By Linda Armacost
The La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club — with members from San Carlos, Allied Gardens, Grantville, Del Cerro, College Area, La Mesa, Mt. Helix, Spring Valley, Santee and other East County areas — will be holding a very memorable meeting on Wednesday, May 6.
Our speaker will be Peggi Chute, author of “Soul of a Nation: A Historical Novel About Selma.” She published the book in time for the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and attended the recent commemoration of the Pettus Bridge crossing in Selma, Alabama. Chute will have copies of the book available for autograph and sale.
Chute is a lifelong activist for peace and social justice. After the Columbine, Colorado, mass shootings, Chute created the Teaching Peace Project for the Council of Churches and Synagogues in Stamford, Connecticut. She served as its director and taught the program in three school districts. She served on Mayor Dannel Malloy’s Council on Youth (he’s now governor of Connecticut) and also ran a workshop at the first United Nations N.G.O. conference at the U.N. in New York.
Chute now lives in Lake San Marcos and has been a San Diego County resident for four years. She’s a proud UCLA graduate in film studies and was a film editor in Hollywood for a number of years. She’s also lived in the Monterey Peninsula area where she taught music and worked for Planned Parenthood as an outreach educator. Don’t miss her presentation and buy a book to take home.
A few days before the monthly meeting, the club will hold its now-famous and very popular yard sale. On Saturday, May 2, from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., scores of bargain hunters will descend on 5009 Randlett Drive in La Mesa. Our sale is known for its quality and quantity of unique items as our members have saved special merchandise just for this sale! If you have goods that you would like to donate to our sale, please contact Mary Jane Tanquary at 619-818-5883. Goods must be in clean, usable condition and easily transportable. Help contribute to our popular sale as either a buyer or contributor. Please don’t bring donated goods the day of the sale.
Our April meeting was a very educational affair, with Port Commissioner Rafael Castellanos teaching us all we needed to know about the Unified Port District and its great responsibility in maintaining our tidelands, waterfront and airport. The port’s many environmental programs and initiatives were a particular point of emphasis. Castellanos also announced his entry into the 2016 San Diego City Attorney’s race. We wish him well.
While the port district has already set in motion its Climate Action Plan to reduce waste and greenhouse gases, Nicole Capretz walked us through the many reasons the cities of San Diego County need to adopt and implement their own versions of similar programs.
As author of the city of San Diego’s climate action plan under Mayor Todd Gloria, Capretz and her Climate Action Campaign are a major force in getting San Diego to adopt and implement an aggressive greenhouse gas reduction plan of its own. We are at a tipping point in San Diego County, and efforts like Capretz’s and others must pave the way for livable communities for all residents for generations to come.
La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, at University Avenue in La Mesa. We have social hour beginning at 6:30 p.m. with business and speakers to follow at 7 p.m. Refreshments are served as provided by our members and all guests are welcomed. Please find us at lamesafoothillsdemocraticclub.com and like us on Facebook.
—Linda Armacost is president of the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club.
