YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ward Winning News al A pa
Vol. 9, No. 39
Including Nearby Communities
www.thepress.net
Jackson blasts mortgage lenders by Dave Roberts Staff Writer
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. came to Antioch, ground zero for the foreclosure crisis in the county, on Sept. 17 to compare mortgage lenders to thieves and urge people to fight back instead of allowing their homes to be foreclosed. Jackson’s 54-minute speech in the packed Antioch Church Family building on E. 18th Street was billed as a town hall meeting. But it more resembled an old-fashioned revival meeting that included sermons from several pastors, a rousing gospel performance, shouted “amens” and repetition of Jackson’s words in call-and-response fashion as people waved fans to ward off the heat. Jackson’s main target was mortgage lenders, whom he referred to as “banksters” and equated with the notorious bank and train robber Jesse James. “This housing crisis is driven by unfair rules,” said Jackson “The robber Jesse James got paid twice. He got paid when he robbed you with an adjustable mortgage, and then he also got the (federal) stimu-
Photo by Dave Roberts
Jesse Jackson compares mortgage lenders to Jesse James in a speech in Antioch last week. lus (money). Jesse James stole on the front side and got bailed out on the backside. The victims are facing foreclosure.” Jackson said that his current crusade is the fourth major battle that has been fought in this country on behalf of victimized people. “We face one of the most chill-
ing moments in the history of our nation,” he said. “I submit to you that we never lost a battle that we fought, and never won a battle unless we fought. We fought the battle against slavery, and we won. We fought the battle against Jim Crow, and won. We fought the battle for women’s right to vote, and we won.
We fought the battle for bilingual education, and we won. “You can be out of slavery, first stage, out of Jim Crow, second stage, have the right to vote, and still be out of your house because it was stolen by banksters. Out of slavery, out of Jim Crow, the right to vote – and out of a job, out of health care, out of education, out of a house. So now we fight in this fourth stage to democratize opportunity, not democratize the vote.” Jackson, who may be the second most famous community organizer in the country after President Obama, said that the way to democratize opportunity is to organize and fight back. “We need to build an organization,” he said. “God said, ‘Noah, there’s a storm coming and there will be a flood.’ He did not tell Noah to go and teach swimming lessons. He said build an ark, build an organization, build an infrastructure. You can swim, but you cannot swim 40 days and nights without stopping. “We have to build an infrastructure. The banksters have
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September 25, 2009
THIS WEEK
Home and Garden
If you’ve got a home or a garden, or hope to have a home or a garden, or just like to read about them, this is your lucky day.
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DV gets legal Deer Valley High School’s Divine Voices sang at the dedication of the Deer Valley Law Academy.
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The show must go on
see Jackson page 21A
Mistrust remains over conservation plan by Dave Roberts Staff Writer Local advocates for the Delta are wary of a plan whose purpose is to save the Delta, based on the questions and concerns voiced by many of the hundred people in the Brentwood Senior Center Saturday morning for a workshop on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). Among the plan’s chief critics is a group called Restore the Delta (RTD). Oakley City Councilman Bruce Connelley and RTD Board Member Roger Mammon stood outside of the center passing out a flier that argues that the BDCP is “a tool for ensuring reliable water supplies for export … (and) a tool for the Schwarzenegger peripheral canal strategy.” Among its many recommendations, the BDCP calls for the construction of a canal along the eastern edge of the Delta to convey fresh water from the Sacramento River and ship it south, bypassing much of the rest of the Delta. Lo-
cal advocates are concerned that this would result in decreased water quality in the southwest Delta where East County is located. The flier criticizes the representation on the BDCP steering committee, arguing that the membership is skewed toward those favoring the canal plan. And it slams the BDCP workshops (the meeting in Brentwood was the first of four scheduled over 10 days in Delta communities), calling them “another exercise in futility” because the steering committee and particularly “the water export agencies have final say on the BDCP’s outcome.” That skeptical attitude was on display inside the center’s large meeting room as one person after another questioned workshop coordinator Karla Nemeth. “How do we get the experts we have that live on the Delta into the front end part (of the planning)?” asked one man. “Because the things we see coming out are not logical.” Several people asked about the status of the 2-Gate Fish Protec-
Despite the shooting of a student earlier in the day, Deer Valley was back to normal in the afternoon, including water polo.
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INSIDE
Photo by Dave Roberts
Many local boaters are concerned that construction of a peripheral canal in the east Delta will harm water quality in the south and west Delta. tion Demonstration Project, which is planned north of Discovery Bay, raising concerns from boaters that their Delta access will be blocked
Calendar ..........................27B Classifieds ........................19B Education ..........................8A Entertainment ................16B Food .................................14B Health & Beauty .............10B Home & Garden ............... 1B Milestones ......................... 9B Opinion ...........................14A Sports ...............................17A
for part of the year. A representative of the Bureau of Reclamation said see Plan page 21A
FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A