In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident salutes the Santa Cruz Symphony for a brilliant recent performance.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: It’s distressing to see so many haters on Lookout’s Facebook posts
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident laments what she sees as an excess of negativity in the social media comments section.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I’m a lifelong pacifist living in Santa Cruz; in 1980, I had an encounter with the Islamic Revolution
Local peace activist, former union leader and retired sociologist Paul Johnston took a journey into revolutionary Iran 46 years ago on a mission to de-escalate the Iran hostage crisis. The trip showcased how hope, power and politics collided at a pivotal moment in history. What began as a mission for peace exposed deeper truths about manipulation on both sides of the hostage crisis. Today, as the U.S. bombings continue, the consequences of those days still echo. Here, he offers a personal reckoning with war and memory and repeats the enduring call to seek peace.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
My great-grandparents were incarcerated during World War II: We can’t look away today
UC Santa Cruz student Skyla Tomine is terrified by the language she hears in the news, including the term “enemy alien.” It sounds chillingly familiar to Executive Order 9066, which forced her great-grandparents and other Japanese Americans into internment camps. The harm, she writes, is lasting. Many people she knows insist they would have stepped in to help her grandparents and others. It’s time, she writes, to prove it.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
No Kings, just voices: I’m going to sing my way through the march – join me?
What if resistance sounded less like shouting – and more like harmony? Santa Cruz family therapist Lisa Herendeen is planning to march Saturday at the “No Kings” protest in Santa Cruz, and to sing. She has been attending protest song practice sessions with a group of local singer-songwriter-activists who believe in the power of collective voices of song. Local musicians Heather Houston and Aileen Vance have organized the sessions. Singing might not topple power, Herendeen writes, but it just might shift the energy. And that, she believes, is where real change often begins.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: I support Jimmy Panetta
In a letter to the editor, a Salinas resident rejects criticism of Rep. Jimmy Panetta in a recent Lookout op-ed.
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Letter to the editor: Jimmy Panetta is not a peace candidate – let’s find someone else
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident concurs with a recent Lookout op-ed about Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
When leadership fails: Here’s what my Cabrillo students learned at our latest board of trustees meeting
Cabrillo College professor Skye Gentile says recent meetings of the school’s board of trustees have offered students a real-time lesson in poor communication and bad leadership. The meetings, she writes, have allowed students to see examples of tokenism and microaggressions and to discuss the importance of timing, apologies and public accountability. Effective leadership depends less on intent and more on listening, reflection and awareness of impact. Her students, she writes, have been left wondering if the current board represents their interests and values.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Who will take care of us in Santa Cruz County? Why we must protect the doctors our community needs
Santa Cruz County already faces a growing physician shortage and a lack of diverse providers, writes Dr. Salla Hennessy, who supervises the primary care training of both resident physicians and medical students at Santa Cruz Community Health. Now, federal policy changes threaten the sort of medical training pathways she oversees. She argues that culturally competent care depends on these local physician training programs, and cuts to funding and student loans risk shrinking the pipeline even more. She calls on local leaders to push for investment in medical education pathways before all of our access to care worsens.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: UCSC college core courses help in fight against AI
In a letter to the editor, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer underlines the importance of the core courses in the school’s college system.