EDITOR’S NOTE
There are some things that seem like they must always have been true about Santa Cruz, but some of GTโs cover stories lately have taken a closer look at our assumptions. For instance, Mat Weirโs piece a few weeks back about the police raid on a birthing center in the 1970s let the air out of the simplistic notion that Santa Cruz has always been a bastion of reproductive rights and womenโs liberation.
This weekโs cover story by Geoff Drake is startling in a similar wayโdoesnโt it seem like a progressive mountain bike advocacy group must have existed in Santa Cruz before 1997? And yet, as Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz celebrates its 20th anniversary, Drakeโs story lays out all the ways that the group was indeed revolutionary in its vision for promoting both the sport and the local trail system. The MBoSC battle to reclaim Heroin Hill is one of those Santa Cruz stories that should be widely known. As usual, behind the popular notion that Santa Cruz is a bikerโs paradise is a more interesting real story of cyclist activists in Santa Cruzโlovers of the sport and the local landscape who have dedicated themselves to building and increasing access to trailsโwho made it that way.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Read the latest letters to the editor here.
Down the Memory Hole
In Mr. Kettmannโs article (GT, 3/1) comparing George Orwellโs dystopian novel 1984 to the arrival of the Trump presidency, he paints Mr. Trump as the new โBig Brother,โ and as a petty, petulant, totalitarian bigot, woman-hating, life-hating (thatโs a new one), reality TV curiosity (not as someone who worked his ass off for decades to build a multi-billion dollar business empire), and a liar (despite keeping all his campaign promises) whose presidency is an โassault on decency.โ Of course, in his very emotional and slanderous picture of the president, he brings absolutely zero quotations or documentary evidence to back up his assertions of blind hatred for a man he has never met.
He implies that we all woke up on Nov. 9 to the reality of a full-surveillance-style police state; however, that has been a reality for Americans and others around the world for quite some time now. The Edward Snowden revelations about unchecked NSA surveillance of everybody occurred during the โBig Brotherโ Obama administration.
He also seems to have overlooked the historical fact that in 1948, Orwell was warning us about the dystopian world of left-wing communist-Marxist totalitarianism (INGSOC), i.e. he was warning us about the modern intolerant, totalitarian, and violent โregressive left.โ
Kettman writes of the two closely related phenomena of โthought controlโ and โthe distortions of language,โ which in fact we now find in the โcultural Marxistโ world of the modern โnewspeakโ movement, i.e. the modern cult of political correctness championed by the New Left.
Regarding the Orwellian news โmemory holeโ and โdoublethink,โ does he remember back in 2014 when the people of Crimea held a peaceful national referendum on whether or not to rejoin the Republic of Russia (the โYesโ vote was 95.5 percent) after the Obama administration orchestrated a Neo-Nazi-led coup dโรฉtat against the democratically elected government of Ukraine, costing U.S. taxpayers $6 billion for the whole operation? Iโll bet that he is completely unaware of this historical fact and actually believes that Crimea is now part of Russia due to โRussian military aggression,โ a thoroughly debunked myth which the corporate fake news media still refuses to admit was a total lie. They dropped the facts down the โmemory holeโ to prop up their false narrative of โRussian aggressionโ in order to support the warmongering neoconservativesโ plan for World War III against Russia, which the current president is trying to avoid by peacefully normalizing U.S.-Russia relations. When he (and all life on Earth) does not die of radiation poisoning in the next six months, he might want to send the president a little thank you note.
E. Campbell
Santa Cruz
Steve Kettman responds: I would like to thank J.E. Campbell for his letter, the publication of which does demonstrate that we live in a society which allows for wide, wide latitude of expression, unlike in Orwellโs fictional โ1984.โ That said, I am no less alarmed now than when I wrote the original piece by the daily assault on honesty and reality by Trump and his crowd. One day, his gimlet-eyed spokesman is blaming the British for a fantasy โwiretapโ of Trump, the next day Trump is startling the visiting German Chancellor by claiming he and Frau Merkel have โsomething in commonโ in both being wiretapped by the Obama administration. This is not doublethink. This is beyond doublethink.
CORRECTION
Last weekโs cover story (โWarming Trend,โ 3/22), reported that the Homeless Services Center shuttered its shelters in July 2015, but not that they re-opened two weeks later. We regret the error.
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GOOD IDEA
CHIEF CONCERNS
The Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) has taken a step that it hopes will increase transparency and community trust: Deputy Chief Rick Martinez announced last week that the agency is reinstating its Santa Cruz Police Chiefรขโฌโขs Advisory Committee. The group will give input into the departmentรขโฌโขs policies, strategies, and priorities. The 14-member body has members representing a variety of perspectives, including public safety, diversity, homelessness, mental health, education, faith communities, and social services.
GOOD WORK
LOOP THINK
Construction on the Branciforte Creek bicycle and pedestrian bridge project finally began earlier this week. The last piece in Santa Cruzรขโฌโขs five-mile river walk, the linkage will go under the Soquel Avenue Bridge and over Branciforte Creek. City leaders first conceived the plan 30 years ago, but continued to put it off while they looked for funds. A Caltrans Active Transportation Program grant is funding $1.8 million in construction, with another $600,000 coming from local gas taxes.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
รขโฌลGet a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.รขโฌย
-Mark Twain
All rains lead to the ocean, which is why itโs especially important to clean our Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary beaches during and following rain storms. Join Save Our Shores in its bi-monthly Cleanup Cowells Project, the brainchild of Sanctuary Steward extraordinaire Haley Mander. Volunteers must be over 18 years of age or be accompanied by an adult. Wear layers and sun protection, bring a reusable water bottle, and start your Sunday off right by helping to protect marine life from plastic debris, cigarette butts and whatever else may have been flushed down the pipes.
On this and every first-Saturday of the month, UCSCโs Arboretum offers a chance to circumnavigate the world through the amazing plant life of its Mediterranean climates. Bask in the sunshine of our own Mediterranean-temperate spring, as you follow a docent from New Zealand to South Africa to Australia and back to Californiaโall in less than 90 minutes. Youโll learn about rare and endangered plant species, as well as about bees, butterflies, aromas and succulents in the arboretumโs specialty gardens, and check in on which trees are blooming in the Rare Fruit Garden, and whatโs new at the developing World Conifer Collection. Bring a camera, and/or notebook for garden notes.
Does art imitate life or life imitate art? Or, do some artists and thinkers simply possess an uncanny capacity for prophetic works? George Orwellโs book 
