PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

American Dreams - Was Democracy Just a Dream? SF Mime Troupe, Sept. 7 and 8, London Nelson Park

By SARAH RINGLER 

"The American Dream. It used to mean a job, a house, a car, a spouse, 2.5 kids, and a .4 dog. But what does it mean now? For some it is a good tide raising all boats, for others it is a tsunami that destroys everything. For some it is unity, for others it is dissolution. A handshake or a gun. One citizen’s dream has become another’s nightmare, and those who fan the flames of the differences will gladly profit while democracy burns," according to the Mime Troupe press release.

The Tony Award-Winning San Francisco Mime Troupe in their 65th Season brings to Santa Cruz their newest musical production American Dreams. After touring around the state, their last shows are here in Santa Cruz at the London Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St.. Shows are held behind the center outside on the lawn so bring blankets or low backed beach chairs. High-backed chairs sit farthest from the stage so as to not block the view. Live music begins at 2:30pm and the play goes from 3-4:30pm.

The Mime Troupe has the extraordinary ability to be topical, honest, uplifting and very funny. I have missed few of their shows and can testify to that.

A Democracy of Terror

BY KEITH MCHENRY, CO-FOUNDER OF FOOD NOT BOMBS

"As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” Kamala Harris Aug. 23.

“I just saw the inside of a Palestinian baby's head. What a day,” trended on X as Ana Navarro spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the Democratic National Convention.

As the carnival of unreality celebrated “the best four years” in America’s history at the Chicago Democratic National Convention the pace of phone calls from desperate seniors seeking food was exploding like the bombs raining down on the children of Gaza while the current regime has brought the US to the brink of a nuclear war with Russia.

The Biden/Harris administration made its intention to continue the genocide clear on Aug. 26 completing its 500th flight airlifting over 50,000 tons of weapons and equipment to the Israeli army for its over ten-month onslaught against Palestinians. As the joyous Chicago convention droned on the British Medical Journal reported that at least 186,000 Palestinians had been killed by the weapons the administration donated for the genocide. At the same time the US and NATO are bombing Moscow and other Russian cities in their mad regime change war. We have never been so close to a nuclear conflict as we are today.

As we teeter on the edge of a global war our people are suffering the terror of this democracy. The usual 6am call rings while starting that morning’s pot of coffee. A soft spoken woman from Mississippi lets me know her insurance company gave her my number. She needs food. The $100 gift card United Health had provided has run out of money. She can’t see. Can I send someone over with groceries. Her church can’t help. I let her know we share meals with the homeless and that she might want to try calling 211, like 911 but 211, or possibly her county offices.

After a few more calls, a 70 year old from southeast Texas named James dials me seeking both food and money. The pantries in his county and surrounding counties closed because they couldn't meet demand. His power was about to be cut off ending the use of his two old window air conditioning units. He tells me it hit 110 degrees. James does not have the money to pay his copay for his cancer medication and his wife's insulin.

I could hear him crying as he said he had worked his whole life, always paid his taxes and felt humiliated that he was seeking help.

I suggested as I do a dozen or so times a day, that he contact 211 or his county offices. He responded that he had called the Salvation Army, Community Action Network, Catholic Services, five or six other agencies and his own church and no one could help. He got my number from his health insurance company. He thanked me for at least listening and understanding.

A few minutes later I get a call from a senior woman in western North Carolina who shared that she had not eaten in three days.

The cruelty is not limited to starving our elderly. The Supreme Court ruling in April allowing cities and states to make being homeless a crime and Newsom’s Executive Order have given Santa Cruz officials a green light to step up their already horrific campaign of terror against the homeless. A $4 million “Encampment Resolution” grant along with other state funding sent tractors and dumpsters to the Pogonip to confiscate the property of those already clinging to survival.

The lines at the Food Not Bombs meal get longer each month. The frustration is electric. A mantra of “We have no place to go” hums around the plaza. Do you have a tent? A sleeping bag, the police took them yesterday."

Jessica York writes on Aug. 14 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “In the wake of concerns voiced by several community members, on Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council approved a $140,000 contract to clean up a scattered Pogonip homeless encampment.”

The city voted to hire Santa Cruz-based Kenny Robinson Construction after officials had heard complaints about the estimated 40 active and abandoned camps along the approximately 1.5-mile Nature Loop, accessible off Golf Club Drive. Concerns included unleashed dogs, debris and fires, according to a memo to the council.”

At the same time Democratic mayors are claiming the Supreme Court Ruling and Executive order will not impact their anti-homeless policies. Mayor Fred Keeley is one of several California’s mayors whistling that tune. The Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson and Newsom’s Executive Order to clear all encampments will have no impact on our city's homeless policies.

“‘Our focus on affordable housing and homelessness prevention is our North Star. We have to continue building on the momentum we’ve gained over the past two years, and we’re seeing real results from our strategic approach.’ writes the mayor.”

“One of those results is a remarkable 36% decrease in homelessness over the past year. This progress is a testament to the effectiveness of the city’s comprehensive strategies. The city has moved 184 people to more stable housing and provided 165 tent-based safe sleeping spaces,” Keeley claims.

You would not be surprised to learn that none of what he is reporting here is based in fact. If there really were a 36% decrease in homeless why would the city also agree to pay their friends at Kenny Robinson Construction $140,000 to steal our community’s poorest resident's survival gear, hauling it off to the landfill?  Would it be necessary for the city to request a $4 million Encampment Resolution Grant to confiscate and discard the property of those seeking to survive at Harvey West and Coral Street. You can see the failure of this system every day with your own eyes. For many of us we experience it every day.

Unfortunately claims by mayors like Keeley of progress in building what they call affordable housing is really not so affordable and even if real and construction started now it would not be enough to house the cascading increase of the 15,000 Americans who become homeless every day according to HUD.

So the plan to address this brutal crisis is the criminalization of America’s homeless. The CIA-linked Cicero Institute is pushing a “solution” to “the homeless problem” that could lead to governments coercing people into FEMA camps, camps not unlike those where our Japanese neighbors were sent during the last World War.

The Cicero Institute provides a “Model Bill” it calls “Reducing Street Homelessness Act” to state and city legislators. Billionaire Joe Lonsdale started the Cicero Institute in 2016. He also co-founded CIA contractor Palantir Technologies with several others, including PayPal’s Peter Thiel. Palantir’s first backer was the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. Peter Thiel is also the money behind JD Vance, Donald Trumps running mate.

The Cicero Institute’s model legislation has already been introduced or adopted in ten states. In Kentucky a “stand your ground” feature protects those who feel threatened by those homeless whose property they are trashing gives them the right to shoot the homeless if necessary.

Joe Lonsdale’s Palantir is providing AI targeting to the Israeli and Ukrainian militaries. Their products were most famously used to kill the World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza.

The Nation Magazine reports “Such horrendous 'mistakes' are hard to understand, considering the enormous amount of advanced targeting AI hardware and software provided to the Israeli military and spy agencies — some of it by one American company in particular: Palantir Technologies.”

Palantir's software, which uses AI to analyze satellite imagery, open-source data, drone footage, and reports from the ground to present commanders with military options, is “responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine,” according to CEO Alex Karp.

This suggests that Palantir is also providing the targeting inside Russia in the US regime change war against Moscow.

On Aug. 31, Ukraine killed or wounded 46 civilians including 7 children in Belgorod Russia using the Czech Vampire Missile System and UK cluster munition. Videos of a missile obliterating a car into a fireball on a freeway in this city is chilling.

Journalist Patrick Lancaster has been reporting on the civilian crisis in Kursk. He interviewed the husband of a pregnant woman who was shot and killed by US backed troops as they fled their home. That was hard to watch. GoPro footage from an American rushing house to house in Kursk shooting at Russian civilians catches the voices of other Americans, Poles and French mercenaries yelling directions.

Ukrainians with the help of the US have been launching explosive drones at the Kursk nuclear reactor in Russia.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote on August 26th “Given the serious situation, I am personally leading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in the Russian Federation.”

“Since new developments and increased levels of military activity in the vicinity of the KNPP, I have been closely following developments on the ground, especially with respect to the plant. It is important that when the Agency is called upon to fulfill its mandate to ensure that nuclear is used in a peaceful manner, we are present.” 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a World War III warning to the U.S. on Aug. 28, saying that the West was "asking for trouble" by even considering Ukrainian requests to use American supplied weapons to conduct strikes deep within Russian territory. Discussions about using Western supplied missiles to strike Russia are tantamount to "playing with fire," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. The US has ignored this warning.

Russian TASS state news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday that Moscow had decided to revise its nuclear doctrine to reach a new balance in line with the escalation course adopted by the West.

“The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear intent to make corrections,”Ryabkov was cited as saying by TASS.

Like Iran and the Palestinian resistance, Russia is trying to thread the needle between deterrence and the very real possibility of providing justification for a direct nuclear strike by the US on their countries.

US and European leaders have made it clear that they intend to topple the Russian government. During a speech in Warsaw, Poland on March 2022, President Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal are among those in the West openly calling for the removal of Putin.

The "Nuclear Employment Guidance," was approved by Biden in March 2024 according to top secret documents leaked to The New York Times during the Democratic Convention.

It is disheartening, to say the least, that few Americans seem to realize just how close the Biden/Harris Administration is to taking our country into a direct military conflict with nuclear armed Russia.

Many people have asked me lately about how I have come to my unusual opinions on current events. My mother’s father was in the Army’s Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War. The OSS was the precursor to the CIA. My grandfather directed the most deadly bombing campaign in world history, firebombing Tokyo in “Operation Meeting House”.

I watched him argue over the phone for the use of nuclear weapons on Hanoi, demanding his friends Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Curtis LeMay “send a message” to Russia and China. We couldn’t let them think Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an aberration.

During the decade that my mother’s father provided his wisdom, he shared some of the most important lessons on “real politic” that would shape my understanding of how society is managed.

He explained that he and his friends had to instigate the Pearl Harbor Attack because the American public would have never supported a war in the Pacific otherwise. The exact same methods are used today such as sanctions and economic war to stoke conflicts with Russia and China. 

Sixty-three black and white glossy photos that he took from a B-29 of the firebombing of Tokyo hung framed around his Needham, Massachusetts's den. Another framed photo of thousands of slaves in Burma using hammers and baskets to pave the runway for his bombers with stones leaned against his file cabinet that I slept next to in his basement. I would stare at those poor shirtless men wondering how that could be real.

He described why he had his people ship heroin from Burma to the US saying they needed to pacify the black community after the end of World War II because they were worried that the unequal benefits in the GI Bill could lead to civil unrest.

“We would never let an election determine the direction of our society,” the retired Office of Strategic Services veteran instructed. The purpose of elections is to divide the people so they do not become a threat to those in power.

Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan speak that same language of the logic of unlimited carnage when required to shape events that I witnessed being expressed by my grandfather and his friends.

I am not seeing any blaring headlines proclaiming that the US is seeking peace in their regime change war against Russia or in the expanding war in West Asia. No word of Ukraine surrendering. No end to the genocide in Gaza. This should be concerning to everyone as the current US administration continues to stoke both conflicts with money, weapons, fighter jets, carrier groups and satellite targeting.

I remember as if it was yesterday when I climbed under my tiny desk at Bethesda Elementary School in our Cuban Missile Crisis “duck and cover” exercises, laughing with girls about how insane adults must be to think this would protect us.

There has never been a more dangerous time than we are facing today. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis doesn’t even come close.

Even as I have been writing this, the US and NATO have lobbed more bombs and drones at Moscow and Israel is on hair trigger alert with their undisclosed nuclear arsenal, contemplating their Samson Option as they wait for the response they provoked by killing Ismail Haniyeh the chief negotiator of Hamas at a state event in Tehran.

Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Americans will go to bed hungry tonight and many of those hungry people will be going to bed on our streets waiting to be moved and stripped of their last possessions by the police.

Stop 3 CA Anti Freedom of Speech Bills Supported by Santa Cruz Officials

BY KARL SCHAFFER

"Anyone who has watched the images coming out of Gaza for the past eleven months has been changed forever. Videos of whole families obliterated as buildings are bombed with them inside. Children with limbs missing, carried by their only surviving sibling as they evacuate from one city then to another then again and again. Miles and miles of buildings reduced to rubble as far as the eye can see. We have watched these things day in and day out for eleven months without any material response from our government."

— passage from a community letter to Berkeley City Council asking them to allow Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission to call for recognition of the Palestinian state, an end to military aid for Israel and an end to the occupation.

Below is a description of three bills that have just passed the California Legislature and that are designed to make action in support of Palestinian rights more difficult. Note that the three Santa Cruz area state assembly members and Santa Cruz state Senator John Laird have all voted for these bills. Please help pressure Gov. Newsom to veto the bills. 

The three bills below do not include one - Assembly Bill 2918, an ethnic studies bill designed to stifle discussion of Palestinian rights in schools - that was removed from consideration, but will likely be back next year. For detailed info on the bills go HERE.

The first, SB 1277, is a dangerous bill that would put teacher training and curriculum development about genocide education for grades 7-12 in the hands of outside, anti-Palestinian groups that deny the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. Genocide education should be unbiased and inclusive. It should be overseen, with the transparency required of public agencies, by educators working directly for or with the state Department of Education. It should not be outsourced to private groups, let alone ones with their own problematic political agenda.

Santa Cruz area Assembly members voting yes: Gail Pellerin, Robert Rivas, Dawn Addis (Yes: 76, No: 0, No vote recorded: 3)

Santa Cruz area Senate member voting yes: John Laird (Yes: 40, No: 0, No vote recorded: 0)

SB 1287 is meant to stifle college student protests by ordering the CSU system to adopt new, vague “codes of conduct” and enforce them in unspecified ways. Such enforcement could well be challenged and found unconstitutional, costing the state boatloads of money it doesn’t have.The bill sends a chilling, implied message to faculty and student defenders of Palestinian rights/critics of Israel, who already face enhanced scrutiny and are more likely than others to be silenced and harshly disciplined.

Santa Cruz area Assembly members voting yes: Gail Pellerin, Robert Rivas, Dawn Addis (Yes: 70, No: 0, No vote recorded: 9)

Santa Cruz area Senate member voting yes: John Laird (Yes: 35, No: 3, No vote recorded: 2)

AB 2925 would require public higher education institutions to train students on various forms of bias and discrimination, but based on unreliable law enforcement data to determine which are most common. Unsurprisingly, using current statistics, it would make optional the inclusion of Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian sentiment and discrimination against both groups, widely known to be underreported – in itself an indication that they need to be included.

Santa Cruz area Assembly members voting yes: Gail Pellerin, Robert Rivas, Dawn Addis (Yes: 75, No: 0, No vote recorded: 4)

Santa Cruz area Senate member voting yes: John Laird (Yes: 39, No: 0, No vote recorded: 1)

Safety through solidarity. Act now. Please contact Governor Newsom and tell him to veto Veto SB 1277, SB 1287, and AB 2925. Click "Start Writing"

The information above is from an email by South Bay Jewish Voice for Peace. We are trying to build networking support between activists in South Bay/San Jose and Santa Cruz; if you are interested in getting on the South Bay JVP email list please email sout...@jewishvoiceforpeace.org directly, including both email address and also home address and/or phone number. The home address is helpful for coordinating campaigns directed at local city councils, public boards, or area politicians (such as those who voted for the three bills detailed below!) and the phone number can help with texting campaigns. South Bay JVP has been sending out email notifications of events in support of justice for Palestine taking place in the general San Jose area and can also help publicize similar events in Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay.

Editor's Note: To contact Santa Cruz Panetta Vigil, email Rick Longinotti.

CARTOON BY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

13 Desert Queens

BY WOODY REHANEK  

Clearly, the Oct. 1, 2017 Las Vegas massacre which killed 60 and wounded more than 800 loomed large in our hearts and minds then and now. I wrote the first stanzas as art therapy because I didn't know what else to do. But these fictional stories of survivors keep me engaged because I'm hoping that the wounded find paths of resilience, healing, and forgiveness in order to live fruitful and meaningful lives. Life is hard enough, but to go through something like this, or Gaza, OMG!

How do we measure buoyant lives,

thunderstorms in desert skies,

supernatural moonlit nights,

children nestled by juniper fires...

******

Magdalena was our favorite

but we knew she was in trouble

adrift in margaritas

when they pulled her from the rubble.

Magdalena left the wasteland

& rambled on the earth

writing epic tales 

about life & what it's worth.

 She read B. Traven's tales,

struck creative gold,

& found a novel voice deep

in the heart of Mexico.

******

With Lama boots & Stetson grace

Dulce learned the hard way

you never draw to an inside straight

when the shadows slice & ricochet.

Riding high in the saddle

Dulce got a lucky break.

Her silver bit & bridle

saved her from the blade.

She was gracious & grateful

long after that disaster

& finally found her footing

as an acupuncture healer.

******

Ana finally hit the point

of no return real fast

working in a roadhouse juke joint

where designer outlaws burn & crash.

Ana left the roadhouse life

& swore off juke joint bands.

One day she left it all behind

to use her healing hands.

She moved down to Ensenada,

ate exquisite tacos de pescado,

became a physical therapist,

& married a suave Chilango.

******

Susana's on the road to ruin

dumpster diving like an alley cat

often blind to what she's doing

killing time with One-Eyed Jack.

Susana tackled One-eyed Jack

& collapsed in the shadows.

They hollowed-out together

shipwrecked in the shallows.

Then one day they found a way

to rise up from the ashes;

they sweated blood in Monterey,

sheltering the homeless.

******

Esme turned to country rock

to lose herself in legends;

wandered on the boulevards

& tangled with the desert.

Esme saw the savagery 

coming through the mirror.

She wandered through the wreckage

for many restless years.

She found her voice amid white noise

& wrote ranchera songs to treasure,

of broken hearts and brand new starts

on boulevards, in deserts.

******

Young Anita nurse chameleon

versed in cowgirl camouflage

mounted up in wired heart jeans

to chase a wild west mirage.

Anita tamed her wildness

despite the odds against it.

She found a patch of desert

to grow peaches and persimmons.

Her desert patch flourished

beyond her wildest dreams;

she opened a lush Oasis School

for kids with special needs.

******

Jasmine left the straight & narrow

to paint a patch of desert varnish.

By chance she met an old vaquero

who cured her of her anguish.

Jasmine left the poseurs

who didn't have a clue.

She sorted through the rubble

to find some shreds of truth.

She traced Toltec wisdom clues 

beyond the blues & wounded 

human nature; she became

a shaman & her practice saved her.

******

The east wind played a royal flush

scarleting the blinding sun.

Juanita braved the human crush

to nurse the lost, the weak & numb.

Juanita saved vaqueras

who hemorrhaged dreams & blood.

She led them all to safety

far beyond the human crush.

She felt attached to those 

whose lives she'd saved.

They formed an a capella group,

singing sacred songs of grace.

******

Samantha was a real jewel

ghost rider wrapped in lingerie

at times she loved to play the fool

with horse thieves down in Monterey.

Samantha ghosted horse thieves,

cast off jewels & lingerie.

She worked with vet in Taos

& made art in Santa Fe.

In the red dirt pinon hills

vets learned to paint their dreams.

They watercolored chaos

& brushstroked healing scenes.

******

Angelina was a wrangler

pearl buttons on her blouse

she had a special way with horses

& lost herself in lonely crowds.

Angelina met her maker

that black Las Vegas night

another music fan

who crossed into the light.

 Her remains were brought to Mexico.

She'd always been over the moon

by serenades in Guanajuato

& its catacombs & tombs.

******

Serafina real heartbreaker

rolled the dice & split the difference

free falling into rapture

far beyond the wild blue yonder.

Serafina, she just disappeared

into the wild blue yonder.

Some say her spirit lingered near,

some say it went much farther.

Serafina found herself in San Pedro,

 Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

After skirting the edge of death

she became a renowned partera.*

******

Smith & Wesson learned a lesson

dialing in Althea.

Drew a bead upon her knee

smack between the devil & the deep blue sea.

On brand new free titanium knees

Althea chased the blues away.

In La Paz she fished the turquoise sea

for peace of mind each day.

Althea basked in peace of mind,

raising kids & catching trophy fish. 

Her stars were favorably aligned:

each day she basked in bliss.

******

Just sing like canaries in the Desert Queen mine

find sanctuary in troubled times

shape the soundtrack of our lives

& play the Queen of Diamonds one more time.



*midwife

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

Canada Goose at Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey.

.

Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report

By SARAH RINGLER

The California Department of Public Health and Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly release data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county as well as information on influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and Mpox. Since cases of Covid are still appearing, and there are still vulnerable people, I will continue reporting the graphs below.

The three graphs below were updated on Sept. 4.

The first graph is the Effective Reproductive Number. When the line rises above one, it shows that the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing. 

The second graph below shows data that the Health Department collects for Covid from wastewater at the City Influent, for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county.



The third graph below shows hospitalizations.

Photo TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street - A bicyclist rides the rocks along East Cliff Drive.

Labor History Calendar - Sept. 6-12, 2024

a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget

Sept. 6, 1869: Avondale Mine Disaster – 110 miners killed. It led to the first mine safety law in Pennsylvania.

Sept. 6, 1934: Scabs and police fire on textile strikers killing 7 in South Carolina.

Sept. 7, 1893: 2 locked-out coal miners killed while picketing in Featherstone, England. 

Sept. 7, 1993: Chemical workers occupy Crotone, Italy plant to block closing.

Sept. 8, 1909: Victory for IWWW NcKees Rock, Pennsylvania strikers.

Sept. 8, 1911: National Confederation of Labor founded in Spain.

Sept. 8, 1965: UFW begins grape boycott. 

Sept. 9, 1919: Over 1,000 Boston police strike when 19 union leaders are fired for organizing activities.

Sept. 9, 1985 – Food processing plants begin strike in Watsonville. 

Sept. 9, 1991: Canadian gov’t workers launch 8-day strike.

Sept. 9 2016: Prisoners strike across US demanding end to unpaid labor. 

Sept. 10, 1797: Pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft dies. 

Sept. 10, 1897: 19 striking coal miners killed by police in Lattimer, PA.

Sept. 11, 1925: IWW marine strike.

Sept. 11, 1973: Salvador Allende gov’t overthrown in CIA-backed coup in Chile. 

Sept. 12, 1918: Eugene Debs sentenced to 10 years for opposing war.

Sept. 12, 1932: Jobless seize food in Toledo, Ohio.

Sept. 12, 1936: IWW seamen strike to block arms shipment to France’s fascists, ISU scabs. 

Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.

It's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.

Lenny Bruce

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Cooking from the Spice Road

By SARAH RINGLER 

​Stuffed vegetables date back to the Ottoman Empire when it controlled the land on three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, in the 16th and 17th century. It lives on in the modern cooking of Turkey, Armenia,Greece and much of the Balkans.

The spices used below reflect the influences that came from the Spice Road, a vast network of trade that spanned from China to Europe and was under the control of the Ottoman sultans who took their cooking very seriously. Topkapi Palace in Istanbul for instance, was famous for its many kitchens that at one time employed 1,300 staff and fed 10,000 people a day. Chefs specialized in various dishes and also formed guilds to protect the integrity of their profession. 

​

The recipes below are from a cookbook, “Turkish Cookery” by Inci Kut. The fillings may also be used to stuff tomatoes, grape or cabbage leaves. You can leave out the meat to make a vegetarian version. Serve with pita bread and whole milk plain yogurt. I recommend Pavel's Yogurt available at Staff of Life. It has a rich and slightly sour flavor. Read the label for Pavel's fascinating story. It is made in San Leandro.

Etli Dolma Ici - meat filling

1 pound of ground meat (lamb, beef or a mix)

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium chopped onions

¾ cup uncooked rice

¾ cup of water

2 medium size fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon fresh or dry dill weed, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

3/4 cup chopped raisins

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

1 teaspoon salt 

½ teaspoon ground pepper

​Chop the onions. Heat the butter in a fry pan, add the onions and cook until onions are golden. Add the rice and continue to stir until the rice is coated with the butter and mixed in with the onions. Add ¾ cup water, cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat. 

​

Stir in the ground meat, chopped herbs, spices, tomatoes, raisins, walnuts, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust flavors. Add meat and mix well and knead with your hands for about 5 minutes.  

Stuffed bell peppers

6-8 bell peppers

4 small tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup water

Whole milk yogurt

Cut around the stems of the peppers. Save the tops. Remove the seeds and wash and drain them. 

Stuff the peppers lightly with the filling. Cover with the lids and place them side by side in a large lidded saucepan. Sprinkle with salt and olive oil. Add the water. Cover and cook for 45-60 minutes over low heat until the water is absorbed and the peppers are tender. Serve warm with plain whole milk yogurt. 

Send your story, poetry or art: Please submit a story, poem or photo of your art that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if this is a political issue. Submit to

coluyaki@gmail.com

Send comments to coluyaki@gmail.com

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Thanks, Sarah Ringler