Monthly Archives: November 2016

Lovers of great music performed by virtuosos in an intimate setting are in for an artistic treat in Gilroy.

 Every time I hear about a police shooting I think the same thing: if only the people complaining had a chance to walk a mile in a cop’s shoes.I’ve done it and you can too. It will change you forever.Both the Gilroy Police Department and the Santa Clara Sheriff’s have ride along programs where you can do a shift with a cop and see first hand what they face. You will never look at police the same way.I’ve done ride alongs with agencies across the area and I’ve also taken the Citizens Police Academy in Santa Cruz. My conclusion is that we expect the people in blue to be superhuman, but they are, like the rest of us, only human. Most of them, however, border on superhuman in the challenges they face every day and the way they resolve them peacefully.When you consider that most of us get our information about policing from TV dramas where officers solve cases in a half an hour and do impossible things like shoot a bad guy in the arm to make them drop their gun, it’s easy to see that we often judge them much too harshly.You can sign up for a 12-week, once-a-week course with Gilroy Police (info on the GPD website), an opportunity that I strongly recommend. In Santa Cruz I got to do a staged car chase, arrest “suspects” and shoot in the firing range.The first thing you feel driving in a police car, is that it’s like you have a giant target on your back. There are plenty of people out there who hate police, and even though you are armed, you feel like a sitting duck. There’s virtually nothing to stop someone who hates cops and has access to one of the 315 million guns in America from taking a shot. Cops told me they don’t feel like that, but as a civilian sitting in that car, I sure did.The second thing you learn is that police training is incredibly difficult. You will fail often. Do one of their drills where they have to figure out if they are shooting at an innocent or a bad guy, a real life video game, and you realize it takes Olympian skill and judgment to make the right call. It’s much easier to Monday morning quarterback those situations.The next thing you realize is that many of the people you stop are rude and think you are in the wrong, even when it’s clear they are. A good half the people you stop greet you with malice, and frankly, many of them are people we don’t interact with in daily life. They are on drugs, they are criminals, they are violent and after spending a day with them and an officer, you will thank your lucky stars for the officers who deal with them every day.On a Santa Cruz ridealong recently, I watch a 6-foot-5-inch, 300-pound man attack the 5-foot-5-inch cop I was riding with, while yelling racial epithets at him. The officer asked the man to get off the sidewalk blocking access to a pizzeria; the man refused and got belligerent.For a minute, I was scared for my life, but more scared for the officer. I thought the bigger man could easily grab his gun and things could get violent quickly. I was digging in, getting ready to help the officer if he needed it, when in the blink of an eye, the officer had the man down on the ground and handcuffed, like a martial arts master. That was really superhero stuff. Even more amazing was the fact that the officer remained cool, calm and polite with the man, even when the man, an African American, was calling the officer, a Mexican-American who was once an undocumented immigrant, a “wetback” and using worse terms to provoke him. The officer was used to mistreatment and told me he felt sorry for the man, an alcoholic, and treated him kindly all the way to jail. I’m not saying it’s always this way, but I would argue that it is 99 percent of the time. Yes, there are some unjustified shootings and some cops who use the law to benefit themselves. And yes, we need video cameras to help police the police. But in most cases, the cameras will back the police. People will realize that cops don’t go out to intentionally shoot someone and that the cops would prefer to defuse situations without violence, so they can go home to their families at the end of their workdays, just like the rest of us.  They have a lot more challenges to face every day than we do.                 

For the first time that anyone at Gavilan can recall, the women’s volleyball team is headed to the state playoffs following a three-set sweep of City College of San Francisco.

The word “boutique” sends a message of stylish, individualized clothing. Entering a fashion boutique is akin to being transported into one of the fashion capitals of the world, where the quality, patterns and cloths used all depict the quintessence of haute couture.

Prior to the election on Nov. 8, we had seen a slow but steady rise in mortgage interest rates. Many attributed this to the fact that the markets were being conservative prior to the election, and that the Federal Reserve had indicated a rise in short term rates in December was a given.

SAN JOSE – Patrick Marleau’s redirection of a Brent Burns slapshot made the difference Friday afternoon as the San Jose Sharks made it three straight wins at home by edging the New York Islanders 3-2 at sold-out SAP Center.

The flu season is fast approaching—the other day while at a stoplight I was sandwiched in between two people who were coughing incessantly—but fortunately science has given us ways to get through the winter months with fewer sick days. In terms of preventing the flu, getting a flu shot—surprise—is a must-do.

I was anxious to see Janu and Jason Goelz’s brand new tasting room, inside The Stomping Ground, an ambitious and exciting venture between the Goelz’ and Tim Slater, owner of Sarah’s Vineyard. A three-year plan for the venue includes several other boutique wineries, a brewery and a distillery—along with upscale eateries. I passed through a courtyard with tables and a water feature as I made my way into the eclectic tasting room.Instead of the usual adjectives to describe each wine, the extensive menu only lists the percentages of the various grapes contained in each wine. Bill Corneth, pouring wines that day, explained, “We don’t try to tell you what you’re going to taste because we don’t want you to feel like you’ve done something wrong if you don’t taste what you think you should.” Bill poured the first wine, a Pixalated Rose, a blend of grenache, mourvedre and pinot noir grapes. It is a dry rose, with a creamy mouthfeel—a pretty aperitif for the holidays.  The 2013 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is a juicy bing cherry of a wine with a long, smooth finish. It’s 80 percent cabernet—blended along with four other varietals. Thoughts of pairing this wine with a rib eye steak drizzled with melted blue cheese crossed my mind.I tend to like wines with a little age on them so really enjoyed the 2011 Estate Merlot. This is a rich, full-bodied wine with complex flavors of dark fruits and well-structured tannins, making it an age-worthy wine. Purchasing two bottles before I left, I’ll have one bottle at this year’s holiday and save the other for next year.

You feel you are sitting on a rainbow and are fascinated with the edgy Tandy Beal’s take on The Nutcracker, in Nuts Re-Mixed! Here is entertainment that sits outside the box that gives a uniquely serendipitous experience.

While some are interested in building walls, one group in the South Valley community is building bridges and working to create a more peaceful, tolerant world. Made up of 16 different faith organizations, the Interfaith Community of South County (ICSC) gathered for a special service on Thanksgiving Eve.Although the ICSC is still in its first year, the group’s facilitator, Susan Meyers, says the group began as a response to increased hostilities, “not just in our area, but all over the country—around people who are Muslim.”Meyers, a board member at Congregation Emeth in Morgan Hill, says things in the South Valley became particularly heated in the last decade after the South Valley Islamic Community approached the planning commission with their proposal to build the Cordoba Center, a 15-acre parcel in San Martin that would serve as a site of worship, a community center, as well as a cemetery and open space. Not all of the community responded as positively as local faith-based organizations did.“It brought out people’s concerns and prejudices and also the support of the community,” says Meyers.She says that Rabbi Debbie Israel of Congregation Emeth in Morgan Hill was one of the principals who started the interfaith clergy group. “They did an interfaith Thanksgiving service last year and then they were going to do an interfaith event for the Martin Luther King Day.”Pastor Lee Tyler of Advent Lutheran in Morgan Hill recalls their congregation would regularly hold Thanksgiving Day services.“Well last year we decided—more than Christians are celebrating Thanksgiving,” Tyler says. “Americans do. So we invited the rabbi and the imam and their congregations to join us and that’s where it began.”After the Thanksgiving service at Advent Lutheran, Meyers invited others interested in forming an interfaith lay group to get involved. The ICSC chose three areas of focus: education, service and social activity. Meyers says they decided to celebrate four major American holidays together.“First of all—we are all Americans. First thing we did was to march in the Fourth of July parade.”As part of their educational emphasis, the ICSC has held a series of lectures called “Faith of Our Neighbors.” Inviting people to come and learn about different faiths. So far the group has held two (of four) sessions; they were on Islam and Mormonism.“When we had our Muslim group speak there were 250 people who came to the event and the Mormons had about that same number. The idea is to bring the community together,” Meyers says.The last two educational lectures in the series will be on Judaism and Lutheranism.“We move around to one another’s ‘churches,’” says Meyers. “Part of the idea is to feel comfortable in one another’s religious homes.”Following the election of Donald Trump, tensions are increasing across the country and hate crimes are on the rise. The need for an interfaith community is even more important now, says Pastor Lee.“We need to care for our brothers and sisters in faith and that's not just Christian faith,” she says. “And it’s a little frightening right now, what our Jewish and Muslim friends are suffering is scary.”“We should have learned something by now.” says Lee. “I find it deeply depressing. That’s why I’m wearing a safety pin.”“The safety pin [a symbol that came out of the response to Britain's recent Brexit vote] is a sign that you are a safe person and anyone that’s being harassed or bullied can turn to you for assistance and you will stand with them,” she says.“I think it’s a great idea we’ve got to stand up and say this is not ok—you can’t hurt people like this.”Nadi Akhter, part of the South Valley Islamic Community and an active member in the ICSC says the relationship goes back to the start of the Cordoba Center. “We faced some opposition from some community members and at that point some of the congregations, especially the Jewish community, Father Rubio from St. Mary’s—these are the people who came for our support and told us ‘You guys are not alone.’”“It has made a big difference in my individual thinking and with the community as a whole,” Akhter says. “I do get emails of support from other members of this interfaith community and even passersby sometimes.”A woman recently approached Akhter at Walmart to apologize, saying “‘I want you to know that whatever Trump says is not the feeling of every American,’” says Akhter.“Those other people—we acknowledge they are bad guys,” she continues. “We condemn them. That's not right. Our faith doesn’t allow it. They are hijacking our faith.”Akhter points out South Valley Muslims’ commitment to the community, noting that the Muslims who make a home here are professionals and law-abiding citizens.“We bring a lot to this economy,” says Akhter, who is also an engineer by trade and adds half-jokingly, “The iPhone that everyone else is using—I don’t know how many Muslims wrote code on it.”But more work must be done to build bridges. “On social media every other day I am looking at one of the hate crimes,” says Akhter.Recent examples include a 19 year-old Muslim student at San Jose State who was attacked in a university parking garage when someone pulled on her hijab.“That’s not OK. In this civilized society this kind of makes me sad,” she says.Because the Muslim community is small, they rely on other faith-based groups to take opportunities to be of service. Akhter says it’s not enough to sit down at the table; she believes in action and was regularly involved in the community before the Cordoba Center.“If I’m out there with my headscarf on and helping the community, that’s going to make a statement and that’s what I believe in.”If there’s one thing each of the participants agrees, which Akhter sums up: “We have to look at people one on one. Treat them like humans—treat them like friends and do it this way.”The Interfaith Community of South County (ICSC) will celebrate their one year anniversary with a special Martin Luther King Day service, Monday Jan. 16, 2017 at St. Mary’s Parish, 11 First St, Gilroy. For more information about the ICSC, contact interfaithcommunity.org@gmail.com.