Plus Letters to Good Times
Happy 11/11. Love those numbers. Nov. 11 is also Veterans Day. More on that in a second. Welcome to a new issue of GT. It’s a busy season and I’ve come across some noteworthy events that I have to share with you. Take note: There’s a great benefit for Save Our Shores (saveourshores.org) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17 at the Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz. On the roster: the award-winning film Bag It (bagitmovie.com), which chronicles an ordinary guy as he navigates through our plastic world and, it seems, a cultural love affair with plastics. The other event is Dec. 3, so mark your calendars. It’s called Decemberchild, and it benefits Children’s Hospice with a festive night at Kuumbwa Jazz Center featuring It’s A Beautiful Day and Superior Olive. This is, actually, the eighth annual benefit concert and the proceeds go to Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition. Interesting to note: it’s a birthday party-themed event—free appetizers and birthday cake will be served; and a raffle will be held for the chance to win great prizes. Children are welcome, but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Learn more at decemberchild.org and childrenshospice.org.
What else? Kudos to local business owner and Santa Cruz Next titan Jeffrey Kongslie Correa who, along with another resourceful pal, decided to make the very best of Veterans Day. How? They are walking 45 miles in one day to raise awareness to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Their walk takes place Nov. 11 and begins at the gates of the Presidio in Monterey—they’ll walk all the way to Santa Cruz. Catch up with them on Twitter and Facebook.
That should be enough to kickstart your weekend and upcoming week. Inspiring. More next time …
Greg Archer | Editor-in-Chief
Letters to the Editor
Nesters Know
I very much enjoyed reading “Empty Nest, Lined With Cash” by Sven Davis last week. I too had decided to not have children. I grew up poor working class, my mother, a divorced single parent who dropped out of high school after her second year, had a hard time raising two boys from 1945 to 1968. Being the only one in our family to graduate from high school and having put myself through college I was determined not to make the same mistake that my mother and brother made. So when I looked at having to choose between building a house and living debt free or having a child and renting for the rest of my life and being in debt, I chose the former and am very happy with my “Empty Nest, Lined With Cash.” I now am financially secure, have time to mentor at-risk youth, participate in community activitism, create art, travel, exercise, etc. I think that it is healthy and creative to consider thinking “outside the box” more as Mr. Davis has. It offers more choices and opportunities for creating a sustainable and resilient community, nation and planet.
Drew Lewis
Santa Cruz
Nice Lining
I enjoyed reading “Empty Nest.” What a great article. I smiled the whole way through because it is so true. And I get it even worse for being a female but I am thrilled to have a niece and nephew and equally as thrilled to not have my own bundle of … anyway! Thanks for the validation.
K. Cole
Santa Cruz
Biggest News Around
Fortunate California, a world series won and Dems back in to top positions, thus time to address the non-GOP elephant in the room, our continuing wars. The cost of destroying Iraq and Afghanistan is in the trillions. Death toll for U.S. GI’s in Iraq still creeps up (4,427) while the Afghanistan toll is now 1,371 (60 up in the past month).
Our enemies multiply, our security lessens, while here at home our social structures scream for funds and our once top schools are down in the high 40s in state ranking. Then of course we’re drone killing in Yemen and Pakistan …
If we were one person acting so dysfunctional and dangerous, we’d be locked up for our own and our neighbors’ safety. Hard to lock up a whole state, much less a country, but can’t the largest circulation paper in our community spare some space to address our suicidal foreign policy? It’s the biggest news around.
Joyce McLean
Los Gatos
Holiday Deadline
GT offices will be closed Nov. 25 and 26 for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The following holiday deadlines will be in effect for the Wednesday, Nov. 24 issue:
Display, Class Display, Bulletin Board and Classified Ads: 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 18.
Calendar: noon, Tuesday, Nov. 16.
The following Deadlines will be in effect for the Thursday, Dec. 2 issue:
Display, Class Display and Bulletin Board: 3 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 24.
Classified ads: 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 29.
Calendar: noon Monday, Nov. 22.
Best of The Online Comments
On ’Timber’
There was much controversy over Big Creek’s attempt to weaken regulations for salmon this year and last. Their paper on native salmon territories is quite frankly one of the biggest jokes in fisheries science. I’m surprised Big Creek is in the article at all. I wouldn’t view them as a credible source.
Ed Solomon
For the record, I never told the reporter that “the ruling may not lead to dramatic improvements in the Santa Cruz Mountains.” That is an unfortunate misquote. What I did say was that we don’t know what the implications of the ruling might be, a comment that the reporter did get right. There is quite a bit of relevant information missing from this online story, which makes me wonder whether the print version is more complete and accurate. I certainly hope this is the case.
Bob Berlage
She quotes you as saying “we don’t know what the implications of the ruling might be,” so it looks like the writer got things correct. You say she misquoted you, but then you repeat exactly what she put in your quote. Logging companies shouldn’t get to turn articles into PR devices anyway. And from the looks of your posting, it seems you tried.
Reader
