As the one year anniversary of Oct. 7 looms, Palestinian San Diegans have been counting their dead. The assault on Lebanon has the early patterns that resembles Gaza and the West Bank. I talked to my aunt who lives outside of Beirut. In her 83 years she has seen too much. For her children, now aging themselves, their entire lives have been consumed by war. The numbers of direct family members lost are in the hundreds, perhaps thousands in San Diego County alone.

If that is not enough, individuals and organizations in San Diego have launched rampant bullying campaigns to disrupt and sabotage planned cultural and civil rights events and educational support in San Diego hotels, museums, parks, universities, and schools. Below is a partial list of several incidents and crimes where litigation is pending so few details are able to be disclosed. One is the Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR San Diego, when their Sept. 14 annual gala’s location was abruptly moved. It resembles a similar incident in Arlington, Va.

The Mingei Museum in Balboa Park in July reportedly postponed a Palestinian Tatreez (embroidery) workshop, indicating threats of protest and violence the week before the scheduled Monday night event.

The San Diego based National Conflict Resolution Center forcibly removed Imam Taha, a board member and recipient of a Peacemaker Award without his consent.

The County Board of Supervisors and mayor Todd Gloria have refused to meet with our community, not only to acknowledge individual and collective traumas, but to remediate recent hostile resolutions and misrepresentations against Middle Easterners and North Africans.

Where is the alarm? Rather, San Diego’s elected officials, civic institutions and colleges accept bullying that limits and sabotages Palestinian Americans’ right to grieve or publicly memorialize the past year of carnage and slaughter, strongly claimed by international law to be a genocide and a scholasticide.

An alternate reality has been concocted to justify extreme actions against Palestinian Americans throughout the country. In San Diego County, the American Jewish Committee and its affiliates such as the Anti-Defamation League have been deemed non-reliable sources by Wikipedia. Palestinian American resources for Oct. 7 are readily available.

Palestinian American students have been the most vulnerable. In Chicago on Oct.14, 2023, 6-year old first grader, Wadea al-Fayoume, was stabbed to death by his landlord. He was unanimously commemorated last month by the U.S. Senate. In Vermont last Thanksgiving, three Palestinian American college students, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Hisham Awartani were shot and one, Awartani is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Nationwide, the increase in hate crimes and incidents have risen to astronomical levels since Oct. 7, 2023.

Threats made to anyone who criticizes Israel creates fear. This perpetuates the dissemination of false information via propaganda. Silencing is already normalized when it comes to Arab, Palestinian and Muslim Americans.

The silence from entities who tally incidents such as the ACLU, FBI and General Attorney’s office have responsibilities to monitor, gather information and begin investigations. Our District Attorney’s office in San Diego and California’s Attorney General in Sacramento are refusing to notice what is threatening our constitutional rights to engage in public debate. After this long period of silence. Our community concludes that they do not care. Prove us wrong.

Our community feels unsafe while it grieves these losses in our home countries. If bullying is not addressed proactively by our civic leaders, it will metastasize and lead to more violence against Arabs, Muslims and all Americans critical of Israel. We expect to practice our constitutional rights without danger and sabotage. We demand that empathy and discussion, ingredients for healing and responsibly constructed resolutions be sought by elected and civic leaders.

Bittar is an artist, writer and community organizer who lives in North Park.

For the last six years, the yearly matchup between Bishop’s and Francis Parker has been rather one-sided, with the Knights winning each of the last six games.

On Friday night, the lopsided rivalry continued.

Bishop’s extended its win streak to seven with a dominant 48-0 victory over the Lancers.

“It’s always good to get a win, and it’s always good to have guys playing efficiently and effectively,” said Bishop’s coach Shane Walton. “And more than that, it’s good to get these young guys in there and get some opportunities late.”

A day after the announcement of his verbal commitment to the University of Iowa, Knights QB Cash Herrera put together arguably his most efficient performance of the season, passing for two touchdowns and rushing for one, all coming in the first half.

Herrera got his favorite weapons, Ian Browne and Ruben Gutierrez III, involved early. He connected with Browne on a 12-yard TD pass and then hit Gutierrez for a 32-yard TD on a perfectly timed screen, a staple of the Knights’ offense.

Bishop’s (3-2) ended the first half up 34-0.

“Cash is special, and Ruben Gutierrez has been a special player for us,” noted Walton. “Those two guys have kind of gotten things going for us. We’ve been dealing with a lot of injuries, so the offense hasn’t been as efficient as I would like it to be, but we’re starting to gel at the right time.”

The Knights used a RPO-based attack to generate numerous explosive plays against Francis Parker (3-3).

Browne had 100 receiving yards in the first half to go with his TD. Gutierrez added a rushing TD to go with his screen score. Both playmakers were pulled early in the third quarter along with Herrera.

The Knights’ defense was just as impressive as their offense, led by defensive linemen Declan O’Donovan, Henry Armstrong and Cooper Armstrong. The trio produced five sacks and eight tackles-for-loss in the win.

The constant pressure helped create turnover opportunities in the secondary. Son-Son Santiaguel and Jonah Garcia each came away with interceptions. Garcia also forced and recovered a fumble.

“Defense is about everyone being a piece to the puzzle, and we talk about everyone reaching their cap,” noted Walton. “We talk all the time that in every game, you get about 10 to 12 possessions a game. If you can take the ball away three times, that means they get seven to nine, and we get 13 to 15. Anytime you win the turnover battle, you’re typically going to come away with the win.”

Scoring Summary

Bishops 48, Francis Parker 0Bishops          14  20  7   7 – 48Francis Parker 0   0   0   0 – 0B – I. Browne 12 pass from C. Herrera (E. Granet kick)B – R. Gutierrez 32 pass from C. Herrera (E. Granet kick)B – Herrera 4 run (E. Granet kick)B – R. Gutierrez 3 run (E. Granet kick)B – D. O’Donovan 2 run (PAT failed)B – S. Santiaguel 2 run (D. Ashraf kick)B – J. Popplewell 8 run (D. Ashraf kick)

Originally Published: October 4, 2024 at 11:03 p.m.

The two Democrats running to represent part of San Diego and East County in the state Assembly don’t have anything negative to say about each other.

When asked about his opponent, Colin Parent, a member of the La Mesa City Council, said, “I don’t have anything negative to say.” LaShae Sharp-Collins, a professor and education expert, in turn praised Parent as a “wonderful city council member.”

The choice for voters in the 79th District will largely come down to what kind of background they want representing them in the California Legislature, as well as whose ideas better resonate when it comes to public safety and affordability. Parent won the primary by a significant margin, but Sharp-Collins could make up the difference Nov. 5 by winning over thousands of residents who voted for the third candidate in the earlier race, Lemon Grove Mayor Racquel Vasquez, who is also a Democrat.

One key difference between the two: criminal justice reform.

Parent said he will vote for Proposition 36, which would toughen sentences for petty theft and certain drug possession charges.

“We’ve got to prioritize public safety,” he added. “I was hoping that the Legislature in Sacramento was going to address those issues, but I think they failed.”

Sharp-Collins feels the opposite.

“You are rolling us back to what we had before,” she said, referencing the state’s earlier tough-on-crime policies. Sharp-Collins is open to revisiting rules established a decade ago by Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for some drug and shoplifting cases, but she believes the current proposal goes too far.

The council member

Parent is a 43-year-old attorney.

He was elected to La Mesa’s council in 2016, where he’s supported increased oversight of police, voted to boost gun storage requirements, opposed new fees for developers because they could have driven up home prices and endorsed building one enormous housing complex even when it faced bipartisan opposition from all of his colleagues.

Parent is also CEO of the nonprofit Circulate San Diego, which advocates for expanding public transportation.

Critics have raised concerns about whether elected officials should simultaneously work for organizations that influence regional housing policy. Parent has said he’s always separated his advocacy work from decisions made as a La Mesa council member. He does plan to step down from Circulate if elected to the Assembly.

Parent believes his government experience — he’s worked for both the state housing department and the San Diego Housing Commission — position him as the best candidate to address sky-high home prices. For starters, he hopes California will consider dropping the minimum allowed lot size for condos and townhouses, potentially making it easier to create cheaper options for first-time buyers.

Homelessness is a major concern for both candidates. Parent cited a state audit that found homelessness spending has often been poorly tracked and evaluated and said officials needed to be more willing to pull funding from programs that, however well-intentioned, are ineffective. Supporting more sober-living facilities should be considered, he said. Sharp-Collins agreed.

But Parent nonetheless would vote to boost homelessness spending overall and wants every means of doing so, from raising taxes to issuing bonds, to be on the table. “We need to treat this like the crisis it is.”

Another priority is road repair. Parent believes state funding must first go to the most dangerous and damaged streets.

He further said anyone trying to launch solar or wind farms should face fewer environmental regulations.

Parent has raised more than a half-million dollars from the start of the year through late September, according to records kept by the California Secretary of State. During the same period, Sharp-Collins pulled in a little more than half that amount, about $263,800.

The educator

Sharp-Collins, 44, works for the county’s Office of Education.

As a community engagement specialist, she helps families navigate district bureaucracy, connects service organizations with local schools and aids in rolling out new curriculum, such as ethnic studies. Sharp-Collins is especially focused on reaching parents who, as a result of juggling multiple jobs or language barriers, may otherwise feel like they don’t have a say in their kids’ education.

In addition, Sharp-Collins teaches in San Diego State University’s Africana Studies department and previously worked on education policy as a staffer to former Assemblymember Shirley Weber.

She wants homeschooling parents to undergo more training and thinks the state should simplify the approval process for turning school-owned land into housing for teachers.

Red tape must similarly be cut for churches willing to build affordable units on their property, Sharp-Collins said. She’s open to boosting rental assistance for low-income residents and increasing taxes on their wealthy neighbors, but more significantly, Sharp-Collins is interested in establishing a state bank that could offer home loans.

Currently, North Dakota appears to be the only state with a government-run bank.

Sharp-Collins further says developers should only receive incentives, such as reduced requirements for parking spots, if they build significantly more affordable units. Parent thinks the current limits, which can change depending on the area, are largely OK.

Regarding homelessness, Sharp-Collins hopes to explore using more state-owned land and decommissioned naval ships as temporary shelters.

She’s additionally concerned about methane that can leak from stoves in older homes and wants California to spend more money on swapping in electrical appliances.

Both candidates have deep roots in the district and they’ve split Democratic endorsements.

Sharp-Collins is the party’s official nominee and supported by a number of prominent Democrats, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and state Sen. Toni Atkins. Parent has been endorsed by state Sen. Catherine Blakespear and U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, among others.

The 79th District begins in southeastern San Diego and continues inland through parts of Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon. The area is currently represented by Akilah Weber, who’s now running for the California Senate.

Assembly members serve two-year terms and annually make $128,215. The longest someone can stay in office is 12 years.