January PV Dems Meeting Announcements and More

By Ann Nye —

NOTE: A video of the meeting can be seen after this article.  Some video times are annotated within the article.

Connie Sullivan, PV Dems President, opened the Palos Verdes Democrats January 15 meeting with an announcement about the Assembly District Election Meetings (ADEMS) 2023 happening 1/21 and 1/22.

03:40  Connie invited several Assembly District 66 ADEM candidates who are members of our club to introduce themselves – Jane Affonso, Tony Hale, Wade Kyle, Carol Moeller, Caryl Schwartz, and Dave Zygielbaum.  [Shannon Ross was unable to attend]  Editor’s Note:  Results of the ADEM election will be posted to our website.

13.11  Recognition of the 8th Anniversary of the Torrance Refinery Explosion – On February 17, the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance (TRAA) will be holding a special event to commemorate the 8th anniversary of the Torrance Refinery explosion that nearly caused a catastrophe. It is scheduled to be at Cal State Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), with doors opening at 11:00 AM and the program starting at 11:30 AM.

16:18  Reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Ann Nye, PV Dems 2nd VP and Program organizer, reported on an article by LA Times Columnist, Carolina Miranda, who wrote about ‘How Stone Mountain weaponized art against Black people’ in a documentary by the Atlanta History Center.  The short, 30 minute, documentary was recently uploaded for viewing to their website and teaches us how removing Confederate Monuments is complicated.  In the documentary, you hear the view of the daughter of the monument’s carver, saying, “Sure, there is good, bad and ugly in every story, we just need to continue to focus on the good and not the bad.”  And you hear the counter view of the historian, “These sculptures served as instruments of terror. The people who had lost the war were now back in charge.”  The Stone Mountain Confederate Monument depict three Confederate leaders of the Civil War as a shrine to the Lost Cause and racist organizations.  It was completed in 1972 and is historically the sacred site of the KKK.  Georgia law was codified to never allow the removal of the Stone Mountain Confederate Monument.

19:49  Preview of PV Dems Meetings — February 19 – Michael Hiltzik’s Ruminations and 2023 Speculations.  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and LA Times Columnist Michael Hiltzik is making it a tradition to speak with us – you don’t want to miss it.

20:25  At the end of our meeting, we recognized elected official, Harold Williams, West Basin Municipal Water District Director Division I.  Harold Williams said he wasn’t here to tell us when the drought will be over, but to present Connie Sullivan with a certificate recognizing her Volunteer of the Year award, which she received at the LA County Democratic Party Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Awards event in October 2022.

A report of our featured speaker Robin Steinberg, CEO of The Bail Project, may be found in the January Meeting Report article.  At the PV Dems January Board Meeting, we voted to donate $250 to The Bail Project.

 

Here is the PV Dems December Treasurer’s Report from Treasurer Al Shadbourne: