Regarding PVUSD strengthening its ties with the Latino Film Institute
To the Editor,
The Watsonville Film Festival is thrilled that this wonderful filmmaking program will continue in our local schools.
For the last two years the WFF has worked with PVUSD and Latino Film Institute to produce the Oscars Night event. It’s the culmination of the elementary and middle school students’ work with the Latino Film Institute’s Youth Cinema Project. You can support our local youth by attending the screening of their new films on May 27, 2020!
Consuelo Alba, Watsonville Film Festival Executive Director
Watsonville
•••
In regards to detention centers
To the Editor,
I write this letter in regards to the detention centers at our southern borders. Before I begin I would like everyone to reflect on what we’ve seen on the news for the past two years. Specifically, the Black Lives Matter movement. I’ve seen African Americans protesting the deaths of other African men by law enforcement. I’ve watched Mexican Americans, white Americans and other races march alongside accepting tear gas, mace and, in some cities, beatings with batons, rubber bullets and water cannons. This was occurring throughout the U.S. Even though most of the men initiated the police contact that led to their tragic deaths, you as human beings rallied behind the Black Lives Matter movement, regardless of the specific circumstances and consequences.
So I ask you this, what if those were African kids dying in these detention centers. What would Martin Luther King Jr., Huey Newton, Malcolm X, all icons in black communities, have done? It would be safe to assume that after the first death of a black child in a cage those detention centers would have been shut down, as Malcolm X would have said, “by any means necessary.” I would like to think that our native Californian Kamala Harris would have joined them, that is if she wasn’t too busy campaigning for president.
I’m not provoking violence, nor am I for open borders. I believe everyone needs and should go through the legal process. But I want you to look at the big picture, not the little picture. I’m not for innocent kids, regardless of race, color or creed, dying in some cage in a foreign country without their parents.
Regardless of your position on border security, I’m really confident that we all agree that the harmless children are not the problem, the detention centers and our federal elected officials are the problems, they both need to disappear.
I recently read that the count is at four — yes four — children that have died in a cage in the “Land of the Free.” As I speak, I know that Cesar Chavez is mad as hell in his grave, not only at the federal government but at us as Mexican Americans as well. “All Children’s Lives Matter.” Que No?
Vicente Soto Marquez
Soledad State Prison
•••
Criminal in the Oval Office
To the Editor,
In a recent discussion on MSNBC relative to Donald Trump and money paid to two women with whom he had relationships, ostensibly to keep them from damaging his run for the presidency (buying their silence), one person suggested that perhaps Trump was not aware that he would be participating in an illegal act. If my memory serves me correctly, my understanding has been that ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And we are hearing most every day that “no man is above the law.” So, what is the hold-up?
We also often hear that “a sitting president cannot be indicated” which is a statement of questionable validity. Is it possible that my understanding of the law is outdated? If not, then please, let’s get to the truth and get on with it.
These happenings are not the only violations of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law. Criminals can be found in so many positions of power. Two sexual deviants, one of them a rapist, are sitting at the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court. Thankfully, never before have we had such a crooked individual in the Oval Office.
Thomas Stumbaugh
Aptos
•••
The Pajaronian welcomes letters. Letters and columns may be dropped off or mailed to the Pajaronian, 21 Brennan St., Suite 18, Watsonville, CA 95076. Letters and columns may also be sent via email to ne******@pa********.com. Letters should be less than 300 words, and columns are no more than 700 words. All letters and columns must be signed and have an address and phone number for confirmation purposes. We reserve the right to edit and condense all submissions.
