1992_02 Insight February 1992

              Volume 24, Issue 15
Wednesday, February 20,1002
Green Party
takes root in
Fresno area
By Susan Goad	
Staffwriter
California's newest political
party, the Green Party, will
make its first appearance on a
Fresno ballot June 2 when the
party runs two candidates for the
state Assembly.
The local Green Party plans to
ru n candidates for the open sea t in
the 25th District, a new district
created as a result of reapportionment, and the 29th District, formerly the 32nd District whose
Assembly seat is occupied by Republican Bill Jones.
To be legally recognized as a
political party in California, the
organization must register at least
one percent of the total number of
state's registered voters or file a
petition signed by a number of
voters equal to 10 percent of the
vote cast for governor in the preceding election.
The Green Party qualified for
the California ballot by register-
ingover 100,000 voters asof Jan. 1,
1992, well over the approximately
80,000 voters needed.
The Green Party evolved as a
political party from the Green
Committees of Correspondence,
a national environmental movement formed in 1984 and fashioned after the European .Green
parties. In February 1990, California activists met in Sacramento
and decided to form the party and
launch the voter-registrationdrive
that put the Greens on the ballot
for 1992.
TheGreen Party of California is
a decentralized party consisting
of 10 autonomous regions. The
bulkof its membershipcomes from
the Bay Area and coastal communities.
Fresno County Green Party
members account for about 1.5
percent of the party's total. According to the Fresno County
Clerk'soffice, there were 1,565 registered Greens in the county as of
Feb 7.
Scott Werner, a 28-year-old law
student and Central Valley Regional Coordinator for the Greens,
said theparty'scampaignsforstate
Assembly seats should help increase Green Party membership
in the Central Valley.
"We're going to run a billboard
Protection
sought for
free speech
By Douglas McLeod	
Staffwriter   ~
Under existing law, public
high schools, colleges and
universitiesareconsidered limited
public forums and therefore,
"Certain conduct by students that
is speech or other communication
may be regulated to a greater
extent than conduct which occurs
in other forums."
However, a measure currently
in the California State Assembly
would limit the ability of many
public schools to discipline students solely for what they say or
communicate.
The measure, State Senate Bill
1115 by Sen. William Leonard, R-
Redlands, would prohibit school
administrators from disciplining
students for speech or other com-
munication on campus that would
otherwise be protected off campus by both the federal and state
constitutions.
The measure would also provide to any enrolled student an
opportunity to commence civil
8m Spacer), paga 8
campaign that should help us put
the word out and pick up a lot of
Greens," Werner said.
Hront George, G reen Party candidate for the 29th District Assembly seat, agrees. "I'm hoping to
get the message out that there are
Green Candida tesand to makeour
platform known. Wc want to make
the Democratic and Republican
parties address the issues- primarily theenvironment," the 31-year-
old sales manager said.
George will enter the race
against incumbent Republican Bill
Jones.
Dan Evans, administrative assistant to Jones, doesn't believe
that environmental issues will be
foremost on the voters' minds.
"Right now people might tend
to look more closely at economic
issues, although I'm sure environmental issues will also be a concern. I don't believe any one party
hasa monopoly on environmental
issues, though. I think we're all
concerned because we all have to
live on the earth," Evans said.
Werner said that although environmental awareness is an important part of the Green Party
platform, there are also manyother
issues the party addresses that the
public may not be aware of.
"We need to let people know
what our agenda is ana that it is
distinct from the Democrats' and
Republicans'," he said.
Among the issues covered on
the Green Party agenda isa call for
grassroots democracy and electoral reform, including proportional representation, public financing of campaigns, equal access to the media for debate and
limited terms of office. It also
stresses universal health care and
affordable housing; rights to education and employment for all;
cultural diversity; peace and
nonviolence. The Greens are pro-
choice and emphasize post-patriarchal values.
According to Werner, the
Greens aredrawingat least 50 percent of their members from the
Democratic Party. He said that
because of this, the Democrats are
not happy to have the Greens on
the ballot, while the Republicans
are "down-right cheery."
"We are going to draw dispro-
Sm Gr—n Party, back paga
Attorney and Sky Park resident Doug Shell uses his Cessna to commute on business trips In California.
An airplane in every garage
By Krista Barrett
Staffwriter
Sierra Sky Park residents are still flying
high after 46 years, and unless city
growth overwhelms them, they hope for
many more years.
In 194fy Bill Smiliecame to Fresno after
leaving Hancock College of Aeronautics in
Santa Maria, Calif., where he wasemployed
by the Air Force as a flight instructor.
Smilie bought 130 acres of land north of
Hemdon and west of Brawley where he began
building the country's first "aviation subdivision."
Today Sky Park includes 75 homes with
attached "plane ports," streets that double as
runways and a hangar for airplane services
and repairs.
Smilie and his wife Doris built the first home
in the subdivision In 1953."We picked the lot
that had the runway In the front and the bluffs
in the back," Mrs. Smilie said. The Smilies still
remember when city growth was far off to
the south of Shields Avenue.
There wasn't much north of Shields
Avenue and it seemed we were pretty far
away from things back then, but the city
moved in around us,"said Mrs. Smilie.
Sky Park has many unique attributes.
Not only are all of the streets named after
World War II aviation heros. they also serve
as taxiways for planes leaving home and
heading for the runway.	
Sh Airport, pao* 7
Rate of HIV infection 'low' at CSUF
Robin Shogren	
Staffwriter
The World Health Organization has
made some frightening predictions
regarding the global epidemic of the AIDS
virus. They believe by the mid- orlate-1990s
15 to 20 million people will be HIV positive.
Today, 335 Fresno residents have been diagnosed HIV positive, 90 are still living. The
Central Valley AIDS Team believes there are
anywhere from 6,000-30,000 Fresno residents
who are unaware that they are infected with the
virus.
Are college students at a high risk of contracting the fatal virus? Sam Gitchell, a health
educator at CSUFs Student Health Center,
said,"Some are and some aren't. It is a matter
of behavioral choices."
According to Gitchell a study involving 19
colleges, concluded that two out of every 1,000
college students tested were HIV positive. The
results varied from one campus to the next.
What about CSUF students ? Are they at a
high risk? Gitchell said, "After Magic Johnson
tested positive, 315 students came in to be
tested.
" That may not sound like a lot considering
there are roughly 20,000 CSUF students. "
Gitchell would not disclose the number of
students who tested positive. Gitchell did say
that,"the rate of infection has been low.".
An informal survey was done involving 100
CSUFstudents to find out if they are abstaining
from sex or protecting themselves. Of the 100
students surveyed; 53 were women, 45 were
men, and two said they were unsure of their
gender.
Nineteen of the students claimed to be virgins. Two students made it a point to say that
they had only been intimate with one person.
Over half of the students surveyed (59%) admitted to being sexually active and 14 percent
said they were currently celibate. At least five
percent of the students did not know what
"celibate" meant.
Fifty percent of the sexually active women
surveyed and 49 percent of the sexually active
men said they had sexual intercourse with
more than one person in the past year. Out of
all the sexually active individuals. 32 percent
Sm AIDS, page 4
Court forces issue,
redistricts the state
By Stuart Rosenberg
Staff writer
The boys up North couldn't
agree on a solution, so the
task of drawing new political
boundaries for the 1992 California
reapportionment was given to the
State Supreme Court.
By a 6-to-l margin, the court
decided on a 10-year redisrricting
plan that could put an end to the
decade-long Democratic stronghold over both the Cal i fornia Leg-
islatureand thecongressional delegation.
"This changes the balance considerably," said Congressman Cal
Dooley of Visalia.
Democrats currently hold a 24-
to-13 ad vantage over Republicans
in the State Senate and a 47-33
majority in the State Assembly.
Congressionally, Democrats also
have the edge with a 26 to 19 majority over the Republicans.
The task of redrawing the political boundaries was handed to
the State Supreme Court because
Governor Pete Wilson vetoed an
initial proposal submitted by the
Democrats in September as well
as a proposal submitted last No
vember by a court-appointed masters' panels
Dooley considers the court-
adopted plan to be a fair one. "I
i consider it to be ideal because it
allows me to remain in an agriculturally-centered district," Dooley
said. /
Physically, Dooley said hisdis-
trict shifts farther west under the
court-adopted plan. "I'll lose eastern Fresno County and Tulare
County and move down south into
Kern County," Dooley said.
Dooley's 17th Congressional
District is predominately Democratic with a 48 to 33 percentage
majority of the voting public being registered Democrats. In his
new 20th district, the percentage
will increase to a 625 to 29 percentage Democratic advantage.
Dooley said his current district
contains a 40 percent Hispanic
population but that the figure will
increase to 55 percent in his new
district.
He believes the new districts
"will be more competitive" and
that, by and large, there will be a
tendency for both Democratic and
Republican representatives to be
SMftodistrtctlnQ,|Mg«6
__
!