Online Petition to SF Mayor & Board of Supervisors

Dear People,

As promised, I have set up an online petition to S.F. Mayor and the Board of Supervisors on change.org. Click at the link below to go to the petition page:

http://www.change.org/petitions/san-francisco-mayor-edwin-lee-and-board-of-supervisors-to-modify-current-plastic-bag-ban-and-bag-fee

It is now live and waiting for your signature. I am excited and have put in my very first signature. After you sign, you can leave comment. As soon as you sign it, it will fire the petition letter right off!


I am greatly comforted by folks who have quietly uttered words of thanks. I am thankful to the encouragement / kind receptions from various mayors, council members, senators and supervisors on my civic activism. I hope you will stay with me on this journey. Each of us counts! Together, we can make a difference! And don't just quietly pack your bags and "move to Texas." This is our city which is worth fighting for! We will not give up until we put up a good fight!

Daly City, South San Francisco, Pacifica and San Mateo will all impose the ban all fee on ALL stores effective 4/22/13, Earth Day. We have no time to waste. Sign the petition now! And to keep the fire going, please get 3 - 5 more signatures.

For the business owners -- small and big, who are suffering from this bag fee and understand that it turned your customers away, I hope you will be bold and take this opportunity to act. This is your opportunity.

Also, join me in writing to the Federal House Budget Committee to cut 30% funding for non-profits, especially ocean and river related. Since 2/2009 the Federal Stimulus has paid out $787 billion. California is one of the top recipients. It has added  too many jobs to the public and non-profit sectors. It is time to trim fat and bring back some senses of sensibility! -- surprisingly I happened to come to the same idea as Todd Myers who wrote this 2011 book Eco Fads, How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment. He also wrote the article The Trendy Drive to Ban Plastic Bags: Does It Really Help the Environment? You can follow his blog here.

Follow this page Plastic Bags: Local Ordinance on what each city in California is doing. The insanity is so pervasive!

(Some green people do not seem to understand democracy and civic discourse which include a peaceful online petition.These people should take a hard look at themselves in the mirrors and ask "am I really a better person?" before they force their ideology down the throats of their fellow citizens! They are aggressive and almost shamelessly militant!)

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If you have been reading my blog, then you understand that the plastic bags ban is a minor annoyance for me. I use them as trash bags and I replenished them by buying 1000 from Amazon for $19.99. What about other elders in S.F. who don't know how to use computer and are using them as trash bags?
A grocery owner told me that 10c is not sufficient to cover her cost for each paper bag. For $19.99, you can get 1000 plastic bags, which translates to 2c a piece. And 10c is not sufficient for 1 paper bag. Paper costs so much more for paper came from -- trees.

The major offense to me is the 10c per bag fee imposed on ALL retailers, which hurts retailers on discretionary spending. It has turned away shoppers like me who will not even walk into the stores.

While chatting with my aunt in hospital recently. She said "It is so hard for the retailers to make some profits. Help them out with that 10c for the bag." She did not realize that we are talking about Macys, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth who don't need my 10c for the bag.

And I said "Aunty, imagine I gave you a gift. And then I said "Give me 10c for the bag." How would you feel?" I could not drawn a better analogy.

People in Europe bring their own bags. All right. And Europe is in decline, due to -- austerity measures and demographic shrinkage. Why are their youths leaving for U.S.?

The U.S. is doing fine -- for the consumers have greased the wheel of economy. 70% of our economy came from consumer spending. As long as we keep on spending, our economy will keep going and our jobs will keep paying.