I saw a body on my morning walk and did nothing: What kind of place is Santa Cruz  becoming?

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This morning I awoke with a recurring headache brought on by the cognitive dissonance required to continue living in our picturesque tourist trap, as empire falls around us — so I called in sick.

I went out for a walk. The sun had just risen. Breathing cold morning air, stretching my rickety bones, gazing at the purple-orange sky, I began to feel more human again. 

So I did what any human might do — got a warm beverage, went to the ocean, saw the natural world move to its own rhythm. I left Blacks Beach with relative peace of mind.

Turning down Tremont Drive, I saw a stray shoe in the middle of the path, with a coat beside it. I didn’t think anything of it. Sadly, discarded items are commonly strewn about sidewalks of Santa Cruz. It wasn’t until I was 5 feet away that I realized the shoe was attached to a foot.

There was a human being on the ground, curled in the fetal position, an empty vodka bottle and small pool of bile beside them. Upon my approach, they shifted, signaling life. Once I’d registered that this was not a pile of clothes, but a human being, I gave a wide berth, stepped a few feet left and continued on, without breaking stride.

What immediately followed was the thought that urged me to write this piece: How disturbingly desensitized I am to walking past human beings lying in the street of my hometown.

Honestly, I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but that is why I know I must. 

I was born and raised here, so the first time I saw someone motionless on the street was before I could form memories, but I’m sure they were ignored then, too. The first time I stopped as a teenager to try to help someone strewn across the sidewalk, I was emphatically rejected. By drinking age, I came to understand the dimensions to people’s needs, and how unequipped our society is to respond.

As I passed this stranger this morning — who has a name, family and soul — I was humbled and unsettled by the levels of dehumanization we engage in. Even those of us who have relationships with houseless people, work with addicts, have lent a couch to someone without shelter, who volunteer, protest and advocate for social change — we aren’t exempt from this conditioning.

We pass people lying in the street every day and feel helpless, because we know there’s no institution or organization offering substantial support. We, individually, are also ill-equipped. 

This flaw in our society is not accidental. Services created to respond to social problems are not often meant to remedy them, they’re meant to perpetuate them. Within the problem lies the profit.

Why are people poor? Why’s there no easy access to health care? Why is it illegal to give out free food? Why are we building high-rises while neglecting thousands of our neighbors just trying to survive? Why does our government continue to commit genocide around the world, and we comply with our labor and taxes?

We really need to reevaluate what we’re doing. Especially now.

Currently, there are federal and state law enforcement officers in conflict on the streets of Minneapolis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents murdered two residents in broad daylight. Masked ICE agents are tear-gassing peaceful protestors, using excessive force, entering homes without warrants, making arrests at courthouses and schools. Immigrants are dying without outside investigation in Department of Homeland Security detention centers. 

It’s jarring to experience such a different reality in a gorgeous place like Santa Cruz. Still, I’ve been heartened to see the demonstration of solidarity by local student groups and businesses, people filling courthouse steps by the hundreds, the protests across the county.

These are powerful expressions of who we want to be. Let’s keep that momentum growing.

Citizens in our city, and even more in our county, have already been abducted by ICE. Our county supervisors are developing a plan to respond, and it will require all of our engagement to succeed. 

We need to be more vigilant when our houseless neighbors are criminalized instead of cared for. We watch residents losing family members around the world at the hands of U.S. weapons, yet we abide the Lockheed Martin facility atop our unironically named Empire Grade.

Consider this an accountability cry to my fellow Santa Cruzans. We talk about building culture, community that thrives, innovation that leads us forward — but at whose expense?

This is a special place, and I feel lucky to remain here. But our home is rife with oppression. Let us take action to transform our stagnant complacency into mobilization.

Veronica Hamilton, whom I’ve always admired, recently wrote an excellent op-ed in Lookout, saying “many of us feel compelled to take action, but we don’t know how.”

My answer is simple. Collaborate. Talk to your coworkers, even your employers. Talk to your classmates, teachers, families and churches. Talk to your elected officials and governing boards. Attend events, meet your neighbors. If you’re law enforcement, have conversations about how you can collaborate with communities you serve to protect everyone.

We think we’re safe, protected by legal privileges we call rights. But make no mistake, every privilege can be revoked, and comes at the cost of people lying in the street — not just across the globe, but within a quarter-mile of wherever you are right now.

City officials, school boards, residents, business owners, unions, artists, community leaders and youth of Santa Cruz must decide together, what kind of city we intend to be. Will we thrive at the expense of others? 

We have the resources, organizations, knowledge, geography, the people; all we need now is the will to act, and willingness to act together.

Gabriel Kittle-Cervine is a homegrown Santa Cruz writer, musician and community arts organizer. He hosts “Just4TheRecord” on KSQD-FM, and facilitates a public writing group in Evergreen Cemetery every last Sunday of the month with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. He’s also got a new poetry open mic starting downtown this spring. Gabe is alumni liaison at Pacific Collegiate School, and works in heavy metals at SC Labs. Follow @unclegabe831 on socials or visit www.blankmetafour.com to see more.