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April 2020 Culver City Democratic Club Activewww.CulverCityDemocraticClub.com Democrat Email: [email protected] • Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/culvercitydems Saving the Planet in the Time of Pandemic–CCDC will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day at its First Virtual Meeting Keynote Speaker: RL Miller, Chair of California Democratic Party’s Environmental Caucus. Also, Patricia McPherson on Protecting Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve We’ll have our April general meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, April 22, but it won’t be all in one room, because of America’s need to stop the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus. Instead, using the virtual meeting app Zoom, members who RSVP to [email protected] will re- ceive an email with a link to the online meeting. The first 100 people to RSVP will be able to participate from home if they have internet access. They will also need either a smartphone or a computer with a camera. An unlimited number of people will be able to call in and hear the meeting on a landline or cellphone. If you don’t have internet access there is a simple way to listen to the program on a telephone. When you RSVP you will receive an email with instructions on how to participate in the meeting. The internet link, call-in number and instructions will be in the email you receive. If you have questions, please email [email protected] or send a text with your name to Pete Rockwell at 415-254-5338. For people who aren’t able to partici- pate, the meeting will be recorded and posted on the Club’s website (www. CulverCityDemocraticClub.com) and our Facebook page (https://www.face- book.com/CulverCityDems/). RL Miller to be Keynote Speaker At the April 22 meeting, our keynote speaker will be one of the most respect- ed California Democratic Party chairs, RL Miller of the Environmental Cau- cus (which grew from 60 to 600 mem- bers under her as chair). She’s also the founder of Climate Hawks Vote, whose mission is to build grassroots political power for the movement to address the climate crisis. (See Earth Day Meeting on page 5) Culver City Democratic Club: Active Democrat April 2020 — Page 2 Virtual Meeting — 7p.m. Wednesday, April 22, 2020 The Culver City Democratic Club will hold its first online membership meeting, on the 50th anniversary of EARTH DAY, with Climate Hawks Vote founder RL Miller President’s Message by Pete Rockwell We have no choice—we MUST rise to this challenge As I was writing this article I happened knew, from learning about the to see a press conference on local TV experience the Chinese government announcing that the city and county of had with the disease, that people with Los Angeles are starting to take action no symptoms could be carrying the to see that the shortage of N95 respi- disease and spreading it for weeks. rators is addressed here in Southern California by setting up partnerships with local manufacturers and local governments. Los Angeles area public officials aren’t waiting for the federal government to rescue our healthcare workers from this problem. They are taking matters into their own hands. The same press conference made it clear that the Southern California local govenments were making Covid-19 test #thisisNOTprotection kits from a South Korean private com- N95 respirator (face mask) The Culver City Democratic Club’s pany available to labs and hospitals in Second VP, Jeanna Harris, is a regis- our area. South Korea started testing as many tered nurse. She sent me this picture This is certainly a good thing, but it asymptomatic people as they could in that she got from her union, National also shines an especially harsh light on order to slow down the epidemic. The Nurses United. She said nurses have the failure of the Trump administration United States did nothing like that, been taking selfies wearing bandanas to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. and even refused to use the test kits and putting the pictures on Facebook. that the World Health Organization Covid-19 testing had on hand. Instead we tried to Right now, healthcare workers do not In the United States, there’s a se- have the protective equipment they create our own test kit. This was a vere shortage of the test kits that are monumental mistake. Now, it looks need to keep working and protect needed to identify people who have themselves from Covid-19 — a virus like the situation here will get much been infected by Covid-19. Not only worse before it gets better. that’s spreading like a grass fire all is this a problem because it means For now, all we can do is stay home to over the planet and killing thousands we are not able to identify which pa- avoid spreading the disease. Follow the of people. Many of these workers have tients have Covid-19 and which have advice of experts about hand washing, recently been told to use scarves in flu or pneumonia — it means that it’s social distancing, and other personal place of proper masks, because there is harder to identify healthcare profes- precautions Also, please stay away a critical shortage of N95 respirators. sionals and first-responders who are from hospitals and emergency rooms carriers of Covid-19 but don’t have When doctors and nurses are per- unless your problem is a matter of life any symptoms. It also means that to forming surgery or interacting with and death. patients that may be carrying a com- slow the spread of the disease we need municable disease, a particular type of to tell everybody to stay away from No more paper newsletter face mask (also known as an N95 res- everybody else, instead of putting The Club newsletter will be online pirator) is recommended to be worn. only carriers of the disease in quaran- from now on. If you want a paper These masks are regulated by the tine. South Korea used testing to slow newsletter, you can print one on your FDA. To learn more, read about Per- Covid-19’s spread, and it looks today home printer. If you don’t have a print- sonal Protective Equipment (PPE) on like the technique they used worked. er, text me your name (415-254-5338) the website of the Centers for Disease South Korea and the United States or email me and I will make sure you Control (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/ both reported their first cases of get a paper newsletter. Covid-19 is coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respira- Covid-19 on the same day: January 21, only one of the reasons for this change. tor-use-faq.html 2020. The South Korean government [email protected] Culver City Democratic Club: Active Democrat April 2020 — Page 3 I was a poll worker at Warner Elementary School in Westwood—It was a nightmare At lunch hour all tablets used to check place them in the box. Many ballots people in were slowing down. The sys- were randomly found at the table or on tem kept syncing, which caused every the floor. We quickly ran out of English ballot to be posted as provisional. We write-in ballots. tried switching between tablets that People were very frustrated and yelled were not syncing. Sometimes it worked, at us. The check-in machines were au- but ninety percent of the time it didn’t. tomatically giving out provisional bal- After lunch hour the lines got bigger. lots because the system was lagging. By 2 pm, wait time had increased from Ninety percent of voters got provision- an hour and a half to three hours. At al ballots after the lunch rush and all through the evening. that point the tablets couldn’t find people in the system. Even when they The system kept notifying us that the brought in their information ballots, voter was receiving a provisional bal- by Emily Dibbiny the scanner couldn’t read their regis- lot because the tablet was syncing, but What I witnessed March third as an tered personal info. they failed to sync all day long. People election worker in Los Angeles County We had to register people as new vot- were very angry because they were not was a crime. ers, even though they’d lived at the happy to get a provisional ballot. Their Most voters couldn’t be found in the same address for years, and even if information was correct, and there was new system. If they showed up with the they’d voted in 2018. We couldn’t pull no need for them to be issued a provi- affidavit printed out, their record was up their info because the system was sional ballot. The voters were frustrat- nowhere to be found. Everyone who crashing. It also wouldn’t allow us to ed because they waited three hours in prepared a poll pass had it rejected as print out ballots for any new registered line just to get a provisional ballot. “voter not found” when it was scanned voters that we were logging in that day. Our leader was stretched out between at registration. After hitting “print” the blue tab would helping elder voters and answering an- A lot of voters who signed up for vote- disappear as the printer froze. gry voters’ questions. by-mail ballots didn’t receive them. We ran out of voter info booklets in The printers kept freezing and we Some voters registered as “non-parti- English very quickly.