June 2021
Vol. 1, Issue 4
On My Mind
Vaccine apartheid. That’s what some people are calling the discrepancy and inequality playing out on the world stage, as wealthy nations get plentiful access to the COVID-19 vaccine while developing nations do not. Children in wealthy nations—a low-risk category—are getting the vaccines before elderly people in other countries. President Biden announced recently that the United States is upping the number of doses that it’s donating to the COVAX initiative, which is working toward global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. That’s welcome news, and I hope he goes even further. Besides the fact that it’s the right thing to do, it’s also a plain fact that the virus does not abide by arbitrary geographical boundaries, so the pandemic isn’t over here until it’s over everywhere.
Support Sustainatoy
Mercedes Blackehart makes handmade, sustainable, all-natural toys. Check out her products here for the little ones in your life.
What’s Up With Me
The latest episode of my show “Well Read with Justin Chapman” is out now. It features an interview with Tyson Cornell, founder, owner, and publisher of Rare Bird Books/Lit, which published my book about my travels across Africa, Saturnalia: Traveling from Cape Town to Kampala in Search of an African Utopia, in 2015. Watch it here.
The latest episode of my other show “NewsRap Local with Justin Chapman” is also out now. It features an interview with filmmakers Dennis Haywood and James Farr, director and producer respectively of a 2021 documentary called “Thorns on the Rose: Black Abuse, Corruption & the Pasadena Police,” which examines the last 40 years of police-community relations in Pasadena. Watch it here.
Tune in this Friday, June 18, at 5 p.m. PT for the next episode of “NewsRap Local,” featuring an interview with tenants’ rights activist Ryan Bell. I’ll ask him about a new petition effort by the Pasadena Tenant Justice Coalition to put a rent control and just cause eviction measure on the Pasadena ballot in June 2022. Watch it on Pasadena Media’s YouTube channel or streaming apps. I’m hoping this show becomes the go-to, must-watch TV show each month about Pasadena news and politics. It’s getting great feedback so far, so thank you for watching! Check out this coverage of the show in Pasadena Now.
Check out my Pasadena Now articles published over the past month. I’ve got a story about an Altadena anthropologist who presented her latest research on HIV in Africa as part of the Pasadena Sister Cities’ Senegal Subcommittee’s speaker series. Read it here. I’ve also got another story about a Muir High School student named Noah Griffin who won a $7,500 college scholarship called the Anthony McClain Social Justice Scholarship, which was recently created by Dennis Haywood, director of the aforementioned “Thorns on the Rose” documentary. McClain was a 32-year-old Black man who was shot in the back and killed by Pasadena Police Officer Edwin Dumaguindin while running away after a traffic stop in August 2020. Read it here. And I’ve got one more story about journalists at the Pasadena Star-News and other newspapers who voted to unionize, which has been a long time coming. Read it here.
I’ve also got one more story in Culture Honey about Mercedes’ and my trip to Slab City, a decidedly anti-capitalist, nomadic art community in the desert near the Salton Sea where fringe members of society live rent-free. Read it here. Culture Honey is a great new travel and culture publication based out of Pasadena. Support it!
SAVE THE DATE! I will be delivering a presentation about Mad Mike Hughes—the flat earther daredevil rocketeer who launched himself in a rocket and crash landed and died last year—to the Adventurers Club of Los Angeles on Thursday, August 26, 2021. Stay tuned for more details.
Came across this crazy scene: a car lost control and slammed into (and removed) a fire hydrant. Luckily everyone was okay. Gnarly.
I no longer work at the Pacific Council on International Policy, which underwent a “reorganization due to financial strain” and laid off two-thirds of its staff. It was a brutal Red Wedding-esque moment. Here’s the statue outside the old office, which just about sums it up:
Sienna just became a dual Irish citizen, just like her dad! As soon as we’re able to travel again, the Motherland will be our first stop.
Anyone remember this moment from “The Simpsons”? Mr. Burns put up a sign at Homer’s desk that originally read, “Don’t forget—you’re here forever.” Then Homer put up photos of his daughter Maggie to make it read, “Do it for her.” I made this image part of my desktop background to give me motivation regarding fatherhood in these trying times. Take care of each other out there, y’all. Every one of us is struggling.
Good Reads
Here are some recommendations for great books I’ve read recently:
The Handmaid’s Tale — by Margaret Atwood
Whether you’re watching the show or not, this is a must read, with terrifying implications for how women are treated in our own society. And if you’re not watching the show, you need to get on that immediately, because it’s amazing. One of the best shows on television right now. You might not know that there was a movie version as well in 1990, though that one, while interesting, let’s just say it’s clear that it was made in the 90s.
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime — by John Heilemann
This book takes a close look at what happened during the 2008 U.S. presidential race, from the bitter primary between Obama and Clinton, to John Edwards’ fall from grace to the gobsmacking phenomenon known as Sarah Palin, which proved to be a precursor for the rise of Trumpism, the canary in the coal mine, if you will.
After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made — by Ben Rhodes
Rhodes served as President Obama’s speechwriter and deputy national security advisor. After Trump, what it means to be American in this world is changing. This insightful book examines that dynamic with a realistic worldview, while still providing hope as we look to what comes next in this crazy world.
Stories to Keep an Eye On
International: A new report from the U.S. intelligence community lays out a diverse array of threats we all face in the years to come “amidst the global disruption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and against the backdrop of great power competition, the disruptive effects of ecological degradation and a changing climate, an increasing number of empowered non-state actors, and rapidly evolving technology. Scary stuff.
National: ProPublica published findings from a number of ultra-wealthy Americans such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos, exposing just how little taxes they actually pay compared to the average American. It is truly astounding and worth reading the whole thing.
California: Drought is back, in a big way. Experts are calling it an emergency and “the worst megadrought in centuries.” According to The Guardian, “snowpack has dwindled to nearly nothing, the state’s 1,500 reservoirs are at only 50 percent of their average levels, and federal and local agencies have begun to issue water restrictions.” We all need to do our part to minimize water usage.
Local: Black Lives Matter Pasadena is asking residents to fill out this survey about police-community relations.
Something You May Not Know About Me
I was a professional child actor for many years and performed in dozens of commercials, television shows, plays, and movies. I was in some real funny ones: I played Chuck Norris as a kid in “Walker, Texas Ranger”; I played Trey Parker (co-creator of “South Park”) as a kid in “BASEketball”; I was in “Family Matters” with Urkel; I was in “The Jeff Foxworthy Show”; I was in “The Pauly Shore Show”; I was the Sunny D kid (Sunny Delight commercial); I was in “Weird Science”; and I was in “Jingle All the Way” with Arnold Schwarzenegger; among many others.
Of course, my biggest role was the lead in “Problem Child 3: Junior in Love.” Classic. Read this review in Screen Rant that someone wrote 25 years after the movie came out calling the film “the painful end to a nostalgic trilogy.” Lol! They tore the movie to shreds, but at least they gave my performance a good review.
Spotlight on One of My Past Stories
On the 20th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake, I wrote a lengthy article on what we should be thinking about regarding the next “Big One.” Amidst the release of reports of collapse-prone concrete buildings, including dozens in the Valley, local disaster experts insisted we are better prepared—but cautioned that we should all be ready to fend for ourselves. Good advice. The story ran in Ventura Blvd. Magazine and South Bay Magazine in 2014.