Opinion

I was heartened to hear and see, last weekend, many are finding their way to Morgan Hill’s downtown and enjoying all it has to offer. It truly has grown, offering more to many who visit. One of the benefits of living in downtown Morgan Hill,...

In my last article, “Rediscover the lost path,” I mentioned the seven bases of mind which is the pathway to inner peace. I taught the importance of stilling our mind at the center of our body, two finger widths above the navel level. To...

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of local wines and I plan on enjoying them a lot this holiday season.My guess is that many of you who enjoy wine may not be all that familiar with our local wineries and the fact that there are over 30 of them right in our backyard. I sit in on the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley wine association’s marketing meetings and that’s not lost on them. There has been good progress made promoting the local wine region with events like the WSCV Passport Weekend and the installation of the Wine Trail signage. But it has always felt like more could be done.The WSCV is now stepping up their game and brought in a top notch wine marketing consultant to match their goals. This firm is out of the winemaking mecca of Napa, and at first blush I was thinking, “Uh oh, are we going to be molded into something else and be like some other place?” Well, I needn’t worry because the marketing consultant gave a wonderful seminar that emphasized our local wineries should continue doing what they do best: making great wines and being personable and approachable.That marketing consultant really clicked with me because he was saying that winery visitors were looking to have a good time and not get an undergraduate degree in winemaking. Traditionally many wineries seemingly wanted to impress you with talk about things like brix readings, the effect of fermenting or barrel ageing in oak (must always ask if it is French), stirring the lees and malolactic fermentation. All the stuff I want to learn about but not feel obligated to do so.Now, instead of encouraging the wineries to talk about how many months the wine spent ageing in an oak barrel, etc., the winemakers have been encouraged to just talk about what they like to eat with a particular wine or maybe tell you a funny or touching story about how a wine or their winery came about, and maybe talk about their dog. Halleluiah.This was comforting to me since I was always a little self-conscious about my wine knowledge and I can only imagine others felt that way too. So often I’ve walked into a winery and felt like I had to earn a sample by proving I was worthy. I felt like I should taste a hint of this or that and was disappointed if I couldn’t.It turns out that I never should have felt that way in our local wineries. No one was ever testing me—that was my own preconceived notion. Many of our local wineries were already practicing the fun approach to winery visits and they just wanted to see me enjoying their wine.Our local wineries are mostly small and family operated. They love the personal touch of sharing their stories and just talking about wine. And for those wine aficionados who want to get technical, most of these folks are still wine geeks at heart so chat it up.So in between the shopping, gatherings with family and friends, and generally celebrating the holidays head out to a winery for a local wine experience that’ll make you feel right at home.John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

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].