In Limbo

IN LIMBO… Squid has been pondering some of life’s most perplexing questions lately: If a kelp frond falls in the ocean and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Which came first, the fish or the egg? If the Monterey County Planning Commission doesn’t approve a project, does that mean it denied it?

Squid has an answer for the latter question: No, not really, at least most of the time. It’s complicated.

In early April, a shorthanded commission cast a split vote for a proposed farmworker housing project on Gonda Street in Pajaro, unable to come up with a compromise to turn a vote in either direction. Amid the confusion, commissioners and county staff discussed for nearly a half-hour how to move past the deadlock.

In the end, it was decided that each commissioner would come up with a reason for their vote, which would be implemented into a future resolution explaining they could not come to a consensus. On May 8, the commission, shorthanded again, unanimously approved that resolution which confirmed it neither approved or denied the project.

Confused? So is Squid. Squid expects this decision (or lack thereof?) to be appealed to the Board of Supervisors, where maybe we can get an actual resolution.

SNIPPET OFF… It seems protests dominate the news cycle these days, many occurring on college campuses. Squid knew it was only a matter of time before they came to the Monterey Peninsula, so Squid wasn’t surprised to receive an email on May 13 announcing a protest in Seaside scheduled for Thursday, May 16 to bring awareness to a “crisis.”

What would the protesters’ message be? The group organizing it calls themselves the “Bloodstained Men,” so Squid immediately thought it would be related to the death and destruction in Gaza.

But Squid projected ink all over the lair as Squid read more. “The public will be reminded that babies whose genitals are mutilated as infants grow up to be men who are speaking out about what was done to their penis before they could defend themselves,” the email reads.

The Bloodstained Men are visiting Seaside on a tour of Northern California, donning white suits (with a blood stain on the crotch) and hats, led by their founder, a man who goes by the name Brother K. That is enough to give Squid the heebie-jeebies.

They call themselves “intactivists,” defined as a person who campaigns against infant circumcision. People are welcome to wear the bloodstained suit at the protest, the group says.

Squid may be foreskin-less also, but Squid thinks there are much more urgent things to protest about in this day and age.