News

Letters to the Editor: April 25-May 2

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• April 24, 2012

Last week, our paper featured a brief reappearance by political cartoonist of DeCinzo in our paper. “I was reminded of why so many people became disenchanted with his work,” one reader writes.

Cartoon Facts

After seeing DeCinzo’s recent cartoon about the local desalination debate (Posts, April 18), I was reminded of why so many people became disenchanted with his work—and why he got dropped by Metro Santa Cruz—several years back. 

While his imagery is always clever and contains the right level of irreverence for local political leaders, he frequently forgets something that good cartoonists know well: it is important that the criticism of the target be based on something pretty darn close to the facts.

If DeCinzo’s desal cartoon were to be put into fully narrative form, it would quickly be dismissed as a bundle of lies, misinformation and severe distortion. For instance, the cartoony assertion that aggressive conservation has been rejected by the Santa Cruz City Council is just ridiculous. The city has a conservation program that wins national awards. Our per-person use is the lowest in the state.

The well-drawn image of the city destroying “science based evidence” is breathtaking in its hypocrisy and falseness. The city and the desalination task force have done many years of serious scientific investigation on marine life, energy use and brine disposal. There are volumes of science-based reports on which the desal planning process is based and they are all available to the public. DeCinzo has aligned himself with activists who have put their strong opinions on desalination ahead of science and who cherry pick a few words from a scientific report to make their case when a complete reading of the scientific reports shows the cherry-pickers to be simply incorrect.  

My favorite part of the whole desal cartoon (aside from the fact that it was the first time I’ve seen Katherine Beiers driving a steamroller) was the suggestion that the current city council is out to destroy democracy a month after the council voted to put the desalination question on the ballot.  It made me laugh to think that a political commentator like DeCinzo would have forgotten to actually follow the recent news that he is commenting about in his cartoons. Perhaps his motto is: “Never let the facts get in the way of a good dig at the City Council.”

Charlotte Webster

Santa Cruz

 

From The Web

Gambles Respond

[RE: “Progressive Leaders Denounce ‘Thrive,’” Currents, April 11.html]: Although the letter of dissociation raised no specific issues, we understand from John Robbins’ articles and the correspondence that he wrote soliciting others to participate in his disinformation campaign that the objections range from ET presence, to naming the reality of the Global Domination Agenda, to validating Zero Point Energy, to adhering to the Principle of Non-violation. Wow, not much of a movie left after eliminating those taboo inquiries!

We encourage everyone reading this to watch Thrive and determine for yourselves if you agree that there is enough evidence to warrant additional dialog—about a covert agenda, about revolutionary new technologies and about bold strategies for achieving true liberty and justice for all.

We spent decades doing our homework on these issues and stand with complete integrity and clarity behind the facts represented in Thrive. We welcome meaningful dialog and otherwise consider it dangerous to undermine the millions of us who are standing up to expose the covert global scheme amongst the elite and their secret societies and intelligence agencies to destroy the economies of countless nations, take over their resources, and kill whatever leaders or people don’t play along.

Foster and Kimberly Gamble

(Read full response at www.santacruz.com)

 

Correction

In last week’s cover story (“Sharing the Wealth”) we gave an outdated name for Andrew Whitman’s seed library. The new name is the UCSC Demeter Seed Library (www.demeterseedproject.org). We apologize for the error.

  • https://www.santacruz.com/news/letters_to_the_editor_april_25_may_2.html Theodora

    Since the Weekly has not provided us w/ a link where we can actually find the letter, I’ve copied and pasted it here:

    As those who have seen THRIVE know, we are committed to a bold inquiry into what is really in the way of our thriving – and to offering much more than just a tweak to our fundamentally flawed and failing system.

    One of our core approaches in making THRIVE was to hear from people with differing points of view and to go for vital information regardless of the political affiliations of the source. That way we could do our own informed and critical thinking and glean the principles and facts from which true, just and lasting solutions can be created.

    We encourage a transparent, respectful, informed and constructive dialog that can address the specifics of any differences some of the pioneers in THRIVE might have with us. Although the letter of dissociation raised no specific issues, we understand from John Robbins’ articles and the correspondence that he wrote soliciting others to participate in his disinformation campaign that the objections range from ET presence, to naming the reality of the Global Domination Agenda, to validating Zero Point Energy, to adhering to the Principle of Non-violation. Wow, not much of a movie left after eliminating those taboo inquiries!

    We encourage everyone reading this to watch THRIVE and determine for yourselves if you agree that there is enough evidence to warrant additional dialog – about a covert agenda, about revolutionary new technologies and about bold strategies for achieving true liberty and justice for all.

    We spent decades doing our homework on these issues and stand with complete integrity and clarity behind the facts represented in THRIVE. We welcome meaningful dialog and otherwise consider it dangerous to undermine the millions of us who are standing up to expose the covert global scheme amongst the elite and their secret societies and intelligence agencies to destroy the economies of countless nations, take over their resources, and kill whatever leaders or people don’t play along.
    Further hit and run communications are of little interest to us, especially as it distracts from time better spent with motivated solutions groups forming all over the world who are awakening to the agenda and taking actions based on integrity and freedom rather than staying confined by outworn and deceptive political polarities.

    We encourage those who have publicly dissociated to offer their best information and solutions rather than spending time trying to undermine ours.

    Each of the pioneers in THRIVE were invited because their expertise in a particular area had been helpful in our gaining an understanding of the bigger picture that includes, but vastly transcends, their sector of expertise -or anyone’s political affiliation. We clearly state this in the movie:

    “The people in THRIVE do not necessarily agree with the themes, statements, claims or conclusions presented in the film or website, nor does their inclusion imply our full agreement with all of their views. The people interviewed have each contributed in some deep way to our understanding and we are grateful to them all.”

    We are encouraged by the millions of viewers, thousands of self-created screenings, the hundreds of THRIVE Solutions groups forming to get on with what’s needed now – informed and leveraged action. People from all over the world- Greece, Poland, India, Portugal and more have voluntarily translated THRIVE into their languages to get the important information to their cultures. THRIVE is now translated into 18 different languages and we hear from people all over the world about the value THRIVE is offering in their cultural transformations.

    We also are moved by the healings being reported in families, workplaces and communities as millions are getting the bridge between worldviews and beyond unnecessary and dangerous divide-and-conquer illusions. The new conversation, about what is really going on and solutions with human rights as primary, is, fortunately, unstoppable.

    As stated in the book “1984”, “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” There is a well-informed, nonviolent revolution brewing and we welcome constructive contributions from everyone ready to participate.

    Foster and Kimberly Gamble