We are an organization of progressive thinking residents of Ramona, dedicated to respectful dialogue within the community. Our mission is to bring to public attention issues that affect our world, nation, and community for the purpose of informing, discussing, educating and acting upon those concerns. In doing so we hope to encourage citizenry involvement in government policies and make politicians accountable to the people they serve.

Ramona Forum is involved with a number of issues, namely:

•Health Care •Peace Garden  •The War
•Energy • Environment  •Economy
•Human Rights Issues •Employment

We are now actively pursuing the following: Public Awareness,  Peace Garden,  Anti-War,  and Sexual Orientation issues.

Contact us

SECOND WEDNESDAY SPECIAL EVENTS ANNOUNCEMENT

On Wednesday, July 14th at 6:00 pm at the Ramona library, the Ramona Forum will present two video’s on the events that led to the country’s financial disaster and the urgent need for Financial Reform. The first video will highlight  Professor Black of Michigan University  and the second  Felix Salmon of Reuters.
The video’s will be followed by an informal discussion led by Ramona’s resident author Ralph Cates and the Forum’s economic expert Ron Zambreno in which the audience are invited to participate.
All are welcome and admission is free.

This announcement has also been published in Our Town section of Ramona Sentinel

Since we updated the Forum website in January 2010 there have been a  number of projects in progress.  It was a difficult decision to report as these projects evolved or to wait until some approaches completion or near completion.  When it is difficult to decide or when there is indecision, Time wins!  And the Spring stepped in.

So much for a preamble!

What has been happening with Ramona Forum?  With inauguration of President Obama in January 2009, there was a general feeling of accomplishment among Forum members.  There was a lull in public visibility and activity.  We plunged into gardening as part of our general philosophy about sustainability.  We did a report on PEACE GARDEN in October 2009 followed by a short winter progress report in January 2010.  We did limited Sunday demonstration.  Letter writing was a major project.

OUR LETTER WRITING EFFORTS:

We plunged into a deliberate attempt to influence public opinion through letter writing.  As Ramonans, we concentrated our effort on the pages of Ramona Sentinel, and occasionally on the pages of North County Times.

The issues that attracted our members are

• healthcare reform,
• continuing war in Afghanistan,
• Tea Party groups’ rightist ideological stands,
• immigration reform
• civility in political dialog:
• barter system

Here is a list of letters/commentaries that were published:

Dave’s letter to North County Times dealt with use of troops within USA.  In support of our causes, notable letters from other than forum members were from James McNamara and J. Garcia.  Our heartfelt thanks to them.

In our limited demonstrations on Sundays, some of us wanted to challenge the values of the fellow Ramonans with posters like:

• Did you have enough of war?
• Greed is evil,
  organized corporate greed is anti-national
• How much profit is good profit?
• Because the healthcare reform costs
  do we let the uninsured die without treatment
• War will not make us safe
  Middle East Peace might

DAVE’S COUP on DUNCAN HUNTER Jr.

Our president, Dave Patterson, recently staged a sort of coup on Duncan Hunter Jr.  In a Tea Party meeting in Ramona, he asked Representative Hunter Jr. whether the natural born (in USA) children of (one or more) parents of illegal immigrants are entitled to US citizenship.  The obvious reference was to the Amendment #14.  The answer (in the link watch and listen from 2 min on)  from Hunter Jr. was “NO”, which he later tried to explain by saying that he wanted to change the Constitution to deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.  One of us wrote a long commentary, which we are posting under ‘Special Commentary/Editorial’ on our ‘Pages’ section of our website.  Listen to Dave Patterson’s original video posted on You Tube, which was later picked by the Turkey Democrats.  There were almost 100, 000 total ‘hits’.

PEACE GARDEN

We devoted a lot of our energy in making the Peace Garden a success. With the knowledge and experience we gained last year, we planned a better garden for this year.   A frame was built to protect vegetables from rabbits and squirrels. (January 2010 Report) Inside the frame, we planted winter vegetables like spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, peas, onions, garlic and similar vegetables.  Straw bale enclosure advocate was Rose.  

(Nancy by Rose’s straw bale garden, with potatoes, cilantro, lettuce and spinach)

We are now into the summer vegetables. Tomatoes, beans, eggplants, and peppers, both sweet and hot ones, are in the plans. Some are already in the ground.

Gathering by the Garden Side

Forum members love to gather by the garden side. (watch)  Usually we meet , work, discuss—often animated!— different topics, listen to invited speakers, eat, drink, socialize (watch) and sing (watch and listen to this parody!).  We  meet once a month, usually last Saturday of the month, by Garden side.

Meeting dates and times are circulated among Forum members through e-mail.  If you are not a Forum member, or just want to know about our activities, please use our ‘contact us’ form to become a member by letting us know about you and your e-mail.  There is no membership requirement other than your commitment to progressive causes.

WEDNESDAYS — SPECIAL EVENTS AND REGULAR MEETINGS

This year, as part of Our Second Wednesday Special Event Nights,  we showed two documentaries:

• Ceasar Chavez
• Capitalism: A Love Story (by Michael Moore)

We meet (most) Wednesdays for our regular meetings.  Besides organizational affairs, we have visitors to discuss issues or to listen to them.

Meeting dates and times are circulated among Forum members through e-mail.  Second Wednesday Special Events are also announced in ‘Our Town’ section of Ramona Sentinel.   If you are not a Forum member, or just want to know about our activities, please use our ‘contact us’ form to become a member by letting us know about you and your e-mail.  There is no membership requirement other than your commitment to progressive causes.

FOR THOSE WHO MISSED THE FEATURE ON US (RAMONA FORUM, THAT IS!) IN NORTH COUNTY TIMES, HERE IS THE LINK

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/ramona/article_48d5b5a5-5836-58ab-959e-a08a0dcc6c18.html

The issues are still all there.  Progressives have their ‘work cut out’.  Only progressives can bring real change.

Here are few issues:

Read more »

Since last October,  Ramona Forum has been very active in Peace Garden ( last full report: July 2009). We made great progress in this area.
Health care reform issue has frustrated most of us. Yet, we maintained our demonstration in favor of Public Option with few regulars and occasional others. We were active in opposing all war. War is not keeping us safe. We have been working with other organizations in opposing Proposition 8. Now, we will have to wait for the outcome of the court proceedings.

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Here is one look at the year 2009.  Progressives need to take a hard look. Here are some facts, their significance and lessons to learn, and work needed. Read and join in the dialog. Read more »

Summer in Ramona lingered to the end of September.   Because of the heat we had to cancel two demonstrations and the monthly Peace Garden gathering.   Health of our regulars was an added factor.  We are stressing the importance of Public Option in our demonstrations and letter writing efforts.   In our September 20 demonstration, we received an overwhelming support from the passing motorists.  We will continue our demonstration to focus on Public Option for our Ramona neighbors and visitors. Read more »

September 19, 2009

Dear Friends:

This is an appeal to Forum Family members with a big preamble.  This is also a letter of explanation that we believe we owe to our Forum Family members.
Read more »

HEALTH CARE REFORM AND BEYOND

We promoted all our causes, especially Health Care Reform, through our booth in Ramona Fair 2009.

Ramona Forum is currently actively promoting a Health Care Reform that contains a Public Option, especially for uninsured and underinsured Americans. Ideally, we would like to have a Single Payer System similar to what exist in different forms in Canada, Sweden, U.K., and several other industrialized countries, although they are much less affluent compared to United States. However, even a Public Option has become a struggle.

Falsehoods

Read more »

Report on FORUM at the Fair is posted at Minutes and Report (Aug 1, 2009)

PEACE GARDEN

PEACE GARDEN that is what we named our Forum garden. It is really a very peaceful place surrounded by tall majestic eucalyptus trees, pines, and some shade trees with few chairs and benches scattered around. Whether alone or with Forum friends, we can sit here for hours looking at the rugged beauty of the place (Ron’s), and what we have created this year, musing about the experience we have gained this year of the place for a more successful garden from next year. Under the shade we hold our once a month work and fun party. The sunset is something to hang around for. Here are some pictures of the garden and one gathering.

the squash looked good (but animals got this one)
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