Obama's Warmongering Policies

I AM SO disappointed in my so called antiwar community here in Santa Cruz. Maybe I can blame it on ignorance (not something Santa Cruzans enjoy being accused of), but I have to wonder how it escaped the attention of so many of my peace-loving neighbors that President-elect Barack Obama was a pro-war candidate who has made it clear that he intends to escalate the war in Afghanistan and perpetuate the war on terror. Nevertheless, peace-loving Santa Cruzans zealously cast their votes for Obama's warmongering policies anyway. Wow! Where was my community's voice for peace? Maybe people do realize that Obama is pro-war and assume that war won't be as painful under a Democrat. Isn't that kind of like saying that Daddy doesn't hit as hard with his left hand? Another social contradiction is the support of Obama among the GLBT community. Joe Biden made it clear that he and Barack are both against same-sex marriages, yet the gay community ignored this fact and gave their support to Obama anyway.

Personally, I voted for PEACE and FREEDOM. I'm sorry that my community didn't join with me.

 Craig Rosenberg,
Santa Cruz

Reassurance for Lance

THE DECINZO cartoon in last week's issue (Nov. 5) pokes fun at bike safety in his usual outrageous style. However, steps are being taken to prevent crashes by working on improvements to make streets safer for bicyclist travel, as well as education for drivers and bicyclists on how to share the roads safely. Specifically, the Mission Street Corridor Safety Task Force is currently implementing an action plan to increase cyclists' safety when riding near large trucks, including: PSAs on local radio with safety tips for bicyclists, educational brochures for both truck drivers and bicyclists on how to drive safely around each other, as well as events for truck operators and bicyclists to talk and learn one another's perspectives.For bike/truck safety tips and more information visit www.sctrafficsatety.org. Not to fear, Lance, we are working to make your ride through Santa Cruz safe and memorable.

Saskia Lucas,
Ecology Action

Rise Above Such Crap

I DON'T WANT to condemn DeCinzo nor berate the fine people at Metro Santa Cruz any more than they already have been, but I must respond to the flawed logic of two of last week's letter writers.

Many Santa Cruzans consider themselves exceptionally well informed, and I've noticed that many such Santa Cruzans and left-leaning people in general are fed up with Jewish/Zionist defensive knee-jerky-ness. Maybe those people are the ones who need to "get a life." Letter-writer Wendy Ridgeway completely sidestepped the issue, ignoring a legitimate complaint and using it as a springboard for her own narcissistic tantrum."

The right has been throwing the whiny liberal barb for eight years, and who's the whiner now?" Well, the "whiny liberal" barb and the "Nazi" barb are two different things. And yes, the right throws the "Nazi" barb around gratuitously as well, but that's no reason to ignore the use of it by us liberals. Let the right engage in scare tactics and let us rise above such crap (like the way the Chicago crowd didn't boo John McCain's name when it was mentioned by Obama in his acceptance speech, whereas the Flagstaff crowd booed throughout McCain's concession speech). But "you all have a lot of audacity ... to comment at all" after "years of attacks by Rush, O'Reilly [and] Savage." So everyone who wrote in to express a legit complaint about that cartoon is an accomplice of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly? Ridiculous.

Fellow letter-writer L.D. Freitas justifies the connection, as expressed in the cartoon, of KSCO with its "fascist message." Sorry L.D., but the slippery slope between Bush policies and Hitler (or Mussolini) policies is gonna have to get a lot shorter and a helluva lot more slippery before you ought to come out with that supposition.

As for Jewish-Americans who condone torture, I don't see what gives Mr. Freitas or anyone else the right to expect specific ideological stances from any given ethnic group of Americans. Why are Jews expected to agree with you about oppression just because we were oppressed? No ethnic group has shown itself to be above hypocrisy when it comes to the rights of other minorities (case in point: overwhelming Afro-American support--69 percent--for Prop. 8). That fellow minorities are occasionally supportive of one another is something that needs to be gently encouraged and expanded, not rammed down our throats.

Why won't people like Mr. Freitas stop seeing Jews everywhere they turn and simply debate issues as issues?

Aaron Cress,
Santa Cruz

Send letters to the editor here.