Now THOSE Were Protests

I USUALLY LIKE DeCinzo's bite, and have said so in these pages, but the one about the student protest at UCSC (DeCinzo, Nov. 14) is so off the mark that it needs to be looked at closely—for what it is not, first, then what it is. No indication of what the protest is about, what is the real context of the cartoon. In the background, under the UCSC sign on a wall, is: "Welcome African Youth Heritage Youth Retreat" (was there really one?) behind a female staff member showing three white kids (two with short Afro hair but still white), a thug-like S.C. cop about to hit a very young boy whose jeans are dropping as he appears about to go down on the much older female protester in front of him, at the same time that the UCSC staff member warns the visiting "Afro" students about being beaten up if they mouth off at "CORPORATE SPONSORED UCSC." But I guess the protest didn't amount to much.Too bad you all weren't at the protests against the Vietnam War at San Jose State on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 1967, where I was a second-year faculty English professor, when on Seventh Street the Tactical Squad of the police department made their second sweep of the campus (over the bullhorned protestations of the official filling in for the traveling president), firing off tear gas canisters, at least one causing extensive damage to the head of a fellow faculty member, chasing the ringleaders of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), and hitting coeds with their truncheons. Yes, folks, DeCinzo could have done a much better job on this earlier situation where the cops created a riot of maybe 3,000 students and faculty, most of whom were there only out of curiosity.

Richard Lynde, Watsonville

New Religion

I READ THE COLUMN by Annalee Newitz ("Carbon Indulgences," News&Views, Nov. 14) with amusement. She compared the concept of "carbon offsets " to that of the Christian practice in the Middle Ages of selling "indulgences" to wealthy people to "offset the spiritual cost of their sins and assure a place for them in heaven." I think she is right on, but there are many other parallels between the neo-pagan "Global Warming Movement" and Christianity.The Global Warming Movement has a canon, and it states that (1) global warming is an absolute fact, that (2) it is human-caused, (3) its effects will be catastrophic, and (4) we humans can do something to slow it, or stop it.

The High Priests of this neo-pagan religion are scientists. It is believed that their motives are as pure as the driven snow, that they are above any political or economic interest, and their only motive is the search for Truth. Skeptical scientists, on the other hand, are branded as heretics, and if not burned at the stake, they are at least threatened with being fired from their jobs. It is further believed that these non-believers have made "a deal with the Devil:" i.e., the oil companies.The Global Warming Movement even has its Elmer Gantry. Al Gore preaches redemption through self-sacrifice and energy conservation while he himself is a profligate waster of energy at his home and as he flits about the world in private jets to spread "The Gospel of Global Warming."

 Edgar Darwin, Boulder Creek

Eureka!

WITH RESPECT to the problem of finding an appropriate name for the old Dream Inn (apparently now a copyrighted name), I suggest a slight alteration to Dream On! would create the right emotional connection to the local community, at least as far as much of the rest of the world sees us.

Dick Brundle, Soquel

A Nice Change

AS A MEMBER of the Cachagua Playboys, I can only say how much of a pleasure it was to read a favorable review about our show at Don Quixote's a few weeks ago ("Rub-A-Dub-Dub," Mūz, Nov. 7). In this day and age of showcasing the negative, it made me feel proud to be in such a great area of appreciation of the arts!

Thanks for the kind words!

Mike Eckstrom, Seaside

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