Guest View

Can you hear me now?Listen up. There’s an event happening in America that’s sweeping children and teenagers’ lives that’s causing deafness. It’s been happening for the past 25 years. It’s not a virus; it’s a socially accepted technologically driven addition conveniently made available. Communication devices for school learning and online testing, and music enjoyment are being strapped to the ears of youths from kindergarten through college and beyond that is deafening Americans.Your children are at risk. Oh, it’s less than the CDC recommendations of 85 db, you might convince yourself. And I’ve purchased a limiting feature, so I’m covered. Ah, strapping those headphones on your little children’s’ ears sends a message to them that it’s OK to listen in this manner. When they become stubborn, independent teens with the newest earbud and listening device marketed to us, “Mom’s nowhere in sight, hearing this piece of music loud is fantastic!” Oh, yes it is. This is how the deafening of our children occurs. It’s gradual.My first son started using headphones as early as 6 years old in 1992 and continued through high school with each advancing music device marketed—new headphones, new earbuds, loud music listening occurred at school, on the school bus and in his bedroom. The devastating announcement made to me from the audiologist with my 15-year-old son sitting in the doctor’s office went like this: “I’m sorry to tell you, but your son has considerable hearing loss, and it’s permanent and he should never use headphones again, because it just furthers his hearing decline.”Then the ENT doctor went on to tell me that sound should never be delivered next to the human ear, because it wears the ear out and causes deafness.One thing had changed since I grew up—the loud music coming from our bedroom stereos is now turned inward, pumped right into the ear canals of my sons, and I didn’t hear a thing.Sneaky little devils, aren’t they? The way a new device is marketed to us under the fantastic name of “technological advancement?’’One thing has not changed though—our human ears. Our ears are not built to receive sound close to the ear for repeated periods and at loud volumes. Irreparable hearing damage occurs and only worsens with aging. Hearing loss is cumulative, and most people, including my teenagers, had to be dragged to the auditory specialists for a hearing test.  When was the last time you had a hearing test? Mine was two years ago and I have hearing losses due to living with the abundant increase in listening devices due to the onslaught of technology, loud concert music events (oh, I loved those!), and loud movie theaters.I recently took my 5-year-old to the local theatre and he complained, “This is too loud Mom, I do not want to go back!”The tears of mothers dwell in rivers. My first son, soon to turn 29, has deafness caused by technology’s great advancement of headphones and earbuds. Your child came into this world new and wonderful. Isn’t it our responsibility to keep them safe and as healthy as possible?Please take some time to read the facts that no one is talking about. If we ignore JAMA’s (Journal of American Medical Association) current data studies and doctors’ recommendations, then in the future, are we going to ignore the educated recommendations of the very children we are currently educating? If a glass of water is poison, is teaching our children to take small frequent sips of it still okay?I hope you gain some insight from my experience and these medical facts, so you can make an informed decision about whether you want to begin your child’s hearing loss or not.  Sincerely,Carol SternMorgan Hill

I grew up on a prune ranch on Fisher Avenue bought in the 1930s by my immigrant grandparents, Gataeno and Anna Forestieri. My first job was picking 10 boxes of prunes to buy a lunch box when starting kindergarten. The year was 1960.My brother Steve and I worked summers, weekends and part-time jobs. My parents were adamant that farming was not a feasible career for us. Steve and I found other careers—an engineer and court reporter, respectively.Morgan Hill is a town rich in history, and my father helped build that image and was appointed to the Federal Prune Administrative Committee by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland in 1980.You must understand the past to see the future. The freeway placement, which my father Duke Forestieri fought, cut off our land to the west. Dad took on other people's orchards to make ends meet for our family. He also pursued the idea of moving to Yuba County where prune farming was beginning. My father's love of Morgan Hill instead kept him here. He continued to sharecrop but as Yuba County's production increased, it drove the price of prunes down everywhere—including in Morgan Hill.The cost of farming escalated in the Valley, as more and more restrictions were enacted, utility costs increased, and labor for harvesting became harder to find even though my dad paid top dollar and provided free housing for the seasonal workers.  My dad's health began to spiral downward in his mid-70s. He gave up sharecropping and farmed only his land and the next door neighbor's..The pioneer farmers did not have stock options or golden handshakes; they had their families and their land. Dad joined others in working with the city in the 90s and early 2000s to carve out a plan for the pioneer farmers and include the needs of a growing Morgan Hill. Before he died in 2011, this plan was taking shape and he told me, “It lets people enjoy using our land, not just looking at it as they drive by, but to walk on it, play on it".This  final plan has been worked on for over 15 years. It provides an area where kids who cannot afford traveling teams can improve their skills in many sports and have a better chance at the coveted spots on the high school teams.It will provide a place for community sponsored events, where families can afford the tickets for the whole family.  If this cohesive plan is not put into place, landowners will go their own way, creating a haphazard tapestry for financial survival, which will not enrich our children's lives or improve the landscape.I firmly support this plan for the SEQ.Editor’s note: The Southeast Quadrant/Sports-Recreation-Leisure Urban Service Area expansion plan will be considered for approval at the March 11 meeting of the Local Agency Formation Commission. For more information, visit morganhilltimes.com or santaclaralafco.org.

This guest view is part of a periodic series of upcoming op-eds on tips to prepare for wildfire season, which started May 1 in Santa Clara County.Most people believe that wildfires ignite homes through direct contact with flames, but it is rare to have a home ignite this way. Flaming brands and embers can travel a mile or more ahead of the active front of a wildfire, and up to 60 percent of wildland/urban interface home ignitions result from embers.Your home could be at risk. Make changes now to reduce the ember threat to your home. Clean out debris from under your deck, and move woodpiles away from your house.Our “Ember Aware” campaign is intended to educate people on the risks of ember cast and the actions they can take to reduce those risks, to encourage residents to harden their homes against embers and/or to maintain those ember-resistant features, and to practice ember-safe housekeeping and landscaping. You can learn more at emberaware.comTip #3: Chuck that woodHow much wood could a woodchuck chuck? If he lived in one of California’s high fire hazard areas, he should chuck all of it at least 30 feet from his home.One of the most common ember hazards homeowners create is the placement of firewood stacks next to their home. During a wildfire, hundreds of burning embers could become lodged within the stack. The dry, high winds that often accompany wildfire can fan the embers and cause ignition. Once burning, the firewood stack can jeopardize just about any home, regardless of construction material, because of its ability to ignite combustible siding, provide a flaming exposure to windows and break the glass, or climb to the eave and possibly enter into the attic.Firewood should be stored at least 30 feet from the house, deck and other structures during fire season. If the firewood stack is located uphill, make sure burning logs won’t roll downhill and ignite the home. Don’t place the stack under tree branches or adjacent to wood fences that are connected to the house. Don’t let your firewood stack be the kindling for your house fire.Fire Marshal Dwight Good serves the Morgan Hill Fire Department and South Santa Clara County Fire Protection District and the CalFire Santa Clara Unit. He has 24 years of fire service experience. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Regulations issued by President Donald Trump to Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices are chilling.All undocumented people working and living in the U.S. are now legally deportable. This includes not only “the bad guys” with criminal records but millions of hard-working, taxpaying undocumented immigrants who have contributed greatly to the economy of this country.All people in this country have constitutional rights. Trump’s goal is to take away the right to a hearing in preparation for mass deportations. He has increased the budget for Homeland Security to $3 billion from our taxes. He has expanded the number of ICE agents to 25,000 on the border. Thirty percent of these are veterans of the war in Iraq who were trained to kill, not to arrest and deport.“Expedited removal” is the law allowing ICE to pick up and deport without giving access to a hearing or a lawyer. Under former President Barack Obama, expedited removals were limited to those caught within two miles of the Mexican border. Now, there are no limits. All can be deported wherever they are found, and if they cannot prove they have been here for eight years (on the spot), they can be deported with no legal hearing.  Two-thirds of those detained are not able to access lawyers. Those who can afford a lawyer or have access to legal aid have seven times the opportunity to be released from detention.The movement by city police chiefs to disassociate from any cooperation with ICE is admirable. In a raid several weeks ago in Santa Cruz, ICE agents lied to local police when they promised they had warrants. During the raid, they emptied an entire apartment building and detained law abiding, innocent people who were there. The mayor and police chief apologized to the community and said it would not happen again.ICE has also misrepresented themselves as “police officers,” and thus gained access to homes where they could not enter without a warrant. They question people who do not know their rights and get them to sign them away.The state of California is asking for regular reports on their raids and the daily publication of people detained, which ICE has refused to do. These refusals by ICE are illegal.What can we do to help the terrified undocumented in our area? Having the police pledge not to cooperate with ICE is one step. Educating the people who are frightened about their rights is a priority. We can arrange for public Know Your Rights workshops through Siren and the Asian Law Center. We can educate ourselves to educate all the undocumented we know or meet.   Can we organize to form groups that will intercept these ICE raids? Nothing works better than bad publicity from newspapers and radio stations.Which churches and homes in our areas will be willing to be sanctuary places for a family? Have we educated our teachers and principals about ICE coming to schools?If we work together in true community we can bring back constitutional rights to all.Natasha Wist is a former school psychologist and family therapist with 31 years experience. Since retiring, she has volunteered teaching immigrant women in Morgan Hill. For many years, she has been active in peace and justice movements in Morgan Hill and San Jose.

Summer break just ended for youth across California. Some children savored the opportunity to participate in sports leagues, attend camps with friends or travel to new places. But for many other children, staying physically fit and academically motivated this summer was a real challenge.During the months of summer vacation, research indicates that, on average, children fall one month behind where they left off academically in the spring. This loss in learning during the summer impacts disadvantaged children the most, accounting for as much as two-thirds of the total gap in their academic achievement compared with their more advantaged peers.While falling behind academically during the summer, children also put on additional weight—equal to half the total weight gain acquired during the entire year.Currently, more than 70 percent of Americans age 17 to 24 cannot serve in the military, primarily because they are too poorly educated, are overweight or have a criminal record. As a retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General and a member of the nonprofit organization Mission: Readiness, I consider this a matter of national security.The good news is high-quality summer learning programs in our neighborhoods successfully blend academic instruction and other enrichment opportunities for youth. Programs like Building Futures Now (BFN) offer a five-week session to help narrow the achievement gap and prepare students for school in the fall. BFN focuses on students’ potential and offers intensive methods that improve students’ math, reading and writing skills, while balancing activities that are enriching and fun.Healthy meals and proper hydration are also key components to the program, and students are provided a selection of fresh fruits and nutritious meals to pick from daily.There are key challenges to programs like BFN. Many lack physical space required for students to engage in the 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity that’s recommended on a daily basis. Further, the costs of running quality programs continue to outpace funding.The state’s After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program supports quality after-school and summer learning across the state, serving hundreds of thousands of students each year. Hundreds of students remain on their waiting lists. Yet, since 2007 the California consumer performance index (CPI) has increased by 19 percent and the state minimum wage has increased 33 percent, while the ASES daily funding has remained at $7.50 per student per day.Due to funding issues, a majority of programs have cut staff hours and reduced services. Each of us can do our part by urging community leaders and public officials to advocate for additional resources for quality summer learning programs.Many school districts are already planning for next year’s programming and we must ensure that the summer of 2017 is not a season of brain drain and weight gain. Providing youth with effective ways to improve their academic skills and stay physically active during summer is just common sense, and will ensure they lead healthier, more productive lives.Jeffrey Lawson is a retired Brigadier General, U.S. Air Force and a Morgan Hill resident.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is not new. Society has struggled with its existence and its damaging impacts throughout history. In 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) became a cornerstone of federal anti-trafficking legislation to prosecute traffickers, prevent trafficking crimes and protect victims. TVPA recognizes there is no such thing as a “child prostitute,” and children cannot consent to sexual activity, much less the illegal act of prostitution/commercial sex.