Cleaning up Cowell Beach

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Don Miller

Cowell Beach, Santa Cruz/Sentinel photo by Shmuel Thaler

The Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial for May 24, 2013:

The annual Heal the Bay beach report card was released Thursday and it was not especially good news for Santa Cruz County, a place that prides itself on 29 miles of coastline protected within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The report targeted popular Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz, once again ranked one of the most polluted in California. According to the report, the number of A or B grades given to local beaches from Natural Bridges State Beach downcoast to Rio del Mar Beach during wet weather conditions was “dramatically lower this past year,” with only 3 of 12 locations receiving A or B grades compared to 10 last year. Dry — summer — weather grades were much better with 10 of 13 beaches in the county receiving A grades. Only Capitola Beach, west of the jetty and impacted by Soquel Creek, which scored a C grade during the period, and Cowell, which received an F, were outliers.

Cowell, west of the Municipal Wharf and Main Beach, and fronting the city’s top tourist hotel, made the Beach Bummer 10 worst list for the fourth consecutive year — ranking the past two years as the second most polluted spot on the entire coast.

Heal the Bay noted that researchers from Stanford University tracking sources leading to poor water quality at Cowell found a buried pipe in the sand that contained high levels of human-associated bacteria. The bacteria source was tracked to a toilet in an apartment building, flushing directly into the storm drain.

“Other likely sources of pollution include open defecation from a prevalent homeless population and a large bird population at the wharf,” said the report.

The city of Santa Cruz is obviously sensitive that a popular stretch of local beach has received bad water quality ratings in a nationally publicized report.Which explains why the city issued a press release this week before the Heal the Bay report came out. Better to get out in front of the message rather than fend off worried questions from the tourism industry.

Using money from 2008’s voter approved Measure E, the city has been spending money directed to clean up beach pollution by removing trash, educating the public about the issue, covering trash receptacles on the Wharf, diverting runoff during summer months to the wastewater treatment plant, sweeping the wharf daily with a new street sweeper and sifting and raking Cowell and Main Beach regularly.

Heal the Bay also notes the city is implementing an RV parking permit program to cut down on illegal waste disposal from campers, working to address the longstanding issue of illegal encampments and surveying and retrofitting sewer lateral pipes to protect against harmful sewage discharges.

While for years it was believed the pollution at Cowell stemmed mainly from decomposing kelp and bird waste, the issue seems more complicated. Last month, the City Council held a special study session to identify sources of pollution at Cowell. The council also approved a curfew that made Cowell off limits from midnight to an hour before sunrise — after a torrent of complaints about crime, drug use and sales, illegal camping, discarded needles and human waste at a tourist beach used by surf schools, the popular junior lifeguards program and hotel guests. The city also filled a cave where drug users were hanging out and installed bright lights outside restrooms and under the wharf, both reported to be centers of criminal activity.

And while this year’s report did not reflect much progress at Cowell, we think Santa Cruz is responding to the problem and cleaner days are on the horizon.

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Santa Cruz traffic: Breaking the gridlock

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Don Miller

From the Sentinel Opinion page;  the May 16, 2013 Editorial:

La Fonda Bridge under construction over Highway 1/Shmuel Thaler, Sentinel

 

 

Bridges are all the topic these days.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s the Bay Bridge — or rather the snapped steel bolts and possible delay in the scheduled Sept. 3 opening of the $6.4 billion span.

Along Highway 1, it’s the skeletal structure forming across Highway 1 — the new La Fonda Bridge that replaces the old structure torn down last summer as part of the $21 million auxiliary lanes widening project managed by the county Regional Transportation Commission.

In the city of Santa Cruz, talk this week was about building a new bridge over the San Lorenzo River to help alleviate traffic gridlock at the infamous intersection of highways 1 and 9 and River Street.

On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council voted unanimously to keep after state transportation officials to fund a new bridge, which would replace the existing 57-year-old structure and add one traffic lane on the southbound side, two lanes on the northbound side and remove a center pier that can collect logs and other debris when the river is in high flow.

Although in the end he voted for keeping the proposal viable, Councilman Micah Posner took some flak for his comment that past councils “rarely” got behind “capacity increasing projects” and that adding lanes would do just that.

Which, of course, is exactly the point.

We’ll stay away from his exchange with Councilwoman Pamela Comstock over an email campaign that bicycling advocate Posner seemed to solicit by suggesting the purpose behind widening would be to attract a new big box store for the Harvey West area, perhaps even a WalMart. The council has stated it wants the city to explore bringing another large retailer to the area, without naming a specific company.

Also put aside, for a moment, the almost revolutionary shift in thinking after previous councils have put up roadblocks to such common-sense solutions as widening Highway 1 outside city limits — and consider just how bad this intersection is, day in, day out.

The intersection is one of two primary gateways from the east or north into the city. It handles university traffic. Vehicles into Harvey West. Drivers trying to reach or leave Costco, Plantronics, the Tannery Arts Center and the county education offices. Buses. Bikes.  Tourists. The homeless services complex. Anyone trying to get downtown or to Mission Street.

Encourage more vehicle traffic? Guess what? That traffic — more than 60,000 cars a day in 2011 according to Caltrans statistics — was “encouraged” years ago and now people just get discouraged by the endless bottlenecks. Nothing environmentally sound about thousands of cars idling away trying to get through the intersection.

Caltrans officials, for their part, expressed discouragement years ago, when city reluctance to rally behind major traffic improvements sent planners off in search of projects communities actually supported. Business owners, residents and commuters, though, remember the maddening day in November 2009 when a water main broke and the intersection was completely shut down, trapping motorists for several hours. Just a couple of months before, a pedestrian accident also resulted in motorists being stranded in gridlock for hours at the intersection. City economic development officials have long noted the main question they get from businesses they either want to retain or bring to Santa Cruz is what will be done about the intersection.

Will Caltrans, which has jurisdiction over the two state highways, move the project up through its own funding bottleneck, and will the RTC be able to help? The first step seems underway to making that happen. Keep up the pressure.

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The Santa Cruz Sentinel’s historic achievement

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Don Miller

Sentinel City Editor Julie Copeland and Editor Don Miller at CNPA award ceremony, Universal City

 

OK — there’s been so much negative stuff surrounding newspapers (much of it self inflicted by the way), that I’m going to step out from any feigned posture of humility and toot our, the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s, horn for a fleeting moment.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel was voted by our peers the best newspaper in the entire state between 15,000-35,000 daily print circulation for the year 2012 at the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association annual even in Universal City (LA) Saturday. Since the Sentinel is about 24,000 circulation, you can see that we were up against significantly bigger papers. “General Excellence” was the name of the award, and it’s the most prestigious that CNPA bestows.

This marks an unprecedented second time in three years we’ve won General Excellence — after NEVER winning it in our first 154 years of publishing.

Here’s what CNPA had to say in giving us the award:

“The Santa Cruz Sentinel has in general compelling stories on the front page that were very effective. This is a paper that reaches high (!!!!). Editorial page has a local focus. Very effective use of photos — great one of mom after shooting and junior lifeguards inside, as well as “home” illustration of seats being painted. Good for you in covering the Olympics in London. Arts secton — ‘The Guide’ — was great!”

Features Editor Marc DesJardins’ entries for “Lifestyle Coverage” won first place as well.

I’d like to personally thank all our news team for their work and commitment over the year that led to this honor (and I know they’ve had to work through some difficult circumstances):

City Editor Julie Copeland and Assistant CE Don Fukui, Sports Editor Julie Jag, Marc DesJardins, Copy Desk Chief Brian Pifer, Online Editor Tom Moore — and our talented reporting staff: Jondi Gumz, Donna Jones, Jim Brown (second place winner for environmental coverage), Jason Hoppin, Stephen Baxter, Shanna McCord, Bonnie Horgos, Jim Seimas and Andrew Matheson, along with many wonderful and valuable part timers and correspondents. Our talented photographers Dan Coyro, Shmuel Thaler, Kevin Johnson, Jonathan Weiand and current intern, Matthew Hintz. Our features editor Wallace Baine, digital producer Christina Gullickson, and copy deskers Tony Solis (also a second place winner), Larry Cafiero, Kalin Kiplin and My Nguyen, plus sports paginator Jacob May all were integral parts of our success. Thanks also to Kim White, Jessica Pasko and Cathy Kelly for their efforts.

Also congratulations to the many women and men at the Sentinel who work in producing revenue, designing ads, keeping the creaky technology creaking along, taking phone calls, directing circulation — and, through Publisher Michael Turpin, are working to find new ways to keep this endeavor going in our rapidly changing business environment.

Here’s our 2011 story after winning our first General Excellence and my blog on what it was like then (industry was facing, um, “challenges,” even then as well)

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My niece and the Dove “Beauty Sketches” commercial

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Don Miller


My 18-year-old niece has become part of a global phenomenon.

Unless you’re an aging male (hmmm, who could that be), or so consumed by news out of Boston you can’t concentrate on anything else, by now you’ve seen the Dove “Real Beauty” “Beauty Sketches” video, or videos.

I say videos, because there are two: a longer six-minute version of the widely aired three-minute commercial. My 18-year-old niece, Olivia Miller, is in both versions, though her graceful presence is much more prominent in the longer one.

While many women, including my wife and daughters, are aware of the Dove ad, for those who aren’t here’s a capsule summary. They’re part of a marketing campaign that began back in 2004 after the soap company became aware of research showing that only 4 percent of women consider themselves “beautiful.” The first campaign involved a series of billboards featuring photos of women who were not supermodels, taken by noted fashion and arts photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The most recent campaign was the “Beauty Sketches” commercial, released this month. The video has gone, to use a word that has surpassed “iconic” in overuse, “viral” around the world, especially among women. In it, several women, including my niece Olivia, describe themselves to a forensic sketch artist who cannot see his subjects.

After he draws them, based on their self descriptions, the women are then described by strangers whom they met the previous day. The sketches are compared —  with the sketch based on the stranger’s description seemingly more flattering, accurate and pleasing to the women who see both images side by side. The most emotionally compelling parts of the video are when the women describe their feelings about how they look based on the differing images. Their perceptions about beauty standards and expectations have a powerful resonance — even if the viewer realizes she or he is being manipulated as part of a marketing campaign.

Olivia, who lives in Contra Costa County, told me that she found out through a friend of her mom that a casting agency was looking for non actresses/models between the ages of 189-50 who would get paid for a day’s work. Olivia thought, “why not?” mainly because she needed to raise money for a trip this summer to South Africa, where she’ll be trabeling to townships to work with school-age kids, helping with English and math skills, along with promoting HIV/AIDS awareness.

 

Olivia Miller, 18, in Dove Real Beauty sketch

“We didn’t really know what were were doing and what it was for while we were there,” Olivia told me this week, “because they wanted to keep it real and honest.

“They took off all my makeup because they wanted all the women to be presented as real as possible. That was the beginning of January and then (last week) I started to get texts from a bunch of random people I knew saying they saw the ad.

“I was super embarrassed at first and didn’t want anyone to see it because it was me talking about things I was insecure about, about my looks. But once the video hit a couple of million views I figured it would just be best to embrace it.

“Now, I’m actually proud I got to be a part of it, and it’s a message I really believe in and think is really important for women to know.”

The commercial has drawn a lot of criticism, as well — but even some of the critics acknowledge they were moved by the women’s reactions to the sketches.  More than several articles I read were by women who said the ads played into the usual body-image stereotypes that have played havoc with the lives of too many people in our culture.

OK. But then, again, why does the video seem to strike a deeper note?

One of the most perceptive reactions I found was written by a 20-year-old college student, Julie Zeilinger, and posted on Policymic. Here’s a sample of what she wrote

“I (reluctantly) admit it: I am one of the many women who teared up watching the Dove Real Beauty campaign’s “Beauty Sketches” video. As a 20-year-old college student who, like many (most? All?) other women my age, has struggled with body image for years, the prevailing message of the video — you are more beautiful than you think and other people think so, too — was too enticing to resist. Under the influence of this video, I immediately began calculating how many minutes of time spent putting on make up I could reappropriate for sleeping now that I am apparently more beautiful than I think I am. Because, yes, as a college student that’s where my mind went first.

“… Watching that video I just felt … relieved. Women are constantly bombarded with images of impossible beauty. By 17, the average woman has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media. Three out of four American teenage girls feel depressed, guilty and shameful after spending three minutes leafing through a fashion magazine — a magazine that probably features fashion models who, on average, weigh 23% less than the average American woman. These effects are visceral: 65% of women and girls report disordered eating behaviors, 53% of 13- year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies (a number that increases to 78% by age 17). But this isn’t just a teenage phenomenon: 42% of first to third-grade girls want to be thinner and 81% of ten year-olds are afraid of getting fat.

“… But while the feeling the Dove video induces is commendable, the message behind it isn’t quite. My goal as a feminist, as a human, who sees those statistics wage battle on the bodies of women I love, not to mention on my own body, who has seen and continues to see the destruction it wages, is not to feel like I’m closer to reaching that ideal: it’s to feel like there is no standard — that it might be possible for me to concern myself with living up to my intellectual potential the way I aspire to fit into a certain dress size. And that is where this video, despite the warmth it radiates, despite the relief it inspires, falls short.”

So take a look at the videos. What do you think? In the attached poll, you can voice your reactions to not just the “Beauty Sketches” but to the issue of body image and women’s feelings about living up to a standard perpetuated by the same product-and-advertising industry that also calls into question the subtle lies dividing perception and reality.

The video has even inspired a parody, a very funny guy’s version, where men describe their feelings about their looks and women then take a stab at describing them. Needless to say, the men are not subject to the same kind of doubts, fears and negativity as the women.

The women’s “Beauty Sketches” video had drawn more than 26 million page views earlier this week.

 

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Dodgers-Giants: Tale of two stadiums

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Don Miller

Walking out of Dodger Stadium/Don Miller

On the past two Tuesday evenings, I was able to attend a major league baseball game involving my favorite team, the world champion San Francisco Giants.

The first game, on the night of April 2 was at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

The second, was last night, April 9, at AT&T park in San Francisco.

The Giants won both games, beating the Dodgers in the first, 3-0, and the Colorado Rockies in an altogether different kind of matchup, 9-6.

I hadn’t attended a game at Dodger Stadium in decades, although it was the ballpark of my childhood, which was spent in Southern California. I knew the Dodgers were under new ownership, and had spent several fortunes in the offseason on new players to challenge the Giants. I also knew that two years ago, Santa Cruz resident and Giants fan Bryan Stow was nearly beaten to death — and suffered catastrophic injuries — at Dodger Stadium at the opening game of the season between the two teams.

Nevertheless, we showed up in Giants gear. No problem there — but though I’d heard security had been beefed up after the Stow disgrace, if there were more cops and security I sure didn’t see them.

The stadium itself remains a great place to see a game, although the scoreboard appears small and antiquated considering the high def jumbo screen of the Giants ballpark. Unlike AT&T, you could also sit pretty much wherever you wanted in the higher seats. No one was checking tickets at all. People came and went up and down aisles no matter what was happening on the field — also in contrast to the Giants park where if a hitter is in the batter’s box, ushers keep movement in the aisles at a minimum to allow the paying customers to actually watch the game on the field rather than someone’s rear end nudging past their face.

The food? Well, the nearby concession stand — we in reserve, behind home plate — ran out of Dodger Dogs in the fourth innning. The horror.

The asphalt walkways leading to Dodger Stadium were cracked and misshapen from too many small earthquakes, and weeds were growing out of many of them.

Parking? Dodger Stadium was built more than a half century ago, and everything just seems so old school. Essentially one road in, through a tough neighborhood, and another out. I understood why Dodger fans have long been derided for coming late and leaving early. The traffic is so horrible and so mismanaged that to get there by the third inning is a miracle, and to get out, well, we just stood in the lot for two hours waiting the long line of snaking cars to begin to break up after the game. The lucky ones probably left in the sixth inning or so. Makes for a quick night, but gotta beat the traffic, right?

The parking lot was lighted, but strangely with a lot of rented equipment powered by noisy generators. The good thing about parking at Dodger Stadium’s one lot is the price: $10.

I was ready to praise Dodger Stadium for another reason as well  – the warm April weather, but Tuesday night at AT&T was probably the first warm night in San Francisco in the usually foggy-windy-chilly San Francisco as I’ve ever experienced.

Otherwise, the Giants ballpark, like the team these days, is a marvel of marketing ingenuity, corporate culture and efficiency. You never feel like the staff is anything but courteous and helpful — and you never show up without a stuffed wallet to pay for parking and food.

As for glitz, the Giants last weekend put together three days of impressive ceremonies commemorating their latest World Series triumph that were a combination of Hollywood schmaltz, and LA Laker  bravado. The Dodgers, who haven’t won a World Series since 1988, could learn a lesson or two on putting on a show from their rivals up north, who have won two in three years.

And while they’re at it, maybe put a few bucks into their facility in between high-profile contracts for sure-to-disappoint players.

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Easter: Like a rolling stone

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Don Miller

Been down.

Been raised up.

Been in exile.

And brought out of Egypt.

Been a victim.

Took responsibility.

Been self-reliant.

Well, that didn’t work …

Lost it all.

Gained everything.

Been with family when they died.

Was there with my children when they were born.

Been judgmental.

Been forgiven.

Been indifferent.

Been different.

Followed a lie.

Was led into truth.

Believed an enemy.

Trusted a friend.

Been to the hill.

Walked out of the garden.

Built a fire.

Was covered by water.

Year in, year out … tide in, tide out.

Ah, for every season …

In my line of work, we cover the spectrum of human experience, much of it unpleasant.

Amid  moments of triumph, tragedies.

For some, great gain. For others, despairing loss. Birth. Death.

But it’s  spring now, full of promise, after the tomb-like darkness of winter. At home, the garden begins to teem with life and weeds. A hint of color peeks out from the earth.

It can be, what? Incongruous? Unfathomable, this juxtaposition of death and life. We make horrible mistakes, and we sometimes feel trapped in a tidal wave of events, problems, regrets and resentments.

In Santa Cruz, the shocking murder of two cops left many people wondering just what any of this means — the strangers among us, the intrusion of violence and chaos into the seemingly well-ordered, if illusory, everyday “reality.”

For thousands of years, humans turned to God, and to gods, for assurance that life had a purpose, an ultimate meaning, an answer. For most people in our country today, however, those questions are no longer asked, and the search has long since been abandoned.

And even for those living within the Judeo-Christian traditions, the three days of Good Friday through Easter, and the Passover, don’t dispel the difficult questions most of us face. Children murdered by a madman at an elementary school during the Christmas season, a massacre of the innocents. Cops murdered on a neighborhood street. Natural disasters. Cancer. Starvation. Terrorism.

Deaths at the hands of loved ones. And in car crashes. Children dying inexplicably, as mothers weep and mourn.

What kind of Easter hope is that?

We ask, “How could any God permit so many tragedies?” Is it judgment? Indifference? Absence? Does God enjoy torturing us? The joke’s on us — and the seeming cruelty we can experience in nature, and the natural cruelty that can occur in humans, is just an expression of cosmic … nothingness.

In our world, politicians wrestle with the issue of how many lives are lost to guns, to drugs, to homelessness, and openly wonder whether solutions can ever be fashioned.

What about the rest of us? When do we get solved?

We live in a broken world, one that is passing away, sooner or later. Where nothing is permanent. Certainly not us. Not our thoughts nor our ideas. But we cling to a belief that somehow humans can be perfected, that with enough knowledge we’ll see disease and disaster eliminated, and peace and prosperity will reign. Given enough time, and the right technology, everything will work out. Marching forward into a paradise on earth.

The evidence, however, suggests otherwise.

And yet, every hair is numbered. So what does Easter have to do with this? The message is that God has sent a rescue line to us, as we swirl about in our seeming sea of abandonment and chaos.

Come to the river.

The Easter story is that God showed up, in this world just as it is, offering us a choice, to pass from death to life. And so we wait, in the promise he will show up again.

The message of Easter is just that: We have been passed over. We are not alone in our pain and suffering.

None should perish. Each death — so wrong.

Prepare the way. Roll away the stone.

There is hope.

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Santa Cruz grapples with crime, drugs and … homeless services

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Don Miller

A line of people stretches along the front entrance of the Homeless Services... ( Matthew Hintz )

No issue has so divided the greater Santa Cruz community as providing day-use services at the Homeless Services Center.

This issue has continued to heat up for a variety of reasons:

  • The public’s perception that transients continue to be a visible, often unwanted, presence in the city, county and downtown Santa Cruz in particular;
  • The persistent drug culture in the county along with public inebriates;
  • The numbers of mentally ill people on the streets and in public places;
  • Illegal camping in the hills and along the San Lorenzo River by transients;
  • Crimes that many neighbors and residents associate with people using the center;
  • The role of the center in housing felons stemming from the AB 109 prison realignment initiative;
  • The Homeless Services Center is located just off downtown at one of the busiest intersections in the county and on city-owned property;
  • The center gets more city money than any other social service agency;
  • And a longstanding, persistent outcry that Santa Cruz is a magnet for transients from other places mainly because of the support and services available here.

In coming months, the Sentinel will be examining some of these issues in depth.

But in the wake of recent crimes and violence, the rhetoric surrounding homeless services seems to have ratcheted up, as we reported this past Sunday. Santa Cruz for decades has prided itself on being a tolerant community that also cares for the less well off.

But this very tolerance has been increasingly questioned, as many residents have complained about crime, drug abuse and what they see as a lack of accountability and scrutiny of some services provided in the community. In particular, an unregulated needle exchange program has been a hot topic at recent City Council meetings, as outraged residents blame the program, and other services, for discarded syringes, drug crime and drug sales in the city and surrounding areas.

The homeless center points out that of the 1,100 people who received day services at the center last year, 65 percent were receiving emergency shelter and nearly 30 percent were able to get help with mental illness issues or addictions. The center’s executive director, Monica Martinez, told the Sentinel that putting limits on day services will work at counter purposes to the issues of homelessness in a community where housing costs are high and jobs are scant.

But critics say Santa Cruz cannot be expected to solve a national problem — and that day services contributes to an ongoing public safety problem.

The city owns the 60,000-square-foot property on Coral Street and leases it to the Homeless Services Center for a nominal rent of $3,400 a month. Santa Cruz also provides more funding for HSC — $184,000 overall for the center, including $42,000 for day services — than for any other social service program or agency out of the annual $1 million spent last year on social services.

City Councilwoman Lynn Robinson has been the primary elected voice asking that the upcoming budget review for the next fiscal year take a close look at funding for the homeless center, which includes four distinct programs, including the day services center. The issue appears headed for an overdue, and justified, city review.

The Homeless Services Center provides a much needed helping hand to many people  in tough circumstances and we think most Santa Cruz County residents continue to support this effort. But it’s time to figure out if providing day services at the  center is a factor in crime and drug problems as well.

This post is the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial for March 20, 2013

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First Latin American pope changes history

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Don Miller

Pope Francis I has already made history — and that’s saying a lot about the most historic institution in the world.

Considering the challenges he faces, however, that may be the easy part for the new pope, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The choice of  the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, means that the Roman Catholic Church has its first pope from Latin America — the first non- European.

He also is the first Jesuit elevated to the papacy.

In a recent editorial, we wrote about our hopes the Roman Catholic Church would choose a great communicator who was also a skilled manager as the next leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. While that editorial provoked criticism from readers who wondered, with justification, how a community newspaper would dare weigh in on an institution that has prevailed for 2,000 years, the next pope immediately becomes a hugely influential leader around the world — and even in the secular city of the Holy Cross, Santa Cruz, founded as a Catholic mission.

For the Americas, it’s hard to overstate how Francis changes history — 39 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America; half in the Americas with 77 percent of Argentinians Catholic. Of the United States’ 50 million Hispanics, about 70 percent are Catholic.

While for many outside the Vatican the choice was something of  a surprise, the cardinals who voted for the 76-year-old Spanish-speaking Cardinal Bergoglio did not exactly take a leap of faith, since he was the runner-up eight years ago when Pope Benedict XVI was chosen. Francis  also has another tie to Rome — he is the child of Italian immigrants from a nation with a large Italian population. Benedict, 85, stepped down last month, citing the infirmities of age and Francis  is just a year younger than his predecessor at the time he was chosen to succeed Pope John Paul II, which might indicate that another “caretaker pope” has been selected.

But the 266th pope is hardly a copy of Benedict, an intellectual who reportedly had little taste for management, and had to work hard at showing a common touch.

As Cardinal Bergoglio, he was outspoken against the recent liberalization of Argentinian laws on abortion, stating “abortion is never a solution.” He opposed the legalization of gay marriage in his country. He is considered a disciple of John Paul II — which indicates Francis I, a former leader of the Society of Jesus,  is more conservative than many of his Jesuit brethren, especially in Latin America, where the movement was key in the liberation theology that often blended social justice and even Marxist principles in an effort to raise the poor from degrading circumstances. Jesuits also are known for the their dedication to scholarship and for founding Catholic universities in the U.S.

His choice of the name “Francis” would seem to reflect a genuine care for the poor — which would make the new pope a figure of hope and inspiration in the slums and shantytowns that sprawl across Latin America. By taking on the name of St. Francis of Assisi, Francis I also demonstrated his identification with the revered saint’s credo of poverty, humility and simplicity. His personal style lies outside the Vatican’s pomp and splendor — he was  living in a small apartment, often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals  and regularly visited the slums that surround Buenos Aires.

He also is well acquainted with the Roman Curia — which runs the Vatican’s day to day affairs — and the dysfunction and scandals that have brought cries for reform — just as the new Bishop of Rome will need to bring a full accountability and transparency to the sexual abuse scandals that have so besmirched the image of his church.

He began his papacy with prayer — and with the prayers of Catholics around the world who want reform, evangelization and humility from the spiritual heir to St. Peter.

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End of watch: Death is not the end for officers Butler and Baker

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Don Miller

 

Paul Wu and son Joaquin at Thursday's memorial service for Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker. Sentinel photo by Shmuel Thaler

Within all the love and support, all the tributes and eulogies for fallen officers Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker at their memorial service Thursday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, it was the human story that struck more deeply than any bullet ever will.

The story was told through halting words, through family photo albums, through tears, anger, and laughter, through the turnout by fellow officers from Santa Cruz and throughout California — and even through the flag-shrouded caskets surrounded by an honor guard, a few cherished images, and two Santa Cruz police cars.

Butch Baker’s car sales background … his way of “leaning in” with questions and observations, his practical jokes. The “ultimate go-to guy,” as Chief Deputy Steve Clark described him. Well known, well loved in his 28 years on the force as a friend to his brethren and a voice of encouragement for the new breed.

So many partners in the fight against crime, so many experiences for a guy described as “born to be a cop,” a “natural investigator” involved anytime, anywhere in almost every case. The go-to, get-it-done guy for nearly three decades, a guy who always answered his phone.

Yes, “Butch was there.”

Beth Butler’s sister told of a recent cherished weekend together. Eating lemon tarts. Dressing up.  “She was tall, she was soft, … she loved to dance … We were so near to one another.” It was their last weekend together, said Alexis Butler.   “She was my Valentine.”

The detective worked her cases — and she was a working mother who rose in a male-dominated profession and saw her position as an opportunity to help other women. And she too was cut down in a day of horror.

The tens of thousands in the arena, listening in Santa Cruz,  watching on TV heard a Father’s Day message from Butch Baker’s daughter, Jillian, written eight years before for her dad.

They saw Elizabeth Butler’s partner, Peter Wu, holding their son, Joaquin, who wore a police hat.

“Goodbye, my love,” said Peter.

The dead can speak, if not in words.

They spoke Thursday in how they served their city. Stood tall with others from the same calling.

In how she broke barriers. How he thought, sometimes, of retirement. Spoke in the way he loved his wife and children, and they loved him back and now he’s gone. Spoke volumes in how she loved her partner, her young sons, her family, who will forever miss her.

Blink for a moment and they’re still there, at birthday parties, on camping trips, at ball games, walking the beach …

Butch Baker and Elizabeth Butler saw the darkest side of people — and sometimes the best. But they never gave up hope that in some way, in their way, on their watch, they could make  a difference.

And so they did, in life, and now in death.

Broken lives in a broken world … we try to make sense of the senseless and pledge, as Leon Panetta said Thursday, “never to look the other way” so the kind of darkness engulfing the killer gets passed along, gathering malevolence, where it eventually overtakes … Elizabeth Butler and Butch Baker.

Nothing can replace what a madman took away, said Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel.

And yet … We weep with those who weep, mourn those who are lost to us, and reach out for the peace we only glimpse in the most fleeting of moments on this planet, in the valleys, in the shadows.

As the Bible says, death is the destiny of everyone and the living should take this to heart.

Cherish each moment.

And we choose to believe death is not the end, not for Elizabeth Butler, not for Butch Baker — that their story doesn’t end here, but lives on, in their families, their friends, their city and with those who served alongside them.

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Cop killer: Just this side of prison

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Don Miller

Hawaii. San Diego. Oregon. Berkeley. Santa Cruz.

It’s not as if Jeremy Goulet did not leave a trail before his deadly encounter with Santa Cruz police Tuesday afternoon.

Court martialed and and discharged from the military due to two rape complaints, later dropped when he left the military.

While in the military, he was picked up on another sex-related charge in San Diego.

Arrested and convicted in Portland on gun and sex charges. He later served two years in jail after he refused to cooperate with the local probation department.

In August, Goulet was arrested again, this time in Berkeley on another peeping tom complaint. His East Bay neighbors told reporters they called police in September after they heard the sounds of a violent fight between Goulet and his twin brother, who was his roommate. But Jeremy Goulet left before police arrived. He also fought with a girlfriend, said the neighbors.

And then Goulet chose Santa Cruz as the place he wanted to be.

Whatever idyll he was expecting, whether inside himself or in new surroundings, proved short-lived. On Feb. 22 he was arrested here, on drunk and disorderly charges in an incident involving sexual advances toward a co-worker. He bailed out of jail after a few hours and was fired the next day from his job at a Santa Cruz coffee shop. He also was being investigated for a sexual assault on a minor, according to the county Sheriff’s Office.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said the two Santa Cruz detectives sent to Goulet’s home Tuesday afternoon had limited details about the man’s previous history. While hindsight reveals a pattern that would concern any law enforcement professional, Goulet was not a convicted felon. Nor had he been put on any official registration list of sex offenders. The peeping tom offenses in Oregon did not translate into Goulet being required to register as a sex offender in whatever community he was living. The Hawaii rape charges were dropped. Moreover, there is no database that includes everyone’s arrest records and case files that follow him from every city, county and state. That background would have come together as the case progressed, which of course it never did.

All along the way, Goulet stayed just this side of being locked up for a long time — a result that would have saved the lives of the two detectives he shot and killed Tuesday. But that, again, is hindsight.

Nor were there any official diagnoses of mental illness, even though people he encountered along the way say they found him “hostile,” “angry,” even “crazy.”

Police come into contact with troubled individuals every day, especially in a beach town such as Santa Cruz that attracts a diversity of people.

A lot of the attention on the Goulet case is centering on what happened in Portland in 2007 and 2008 — mainly because if Goulet had been locked up for a long time there, he never would have had the opportunity to kill the two Santa Cruz officers.

The judge and the prosecutor in that case say they knew Goulet was trouble and troubled, but that a jury — in a liberal town where attitudes are similar to what might be expected in Santa Cruz — did not see it that way and convicted him of lesser charges, of misdemeanors.

He had been beaten up by the boyfriend of a woman he was spying on, and after a confrontation involving a gun Goulet was carrying, eventually arrested. Later, though, his hostile and erratic behavior with probation officers ended up with him being re-arrested. The same judge who presided over his trial gave Goulet a choice to follow his probation terms or go to jail. Goulet chose jail, and the judge put him in jail for two years — a year for each of the two charges of which he was convicted.

Judge Eric Bloch told reporters this week, after what happened in Santa Cruz, that when he sentenced Goulet, he believed he was a “risk to the community,” so much so that he imposed the maximum penalty available. Bloch also said he denied motions to reduce the jail sentence, believing Goulet should be held as long as possible.

“The same issues we were trying to help him with while he was in our system came to a head elsewhere,” Bloch told the Portland Oregonian newspaper. “They went untreated, escalated, ended in his death, the death of two police officers and added possible trauma to the person who filed the complaint against him. It’s tragic all the way around.”

Indeed.

Goulet’s behavior and actions also caused the boyfriend of the woman he was spying on to live in fear Goulet would seek revenge, even after the couple moved to Canada. Danny Thomas described Goulet this week as “100 percent crazy” and said that as sad as the events in Santa Cruz were, he was not surprised when he heard it was Goulet involved in the killing of the two officers.

The man who prosecuted Goulet, former Multnomah County deputy district attorney Greg Moawad, said Goulet “was clearly someone who did not want to change.”

And despite what we now know about Goulet’s sexual deviancy, a peeping tom incident is not enough in Oregon to classify someone as a registered sex offender. And even if that had happened, there’s no guarantee those records would have followed Goulet to California.

Even if they had, there are hundreds of sex offenders in the local database. There is no logical inference that any of them would then progress toward killing police. In other words, the one offense and character defect does not mean that Santa Cruz police would automatically think Goulet was, in the words of his father, a “ticking time bomb.”

What responsibility does Goulet’s family have? His father, in subsequent interviews with reporters, has said his son’s problems stemmed from his obsessive desire to spy on women. He also said his son was a longtime gun owner.

But again, what everyone knew along the way does not appear to have reached critical mass.

It’s easy, after this week’s tragedy, to say that law enforcement needs to do a better job of sharing information, or tracking dangerous criminals, or alerting authorities in different states and municipalities. We can’t help but remember how after 9/11, it came to light that federal agencies such as the FBI and CIA were not sharing vital information about potential terrorists in this country. Would such sharing have prevented that calamity? We’ll never know. But we do know that information sharing drastically improved afterward.

For now, though, it seems a quirk of fate, if there is such a thing, that Jeremy Goulet stayed just this side of a lengthy prison sentence that would have kept him away from Santa Cruz. He could have been stopped. But he wasn’t — and putting it all together, after the fact, Goulet’s record shouts from the heavens that something terrible could go wrong.

Shockingly, tragically, it did.

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