The Advocate

Extra extra! A fantastic event is coming up, hosted here in San Leandro by my synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom! It's a combination of a Buy Nothing event and a voter registration drive. For those who may not know, Buy Nothing is a hyperlocal gifting project to promote sustainable and affordable sharing within communities. The voter registration drive is sponsored by Operation: Big Vote, from the Big Tent Collaboration, organized by our very own Bernard Ashcraft to help get more San Leandrans to the polls for this critical election year. Flyers and more detailed information are available below: Temple Beth Sholom October 23, 12 Noon to 3 PM 642 Dolores Avenue, San Leandro Items Will Include: Men’s and Women’s Clothing Baby and Kid’s Clothing Halloween Costumes Kid/Young Adult Books Toys and Games Kitchen Items Arts and Crafts Please bring bags to take your items home in. Able to volunteer or have questions? Email MollyinSF at gmail dot com. Refreshments for sale – bring cash. Voter r...

(Photo by San Diego Union-Tribune ) Content Warning: this post contains graphic discussions of bigotry and violence. Last month, a Woman of Color participating in our local Buy Nothing group was attacked in a textbook case of how social media fearmongering leads to real-world consequences. For those who don't know, Buy Nothing is a national organization made up of individual community chapters that serve as a place to share goods and services, from clothes to books, and yard work to housework, as well as almost anything else. I have included links to the full statements from the administrators of North San Leandro Buy Nothing below, but I want to directly share the series of events as reported by the victim: "On a porch pickup today (12/23) at 10:50am (to a house I have already been to) I was physically assaulted. My body is in pain and I can still feel burning where the man’s hands were wringing my arm. I was accused of stealing from the gifter’s porch which I explained to th...