PAJARO DENIED
Yes, i have said this before, but it bears repeating. The town of Pajaro has been the unwanted stepchild of Monterey County for more than 100 years.
The fact that most of the people who live there are Mexican, are farmworkers, have little formal education and are financially poor has everything to do with their shabby treatment.
Pajaro residents are part of our larger community. They deserve the same opportunity to live a good life and the same dignity that EVERY resident of Monterey county deserves.
The farmworkers who live in Pajaro work very hard to harvest the crops that make millions of dollars for both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
As I represent both parts of Watsonville and all of the northern part of Monterey county on the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees, I am proud to represent the people of Pajaro.
I do not share the attitude that elitism and classism are acceptable if you speak limited English, do not have a college degree and do not have a Tesla in the driveway.
While we do not have any current employees who live in Pajaro, we do have students. I will not keep quiet and allow our Pajaro residents to be treated as second class, whether they are Cabrillo students or not.
By the way, if you are looking for historical verification for this, look no further than the Watsonville City Historical Museum or some of the works of John Steinbeck. It is all there.
Steve Trujillo
HATE, HATE
Various anti-hate campaigns in the media today fail to mention a brand-new kind of hate movement, the one currently sponsored by far-right Republicans against Democrats. Republicans have incited hate crimes against Democrats with offices in Congress and private homes in California and have encouraged hate against judges and election workers.
Do Republicans really get a free pass to hate just because many go to evangelical churches and many Democrats go elsewhere? In Utah, U.S. Senate candidate Brad Wilson has a TV ad where he promises to “risk it all” and fires a rifle as he talks about “fighting” Joe Biden.
This is outrageous incitement to violence against Democrats, especially in view of Trump’s promise of a “bloodbath” if he loses. MAGA candidates in this election cycle need to be held accountable for both religious and political hate speech before their partisans actualize their candidates’ violent fantasies.
Kimball Shinkoskey
