Back with LGBTQMinusTobacco to one of the local high schools in Vallejo for their mental health awareness fair for the second year in a row. It’s always rewarding when we can educate the students and the staff on the harms of tobacco-related illness and cessation tools.
I didn’t think I’d ever need these business cards, but it’s nice to have with my activism. This would have come in handy in my recent trip to Washington DC, but at least now I have them for my forthcoming trip on tobacco control for Sacramento!
I’m so proud that one of my friends and a colleague in my tobacco control coalition is running for school board in Hayward (where I grew up, although I was zoned and schooled in the New Haven Unified School District which covered southern Hayward). Calyn is an amazing man, father, and health advocate working to empower youth to live their best lives with Bay Area Community Resources. He has inspired me to be a better public speaker. I have watched him work off the cuff and have always been impressed with his confidence and the breadth of his knowledge. He deserves all the support he can get and Hayward would be lucky to have him in this capacity!
Here are my activist colleagues Brian, Nefertiti, and a youth activist from here in Vallejo, Genesis (with whom I did the radio show last year), who showed up to comment on our frustration with the lack of Vallejo’s Tobacco Retail License getting adopted more than a year after we presented at City Council’s request.
My comments were roughly this:
Good evening Mayor and City Council. I’m Joseph Hayden, a Vallejo resident and volunteer Co-Chair of Tobacco Free Solano and LGBTQ Minus Tobacco.
Over twelve months ago our coalition, together with Vallejo youth advocates, presented to City Council a compelling case for why a Tobacco Retail License was needed most desperately in Vallejo. We are pleased that we were able to meet with city staff numerous times to discuss details and that there was an opportunity for tobacco retailers to be educated on this forthcoming ordinance. [Not a single retailer showed up. ]
Despite this bit of progress, there’s frustration that there is still no specific date for it to be on the agenda of the Planning Commission, which is where the ordinance sits before it can be read out to the City Council for the FIRST reading, something City Council was hoping to have by September of last year!
Moreover, we’re now aware, as City staff is, about the deadline for the California State Attorney General looking to assist with funding for jurisdictions that adopt tobacco retail licenses in time. I don’t want to see Vallejo miss out on these very helpful state funds, especially for a REVENUE NEUTRAL ordinance that will save lives. This is about the most preventable cause of death in the United States.
Please help us to hasten the reading of this ordinance, lest we lose momentum. Please keep the outrage alive at what has happened to our families, and continues to happen, when Peddlers of POISON try to Persuade us that they deserve the Privilege of having our youth Purchase their Products.
Keep in mind that since we first presented, other jurisdictions in Massachusetts and at least two cities in California already have stopped the sale of commercial tobacco ALTOGETHER to help save their citizens from this scourge. This is called End Game.
How many lives could have been improved and lengthened if we had already thwarted these Vallejo youth from being addicted to a toxic product that kills when used as intended, the availability of which lets them think that it’s okay to engage in self-destructive behavior? Tobacco is the most unregulated drug in the world that is still readily available to them, especially when we compare Vallejo’s underage youth sale rates to other Bay Area jurisdictions. By design, in food deserts, one only needs to extend one’s arm to find nicotine products in every direction. This is still a health equity issue. So how many shortened life spans and devastated families will know my family’s grief (and that of some of you) because of the lack of outrage at what the tobacco retailers continue to get away with? Unchecked sales and no accountability are why we need a tobacco retail license forthwith.
I ask you to think about what the inherently racist, callous and insidious industry of Big Tobacco is doing to our families. The job of our governments, including local governments, is to protect citizens. That means standing up for us no despite the unlikely threat of litigation from the industry.
Pulmonologists say that NOTHING SHOULD GO INTO OUR LUNGS (or our kids’ lungs) except AIR!
Later in the evening, my colleague Calyn Kelly called in and got the conversation re-triggered and heated, so let’s hope we hear something soon!
Met an activist friend for coffee. I love this area and the architecture.
Today I officially adopted my Bon-bon. Bonnie joins Snoopy and me to become a part of my little family. She brings great joy to Snoopy and me and I’m happy I can take her on, give her the 14 eye drops (which aren’t free!) to help her with her limited vision every day for the rest of her life, and rehabilitate her little problem with growling at humans she is startled by when she first encounters them (unless they are right there with a treat, of course).
Months ago I had overheard something about her in an animal shelter board meeting shortly after losing my five beloved dogs in a fire in January. Two of them were also blind, as many of you know. She piqued my interest and when the dust sort of settled, I asked if I could at least foster her.
I must have done something right because she loves me so much. She is very affectionate and is very protective of me (perhaps too much). I cannot imagine life without her. She is almost always perfectly behaved when I take her places. Now I just have to work on her staying calm when we’re snuggled up at the house.
Dia del nino/Day of the Child at City Park in Vallejo for the second year in a row promoting Humane Society of North Bay. I brought Snoopy and Bonnie as ambassadors, but we had Daphne and Toby who were looking for permanent homes.
I learned a LOT at the Tobacco End Game Summit in Washington DC last week. On the verge of tears, I found “my people” in large numbers like I’ve never seen before from many countries and many states. I’ve had to become pretty expert in smokeless cannabis, commercial tobacco, nicotine, and many other nuances to be a better activist to save as many lives as I can with the help of those who are awake enough to pay attention to this continuing nightmare of death and destruction everywhere we turn still. If anyone is interested in hearing more about the INHERENT racism and other historical truths that have brought us to where we are today, please reach out. I’ll privately send you some of the talking points I learned that will hopefully resonate with anyone who cares about health equity. One point that really hit home also was that it’s the government’s JOB to protect us and our health, so why are they doing such a poor job of that after centuries of devastation from and exploitation with this bastardized product?
While my decision to vote for the Democratic ticket is not in doubt, I’m GRAVELY disappointed in this terrible decision that the Biden administration has made by kowtowing to the poison peddlers also known as Big Tobacco who have targeted Black Lives (disproportionately) with these flavored products used to mask the harshness of this highly addictive drug that has been marketed to people of color for decades since their lives matter even less to Tobacco Fat Cats than the rest of us human biological experiments. I’m proud that at least California had the sense to ban menthol, but Big Tobacco was at the ready to immediately start issuing identically marketed “non-menthol” products to continue poisoning people who smoke with their commercial tobacco without missing a beat. Anyone who supports BLM should know that far more Black people are killed by this product when used as intended than any other cause, and 8 million people are killed a year by this product worldwide, including 400,000 in the United States alone, making it THE MOST preventable cause of death. It’s the least regulated product in the world and we are still tolerating it for the profit of a few. There are far more of us who should be up in arms that those profiting. Where is the OUTRAGE?!
At least this article correctly points out that Al Sharpton is fighting to keep menthol cigarettes available. There is HARD PROOF he receives tobacco underwriting if you look at the fine print of his speaking tours. He’s literally receiving payola and blood money to kill Black people, so if you didn’t have a reason to dislike this fake progressive in the past, now you do.
This was a must-see. I spent hours there with another advocate from the Tobacco End Game Summit. We paid particular attention to the slave trade and its use of enslaved people for tobacco. I also loved the Afro-Futurism section that I told my daughter about. The building itself is gorgeous in the background in the one picture.
