Guest View

It has been just over two years since Valley Water broke ground at Anderson Dam with the promise to protect the public and secure Santa Clara County’s water supply. Since then, our agency has made tremendous progress on this vital public safety and water...

John McKay’s avocation for an “not perfect” Measure S is exactly the reason it should be rejected. It is this imperfection wrapped around vague and ambiguous language that leaves the measure open to interpretation. If passed, the measure at best will likely end up in the courts, resulting is costly and unnecessary litigation. At worst, it could lead to the destruction of our precious open spaces.For example, John cites in his article that 300 agricultural units can be set aside in Morgan Hill’s “developable areas” for preservation. But John, how do you define “developable?” As a Planning Commissioner, you know that when we define lands and boundaries we use terms such as the UGB (Urban Growth Boundary), City Limits or Sphere of influence, etc. These are legal terms. They are well known and there are maps with lines that define them. But none of these terms are used in the measure. Instead, we find the term, “developable lands.” All lands are developable and that includes county farm and agricultural lands. And therein lies the problem.The city has already spent over a decade in an effort to develop county farm and agricultural lands at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to be rejected by the state regulatory agency—not once, but twice. There is good reason to distrust the ambiguity of the measure as a continued pursuit to pave over our open spaces.John’s article fails to mention that those 300 agricultural units are specifically identified for housing, encouraging urban sprawl and untold costs to our community. And again, I have to ask, what is a unit?Measure S doesn’t solve problems, it creates them. It is labeled to “conserve water and preserve open space,” but it does none of that. Measure S is a “smoke and mirrors” effort to undermine our slow growth policies and encourage excessive development.If you discount that, just look at where our pro-growth incumbents are getting their campaign funding: real estate companies, landowners and developers. Councilmember Marilyn Librers, the strongest advocate for sprawl, received $3,000 alone from a Cupertino developer with land interests and projects in Morgan Hill.John, you want facts, and so do I. But the wording in Measure S lacks factual language and likely by intent. It deserves a NO vote until it can be rewritten clearly and factually. Your comment that it is not perfect is correct and we agree but no measure such as this should have ever have been brought before the community unless it is openly clear as to its intent and impacts.Mark Grzan is a former Morgan Hill City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tempore. 

As part of a nationwide protest through Families Belong Together, we, the members of SURJ South County (Showing Up for Racial Justice) are hosting a rally, march and day of action on Saturday, June 30, 9 to 11am along with local civic leaders, community organizers, activists and concerned citizens, at the Community and Cultural Center (17000 Monterey Road) in Morgan Hill.This movement is to let the Trump administration know that we do not agree with their policies and efforts to separate families at our borders. We also want to let immigrant members of our community know that we stand behind them and will do whatever we can to support them.This president believes that our country can inflict the trauma of separation on children without recourse. We need him to know that we stand with all families in America. Our members are rallying and marching until we no longer have a President Trump because we believe every child is a gift to this world with limitless possibilities.We are appalled by the actions taken by our government. These families have been through so much to reach our borders. They deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. As a country we need to do better than this.Our members intend to speak up as much as possible about what we see as the unraveling of America right now. Among our group are immigrants who came to this country and were welcomed and made to feel at home. We want that hand extended to others, especially those in need of a safe harbor. Isolating children from adults who care for them is the worst torture we can imagine.We feel it’s important that voices from communities both small and large—rural and urban—will be joining with those across the United States who are also protesting the federal government’s atrocities against families along our borders.We will also be registering voters, because we want to remind people that America is supposed to be a democracy and we all need to use our voting voice.Many of us are parents of children as young as those being ripped apart at our borders. We can’t and won’t stop thinking of the more than 2,000 children separated from their families by the Trump administration. We are horrified at the lack of plans in place to reunite the children with their parents. This all happened on our watch. History has its eyes on all of us.Our rally is a start to ask: What are we going to do to correct this injustice? What can we as a community do to fight against centuries of injustice and to prevent further injustices from occurring? Our families will stand together with the families affected to say “¡Ya basta!. Enough!'Join us.This guest view was written by SURJ members Katie McGinty Ruiz, Gemma Abels and Jenny Kirchoff. For more information about the June 30 rally, visit facebook.com/events/445428659203124

Forty years ago I had one of my earliest “calls” or moments imagining my future as a rabbi. I grew up in New Jersey in an observant Reform Jewish home. In the summer of 1982, I was a participant in a Reform Jewish social action...

After the November 2016 election, many of us in this community watched in horror as hate crimes against people of color and Jewish people began to rise. The reputable Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracked such events, rolled out a terrifying monthly toll that climbed and climbed.Rather than sit feeling helpless, a group of us felt moved to act as so many others in our community have already done. SURJ—Showing Up For Racial Justice—is a national group that organized after Barack Obama’s election drew intense, overt racism out of the woodwork, with the belief that it is up to white people to dismantle racism—specifically white supremacy.We started a local chapter, SURJ South County, to carry on SURJ National’s mission. We do not wish to be seen as “white saviors,” but rather to educate ourselves and others about the injustices against people of color, past and present, to bring awareness to the ways in which systems of oppression work against thriving communities and to hold ourselves accountable for change.We build upon the efforts of our local accountability partners, who have already been doing important, related work, like SIREN, CARAS, Indivisible South Valley, The Interfaith Council, The Learning and Loving Center, and more. We rally together with those targeted by systems of oppression. Not only do we hope to counter, with education and love, the agenda of hate that some feel emboldened to enact, we recognize that this country is founded on a history of white supremacy, violence and aggression against people of color, including the Native Americans whose lands were stolen and lives torn asunder.Since our group is not solely comprised of white folks, SURJ South County took liberties with SURJ National’s mission statement: we are a local group of individuals organizing people for racial justice. SURJ promotes all people acting as part of a multiracial society for social justice with passion and accountability.Our group also acknowledges the intersectionality of the ways in which systems of oppression affect marginalized groups (based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability/disability status, and more). SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.      So if you see us standing holding signs on the street corners in defense of DACA, the “Dreamer” act, or in solidarity with any person of color who has suffered as a result of this system, know that we are here to say, as Australian Aboriginal activist Lila Watson stated so eloquently, “If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time…But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."SURJ South County will host a screening of the documentary “13th,” about how mass incarceration of people of color is a modern form of slavery, at the Morgan Hill Library, 660 W. Main Ave., with guest speakers after, from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 15.For more information, email Morgan Hill resident Jordan Rosenfeld at [email protected].