I wanted to express my disappointment in the lack of information, discussions or articles regarding the national tragedy that was the domestic terrorist attack in Buffalo on May 14. I spent some time flipping back and forth between your most recent edition and the previous edition, thinking I must have been wrong. While I understand Good Times is primarily focused on local news, I wonder what our city has to say about this ongoing issue? What do our council members have to say about racism in Santa Cruz today? What are ways that white supremacy is being sustained and encouraged in our town? Or how is our town calling out and exposing racism in our county? We tout a progressive agenda often, but I have personally experienced many individuals who loudly express racist ideology and actively make certain restaurants, bars and other public spaces unsafe for minorities. These are not isolated incidents, and I firmly believe Santa Cruz needs to continue reconciling the background of white supremacy in our community.
I want to know what our community is doing to address the growing number of domestic terrorist attacks perpetrated by white young men against minority communities. Do we have an education system that has a stance on teaching about microaggressions, antiracist history lessons and LGBTQ inclusive language? Does our local media talk about the Buffalo attack with a particular slant that depicts the perpetrator as a young/innocent/disturbed/isolated youth? Can we discuss how our white privilege is arming and encouraging white people to take violent steps with the focus on sowing fear and hate into communities?
We have all seen plenty of social media posts about this attack, but I want to hear from our local community and journalists about what is happening in our own backyard and how we should respond to make this community safe.
Chaney Janssen
Santa Cruz
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I agree with the writer.
Santa Cruz is the hometown of a domestic terrorist and we need to look at why. This is from an excerpt from the lookout.
According to Carrillo, his ideas about politics and the role of government began to take shape in the Air Force. “Before, I was confined to a little bubble,” he said in an interview, referring to his upbringing in Ben Lomond, population 7,000. Once he joined the Air Force and met others from around the world, “talking to people changed my whole views,” he said. He followed a well-worn path that began with a fierce attachment to gun rights, which in turn led him to libertarianism, and then an enthusiastic embrace of the tea party movement.