SQUID FRY 06.22.17: Divided We Fall…

DIVIDED WE FALL… Squid was busy celebrating Cephalopod Week, particularly the abilities of octopuses to mimic other creatures for camouflage, and Squid’s own ability to change color. Then Squid tuned into the Salinas City Council meeting June 20, when council tried its own version of mimicry: Take a resolution, change its name, and see if people notice.

People did. The resolution in question, whether to become a sanctuary city – err, a “welcoming city” – lays out almost the exact same criteria as an earlier proposal.

Christopher Barrera of the Salinas chapter of LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) said, “We do not support this resolution. We would like to see something stronger, instead of singing and dancing around the word ‘sanctuary.’ Words do matter.” As community activist Wes White characterized the disappointment: “It’s like asking for a whole bagel and getting a poppy seed at the bottom.”

But most council members were ready to go for it, and voted for it 5-2. They gave speeches about compromise. All except for Gloria De La Rosa, who rejected “welcoming” as too weak, and Mayor Joe Gunter, who reasoned that there’s no need for a purely symbolic resolution to exist at all: “This piece of paper needs to be shredded in the shredder and it means nothing,” he said. What’s not clear is whether he meant the shredding symbolically; Squid can, after all, pull up an unshreddable PDF online.

MARCHING ON… Squid oozed out of the lair last weekend to check in on Seaside’s LGBTQ+ Pride parade, and was tickled translucent by the turnout – organizers estimate over 700 attendees – and the prevailing spirit of joy and inclusion. But that spirit was a far cry from some things Squid heard at the June 15 Seaside City Council meeting.

As the council was hearing public comment about an ordinance to proclaim June as Pride Month in Seaside, Rev. H.H. Lusk, who denounced the parade at a previous meeting where City Council approved it, again made his thoughts known. Lusk said he was “sick and tired” of Seaside doing things, in his opinion, that adjoining cities won’t – such as embracing people who are gay and hosting a parade. “For 55 years, I’ve seen other cities throw their waste in our city,” Lusk said. “I don’t think our city has to pick up the trash that other cities don’t want.” The council took a far more enlightened view and voted 4-1 to approve the proclamation. (Mayor Ralph Rubio, who voted no, was concerned about the “process.”)

That no vote didn’t go unnoticed by County Supervisor Jane Parker, who was speaking to a crowd after the parade and said, “Just the fact that there was even a no vote in the city of Seaside, on a proclamation, it really tells us that we have quite a ways to go.”