WHO’S IN TOWN?
What started almost 40 years ago as two frustrated moms of schizophrenic sons talking around a kitchen table is now a movement named the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI. NAMI has 1,000 chapters in all 50 states, advocating on behalf of families grappling with mental illness. NAMI’s annual California conference, called United Voices, a Stronger California, is in town this week with speakers and workshops on advocacy, public policy and scientific topics. One keynote speaker is Chamique Holdsclaw, a former Olympic and WNBA basketball player, and author of Breaking Through: Beating the Odds Shot After Shot, which details how she battled depression and survived a suicide attempt.
Fri-Sat June 1-2. Hyatt Regency, 1 Old Golf Course Road, Monterey. $180-$235/both days; $140-$210/single day. namica.org.
FREE SPEECH
Among America’s great pastimes are football and exercising the First Amendment right to protest. When those two things intersect, it gets… complicated.
Some NFL players polarized fans with protesting by kneeling during the national anthem, bringing attention to social justice issues including police misconduct and disproportionately high arrests of black men. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced a new policy May 23 forbidding players from kneeling during the anthem, but giving them the option to stay inside in the locker room – a private form of protest, but not a public display. Constitutionally, the NFL appears to be within its rights to limit players’ speech. “The First Amendment only regulates the government’s actions,” says David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. “It really doesn’t have anything to say about what private entities can do.” The NFL Players Association announced they’re looking at the policy for any violations of their collective bargaining agreement.
GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK
GOOD:
Last year, Shelby O’Neil, a junior at San Benito High, launched the “No Straw November” campaign to raise awareness about plastic pollution and the ways that disposable, single-use plastic products contribute to it. For the month of November, she asked that people refuse to use plastic straws, and her campaign was embraced by the California Coastal Commission and Surfrider Foundation, among others. As part of the campaign, she also reached out to Alaska Airlines, and on May 21, the airline announced it would eliminate plastic stir straws and citrus picks – it used 22 million in 2017 – from all domestic and international flights, as well its airport lounges, and replace them with sustainable, marine-friendly options by this summer. In a statement, flight attendant Abbe Gloor said, “As a company that flies people to beautiful beaches, this makes a lot of sense.”
BAD:
It’s been a tragically violent week in Salinas, where two stabbings and a shooting have left two men dead. On May 22, the Salinas Police Department responded to an anonymous phone call reporting a stabbing; police found 49-year-old Randy Edward Perry unconscious and bleeding. He died about an hour after arriving at Natividad. Four days later, police got another anonymous call, this one reporting a shooting victim could be found in a car; SPD found a man with a gunshot wound in a backseat on Towt Street. He died several hours later. (His name has not been released, pending notification of family members.) These are the fifth and sixth homicides of 2018 in Salinas, and police responded on May 27 to an attempted murder on Work Street, where a stabbing victim survived his injuries. Assistant ChiefRoberto Filice says the crimes are believed to be unrelated.