Work of a Tiny Bird

By KATHLEEN KILPATRICK

The Time of the Yellow Flowers

Is full on, peaked, already

Reds, and pinks, and purples

Have crept in, or continued,

Poppies now blare orange

In weedy ways.

Hummingbird perches,

Atop the bare, pruned vine,

His castle of dominion,

Fretful, impatient, 

For buds to swell,

First for leafy cover,

Shared with other birds

Not of his kind, unless

Perhaps a mate.

Daily displays of vigilance,

‘Til finally, that violent, titian

Display of nectar

In turf he spent the winter

Protecting and defending.

PHOTO BY KATHLEEN KILPATRICK

POSTER FROM SOLIDARITYINFOSERVICE

The information above was provided by the Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice and memes from SolidarityINFOService. For information on the Bay Area LC4PJ, email HERE.

Santa Cruz County BDS Week of Action

By PALESTINIANSOLIDARITYCENTRALCOAST

In the month of March, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, is calling on grassroots organizations to hold a week of action that highlights BDS as a powerful tool in the Palestinian liberation struggle against Israel’s decades-old regime of settler colonialism and apartheid. Right now, as each day sees an intensifying U.S.-backed Israeli genocide waged against Palestinians, taking action is more urgent than ever.

So, join us for Santa Cruz County week of action from March 23-30. Each of these eight days will highlight a different aspect of local BDS work, starting with a virtual teach-in on March 23 at 1pm and ending with a march on March 30 at 3:30pm in downtown Santa Cruz. 

This week of action is organized by Palestian Solidarity Central Coast, PSCC, with support from our local coalition partners: Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCSC, Jews Against White Supremacy (UCSC chapter), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA, Santa Cruz chapter), and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ, Santa Cruz chapter).

You can register for Saturday's virtual teach-in right now HERE. Entitled "How We Win: The Power of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) in Liberation Struggles from South Africa to Palestine," the teach-in will include the following brilliant speakers: Professor Xavier Livermon, Catherine Elias, Professor Stephen Zunes, Dov Baum, Samir Eskanda, Isabel Kain, and Professor Christine Hong. Learn more about the teach-in and sign up HERE.

Stay tuned on Instagram and here on our email list for daily updates and action items. Until Palestine is free.

Help Us Weather the Storm

BY DAVID BLUME

PHOTO DAVID BLUME We lost the sales of the whole year’s crop — but we didn’t actually lose the crop. In the same way that you can make a lot of potatoes by planting a single sprouting potato, we harvested and replanted the 14 tons of very healthy, and a-bit-too-willing-to-grow, turmeric roots in early 2023.

Can you help us keep Whiskey Hill Farms going? We’ve put together some unique and appealing premiums to tempt you to help us. Your donation could be eligible to sponsor trips, workshops, and classes, or to earn a Whiskey Hill Farms work experience day, for yourself and friends, or a discussion with Dave.

A consortium to fund the farm through this current crisis and beyond has been formed to do just that. For information on the consortium, Agricultural Investments LLC, you can contact Dirk Coldewey at (831) 246-2455.

Donate via the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Your qualified donations are tax-deductible under the generous sponsorship of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. We are aiming to retire the Farm debt and establish an agricultural easement to keep the Farm from real estate development forever. Any size donation is very welcome.

Whether you can make a direct financial contribution or not, you can still be a big help. Learn more about ways you can get involved with what Whiskey Hill Farms is doing.

“Bucky’s quote was ‘make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone’ — and Dave Blume is one of the top people in the world that’s ever truly made that come true.” George Orbelian, Board Member at the Buckminster Fuller Institute, fiscal sponsor of Whiskey Hill Farms

We All Go...... 

BY SARAH RINGLER

CARTOON BY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

Watsonville Community Members for Public Restrooms is asking Watsonville and the Parks Department to provide and maintain bathrooms that are open 24 hours a day at Callaghan, Marinovich, Muzzio and River parks now. New bathrooms need to be added to other parks in the future. Four bathrooms for 53,000 people is not enough. 

How many people don’t go out for walks, runs, or bike rides because there aren’t bathrooms? When you are out in the community, you need clean drinking water and safe places to wash up and use the facilities. Everyone does.

This isn't just a Watsonville problem either. Two bathrooms at the foot of the wharf in Santa Cruz were closed last week. One had a sign directing people to another restroom 200 feet away that was also cloese.

If you agree, contact the City Council and Parks Commission in your town. In Watsonville, contact the Watsonville City Council at 768-3040, Watsonville City Manager at 768-3010 and the Watsonville City Parks and Recreation Commission at 768-3240. weallgowatsonville@gmail.com

Santiago & His Onyx Birds

BY WOODY REHANEK

"I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins."

--Psalm 102:6

Santiago lived in a cinderblock shack

carving wind chimes at Rancho San Simon.

He surrendered himself to the stonecutter's craft

seeking the light in amber & the rose in stone.

He joked that he was a shipwrecked sailor

since Baja resembles a sea without water.

Gravitas & patience were his working companions.

"Everything in its own time," he said.

Santiago lived slowly, without regret 

in a future unforeseeable.

He prayed to the Virgen de Guadalupe

when destiny dealt him obstacles.

El Marmol mine was miles away

where he found the minerals free.

The veins lay open on the surface.

Some things came to him easily.

The time was ripe for his artist's life

as a desert owl among the ruins.

He hunted scraps at the onyx mine

imparting stones with movement.

His onyx was alive with colors:

Barcelona gold, vanilla, flamenco red,

crisscross veins of cinnamon & amber.

Santiago listened to what stones said.

Each was a map of the desert.

He fastened things with fishing string

& made his shop a place to gather.

The dry wind stirred his onyx birds,

blending crystal songs together.

One day he left without a trace

with his vintage flock of onyx birds.

Some say he left for Mulege

or wandered somewhere far from Earth.

We bought his work & brought it home

to our patio & garden.

Santiago unlocked songs in stone

that were long forgotten.

Now they drift like displaced desert owls

among the ruins of homeless camps

beside the still waters

on the riverbanks 

of America. 

************

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

A long-billed curlew works the shoreline at the Moss Landing Harbor.

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.

At-home Covid-19 test kits are currently available at the Watsonville Public Library, Main St.

The three graphs below were updated on March 20. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing. 

The third 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 fourth graph below shows hospitalizations.



The vaccination data for the county has stayed fairly constant increasing very little over time. Go HERE for new information on vaccination records, treatments, vaccines, tests, safety in the workplace and more.

Photo Tarmo Hannula

Fashion Street - A typical day on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Anniversary - March 25, 1911

One of the deadliest industrial disasters in US history, 146, mostly immigrant garment workers, died from fire, smoke inhalation, or fallling or jumping to their deaths because exits and stairwells had been blocked to keep workers on the factory floor. The factory was located on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors at 23-29 Washington Place near Washington Square Park in New York City.

Labor History Calendar - March 22-28, 2024

a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget

March 21, 1960: Sharpeville massacre in South Africa; 69 killed by police.

March 22, 1995: Japanese phone workers strike to protest down-sizing and piece-work.

March 22, 2014: Spanish workers in massive protests against austerity schemes.

March 23, 1903: Scab-herders open fire on striking beet workers in Oxnard, CA.

March 23, 1918: Trial of 101 IWW’s begins.

March 23, 1932: Norris, La Guardia Act restricts injunctions against unions and bans yellow dog contracts.

March 24, 1976: Coca-Cola workers occupy Guatemala City plant.

March 25, 1873: Rudolf Rocker, German labor activist, born.

March 25, 1894: First Poor Peoples’ March on Washington.

March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist fire kills 146 workers locked in by New York City boss.

March 26, 1850: Birth of Edward Bellamy, author of Looking Backward.

March 26, 2011: Maine governor orders labor history mural dismantled.

March 27, 1885: Army fires on general strikers in Charleroi, Belgium, killing many.

March 28, 1877: Vancouver Island’s first coal Miners’ Union.

March 28, 1983: 96% of Argentinian workers strike; junta totters.

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

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.

Cornell West

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Asian Fusion Tofu and Noodles

By SARAH RINGLER 

Escondido, in North San Diego County, has many great places to eat. I wouldn’t have known about it except that my sister and brother-in-law live in the area and we often go out to eat when I come to visit.

If you are a beer lover, which I am not, you may have heard of Arrogant Bastard Ale. It comes from the Stone’s Brewing Company and is set up in the hills above Escondido. The modern steel, glass and wood architecture sits low and was designed to blend in with the chaparral brush. The complex includes a brewery, shop, bistro and garden to stroll around. I had a dish very similar to this one on their Vegetarian Night. 

I hate to send you to the store, and don’t feel you need to, but to get really thin julienned slices of carrots, it really helps to have a device. You can lose the tips of your fingers trying to do this with a knife. I bought the Norpro Grip-Ex ‘Y Julienne Slicer at Chefworks in downtown Santa Cruz. You can buy the miso, soba, sake and pickled ginger at Staff of Life. 



It is the sauce that really makes these noodles sing. The salted nuts add crunchiness and texture and the pickled ginger adds more flavor than the fresh variety. 

Tofu Soba

8 ounces soba noodles

8 ounces firm tofu, cut into 3/4” cubes

3 tablespoons vegetable oil in all

1 tablespoon chili flakes

3 tablespoons sushi style pickled ginger

2/3 cup chopped green onions

¼ cup black and white sesame seeds – mixed or white only

4 cups cabbage cut into 1” squares

1 cup thinly sliced juilienned carrots

1/3 cup chopped salted cashews or pistachios

Red miso sauce:

6 tablespoons dark red miso – Sendai

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons sake

2 tablespoons water

Rinse the tofu in fresh water and pat dry. Cut into cubes about 3/4 inch square. Heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat in a medium sized frying pan. When the oil is hot, throw in the tofu. Use a spatula to turn the cubes so they cook on all sides. When the tofu is slightly golden but not dried out, add the chili flakes and sprinkle some salt over the tofu. Mix well and cook a bit more. Then set aside. 

Cook the soba according to the recipe on the package. When done, drain and rinse in cold water to keep from sticking. Set aside.

 Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small cup. Stir well to make a thick sauce. 

Put the sesame seeds in a pie pan and toast for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees. The seeds are done when they are golden brown. Set aside. 

Chop all your vegetables and nuts. 

When you are ready, get out a wok or a large frying pan. Put the frying pan on medium high heat. Add the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the cabbage and the carrots. Stir and cook. Then add the green onions.  When the vegetables are done but still firm, add the sesame seeds and pickled ginger. Then mix in the soba. Turn to mix the ingredients together. Finally stir in the sauce and continue to mix. Finally, move to a serving plate. Sprinkle the nuts over the top. Serve.

Send your story, poetry or art here: 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

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Thanks, Sarah Ringler

Welcome to Serf City Times Our county has problems and many people feel left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer. 

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