serving in the military," said my unyielding relative. You can guess where she gets most of her news.

Many illegals have honorably served this country before becoming citizens. Many still do. But our fear of the other allows us to make dumb assumptions. For instance, I once thought Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were American heroes who died for freedom at the Alamo.

The facts are the reverse. Texas declared independence from Mexico because Mexico had just outlawed slavery. Walt Disney never mentioned that to us kids while he was selling us movie tickets and faux coonskin caps.

A newsman character in the John Wayne classic "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" stated "This is the west, sir, When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." (Props to screenwriters James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck.)

Thus it is with the patron saint of bar room brawls and green beer.

St. Patrick never banished snakes from Ireland but it's a great drinking story.

In reveries of chartreuse brewskis, shamrocks, rainbows and occasional revolutionary bullets, it is rarely mentioned that the patron saint of Ireland was once a slave. One who returned to minister to the nation of his bondage.

So approach with open mind the issues still bedeviling the descendants of America's slaves. 

They have acquitted themselves with honor despite ongoing deprivation. Alas and alack, we live in an era of renewed violence against The Other.

Although we excised one vampire last November, his progeny proliferate. Crimes against anyone who does not look properly Nordic pale is in danger. Witness recent attacks on Asian Americans.

As George Santayana advised so long ago, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Was the treasonous storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 a latter day Fort Sumter? There is gathering evidence of a gathering storm.

PROPAGANDA MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY. The moguls behind building a new company town to service the new Internet-based currency have been spending a ton on print and electronic media advertising.

They call their idea "innovation zones." Actually, there's only one , in the erstwhile ConforteLand aka Storey County. Even their local government opposes the proposal now wheedling its way thru the Nevada Legislature.

If you have enough money, you will soon be able to start your own Nevada city and rule it as a feudal fiefdom. Call it slavery lite.

The ads contain no facts, just hype about jobs jobs jobs. It may work. Nevada has always been a company town, be it gambling or mining. So why should data mining be any different?

Buyer beware.

BEWARE 2. Our darling the airplane has foisted the plague upon us and we glady enter her womb once again. Air travel is reaching new pandemic era highs.

Unsafe mass transit spreads COVID-19 and kills people. Yet we stick our collective heads where the sun never shines.

So get set for a Spring Break Surge, abetted by our safety-flouting Washoe and Gomorrah South bus systems.

Controlling mass transit means controlling the Coronavirus which will allow a safe and controlled re-opening of society.

Alas and alack, Americans are too suicidally impatient.

AARGH DEPT. With new variants abounding, some researchers have said we are now at the end of the world's honeymoon period with COVID-19 vaccines.

I want a divorce.

CLIP AND SAVE(?) The New York Times reports this sign in a local barber shop: "Haircut $20. Overdue haircut $27."

I resemble that remark.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

Barnum, Reagan, Rambo, Gingrich & the Czar
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 2-24-2021 Sparks Tribune

Murderous MAGA moonhowlers meander among us
Would you vote for somebody who put out a contract for your murder?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 2-17-2021 Sparks Tribune

SUPERSPREADER UPDATES

A hard rain falls on the land of the giants
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 2-10-2021 Sparks Tribune

Maskerape: Get COVID-19 & vax on one bus ride
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 2-3-2021 Sparks Tribune

Capitol punishment and bus station blues
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 1-20-2021 Sparks Tribune

Bus drivers lay to rest one of their own, call on RTC to enforce COVID-19 protections
By Astrid Mendez / KTNV TV-13 (ABC-Las Vegas) 1-22-202

Funeral for 2nd Nevada bus driver felled by COVID-19
1-22-2021