Now that I’m back in Merced, I have been challenging myself to leave my comfort zone and I feel that I have matured a lot over these past couple of years. Being at home with the moral support of family and friends has made this easier for me.
“The Trafficked Life,” set in Bakersfield, shares the stories of survivors like Diana Cisneros, who was sex trafficked by her father beginning at the age of seven. The film gives viewers a glimpse of Bakersfield’s trafficking underworld and also highlights efforts by advocates who are combating the issue and offering services to victims.
We’Ced youth journalists recently spent time discussing the massacre at the Emanuel African African Methodist Episcopalian Church in downtown Charleston, which had a white shooter killing nine African-Americans. Many We’Ced members expressed outrage at the actions of the shooter, but the conversation soon began to circle around another issue: gun control. The tragic violence of this incident rekindled questions about how we regulate guns and guns access in our country.
When I was a kid, I remember the centers at McNamara and Stephan Leonard parks being the heart and life of the community. The Mac was so beautiful. I swam in the pool, watched my mom play softball and spent my weekends there. I remember the Mac center being staffed by Parks and Recreation workers.
Now youth advocates are pushing the City Council to invest $29,000 in the Mac’s operating budget to close some of the gaps and pay for a part-time staff member to ensure consistent programming. On May 27, supporters held a rally in front of the youth center, urging community members to #BackTheMac.
Our community is not going to stop pushing for health coverage for all the tax paying and hardworking citizens of Merced County and our surrounding areas. The lives of our undocumented families, friends, and neighbors matter just as much as those lives of documented people.
Over 270 people packed into the May 8 event, representing a diverse array of ethnic communities in the area. Many offered personal testimony about how they had been affected by the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
A group of 13 Merced youth, ranging from ages 12 to 24, visited the State Capitol last Tuesday in a trip organized by the Merced Organizing Project (MOP). Their mission was to bring attention to issues plaguing their community such as violence, education and health care.
Merced County just counted its ninth homicide of 2015 a few days ago. The previous year had the most homicides on record in the county at 31. Many of the Merced County victims have been young people of color, like the young man shot and killed in Winton earlier this week and a Merced teen who was shot and killed in the parking lot of Tenaya Middle School back in February. Much of the media coverage around the violence has focused on law enforcement, gang activity and property values. We’ced youth reporters asked our community members a different question: How has violence affected your life?
Before I was even born, someone decided that my life did not matter. As it turns out, [California’s] infamous three strikes law actually originated in Fresno after some very serious crimes occurred in the area. But after it passed, people of color were mostly targeted. This is not fair, because Black lives do matter.
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