A police officer and a longtime progressive sit at a table discussing mutual concerns. A young Muslim mother meets her first transgender man. “Let’s Talk About It” will open our community to these conversations and more Saturday at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. The event, in its second year, allows us to have conversations with people from marginalized and misunderstood communities and peel back our own layers of identity. With hate crime on the rise nationally and amid incidents of intolerance locally, it’s something we need, writes Tenzin Chogkyi, a longtime Buddhist teacher who works at the Conflict Resolution Center.
Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We all want to halt fentanyl-related opioids, but Panetta’s vote to criminalize would keep us in same loop of failure
Retired Santa Cruz physician Helen Nunberg spent decades treating people with addictions and can’t understand why Rep. Jimmy Panetta recently voted for the HALT Fentanyl Act. The act, she says, will lead to harsher criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of fentanyl-related drugs and makes the same mistakes we have been making for decades. “Obviously, what we are doing isn’t working,” she writes. She encourages you to write to your senators and keep President Joe Biden from signing it into law.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The real ‘woke up’ call: Good Times does not get a pass after publishing a transphobic anonymous letter
Xinistra and Rogue Roulette, two drag artists who participated in “Drag Story Time” in Watsonville last month, pen an open letter airing their anger and hurt over the anonymous homophobic and transphobic letter Good Times published about their event. That letter prompted both an apology from Good Times and a change in the publication’s leadership. They feel the weekly’s apology was inadequate and doesn’t address its systemic failure. “Merely apologizing and moving on is not enough,” they write. “Not in the current national climate. You don’t get to sweep this under the rug.” They also address the letter writer, local businesses, their fellow drag artists and queer community and you, the public.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs an affordable housing tax measure; a $95 parcel tax is the best option
The city of Santa Cruz needs more taxes to support affordable housing, writes James Weller, a local housing advocate. A proposed 2024 ballot measure is under discussion by a citizens committee and in recent polls 63% preferred equally either a parcel tax or an assessed-value tax-rate increase. That leaves Weller optimistic. Anyone can join in the planning process over the next month; Weller invites Santa Cruz residents to participate.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County’s human-service nonprofits need more funding — even as budgets tighten all over
When disasters like this winter’s storms and the CZU fire hit, Santa Cruz County relies on nonprofits to help those in need. Here, Lookout columnist Mike Rotkin outlines how nonprofits came to be so useful in our community and why they need our ongoing support, particularly with the county and its cities coming to grips with looming budget woes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: I pray this bogus, hate-focused lawsuit against UCSC over DEI will soon be dismissed
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor:The Pacific Legal Foundation handling John Haltigan’s lawsuit against UC Santa Cruz for ” … alleged government overreach” by asking prospective applicants about their views on equity, inclusion and diversity is the height of hypocrisy. Perhaps […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Don’t be afraid to rescue and adopt a gamecock — mine is the ‘sweetest’
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: Many thanks for providing helpful information and for educating the general public about the important topic of animal fighting. I would like to share with you, though, that I adopted a gamecock from Hen Harbor […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
If toilet paper is free in dispensers, tampons should be, too: UCSC needs more period equity
Third-year student Amanda Safi wants UC Santa Cruz to pay more attention to menstruators. She is a period activist who was thrilled in December when the university started supplying free period products in bathrooms. It’s a great step, she writes, but the university should put the products in regularly serviced dispensers — just like toilet paper. And the products should be safe for users and for the environment, which they are currently not, she says. “Having period products in baskets when we put toilet paper in dispensers sends the message that menstruators are an afterthought,” Safi argues.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Neighborhood Courts offer restorative justice: Let’s keep low-level offenders out of court
Imagine someone hits your car and leaves the scene. Or maybe your child or friend gets caught shoplifting or with a fake ID. Should that person face court, a possible criminal record? Danitza Torres, coordinator of Santa Cruz County’s Neighborhood Courts program, thinks there is a better way, one that involves restorative justice and a chance for people to take responsibility for their actions and for victims to get closure on low-level offenses. Neighborhood Courts have resolved 130 cases in the county in the two years since it started. Torres explains how it works here and puts out a call for volunteers to serve as panelists to help resolve cases.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Why doesn’t Santa Cruz pass a real estate transfer tax?
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: I appreciate our Santa Cruz city officials seeking a path to funding housing for the all-but-millionaires priced out of our cherished but coveted city through a bond. But I want to understand what we are […]