President's Corner
Carol Fuller

“Hope is the Thing With Feathers”

‘It perches in our soul’ and soars above and “never stops.” Or so Emily Dickenson tells us. Hope is what the Biden inaugural ceremony offered the nation. Our new president didn’t tell us it that it would be easy, but he called upon us to believe in our democracy and to work for that “more perfect union.” He didn’t deny the many challenges ahead. The young poet Amanda Gorman said that our “nation is not broken, only unfinished”.” Looking at her shining youth certainly inspired hope. 

Recent news reports indicate that the Biden administration is off to a roaring start, from appointing cabinet members with sterling qualifications and the knowledge appropriate to the tasks that confront them, to tackling the many issues threatening our nation and the planet. Biden has launched a multi-pronged approach to respond to all the big issues we face; inequality, climate change, domestic terrorism, the economy, racism, immigration, and of course, the pandemic, just to name a few. But we don’t get a free ride either. Each of us will be needed to “repair the world,” the concept in the Jewish faith for each of us to make whatever contribution we can to benefit the world. Let’s do it for all the young Amandas, and our collective future. Keeping hope alive depends on all of us. 

Right here at home I have noticed signs for the campaign to recall Gavin Newsom. I have seen tabling in front of the driveway to Costco several times and a few days ago I saw a window sign in a shop window in Capitola Village. The sign urged support of the recall to “save small businesses.”When I looked into this recall effort I found that while the effort is led by Republicans, there are others that are not pleased with our governor, as well. Many people are not happy with his handling of the pandemic. While the majority of Democrats still support Newsom, his approval rating is 46% according to a recent poll.  Another issue that continues to go unaddressed is that many millions of California residents have been unable to access the unemployment benefits they are entitled to. In some cases their claims go back to early last year and there has still been no response. Click here to read an article in the San Diego Tribune about the recall effort.

The DWC was a bit discombobulated when we were first locked down last March, but did manage to recover and present timely programs, and make candidate endorsements in local elections, as well as support local issues. Thanks to all of our generous members we were able to donate $6,350 in 2020 to our locally endorsed candidates and issues. In addition, we donated $1,490 to the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party, (SCCDCC), to support local electoral activities and Close the Gap California, whose mission is to find and train women to run for state offices. This is a record I am proud of and it is thanks to all our members that we are able to do it. If you haven’t yet paid your dues for 2021, please do so. We promise to make good use of your funds. 

 - Carol

DWC Board News

The position of DWC Parliamentarian is currently open. If you are interested in serving on our board, please contact board president Carol Fuller at fulkins@cruzio.com.

Programs
Mike Rotkin

Please join the DWC on Saturday, February 20, at 11:00 a.m. for a Forum on Climate Change. Guest speakers will include California Assembly Member Mark Stone, who will talk about the State of California’s Climate Action Plan and its implementation as well as how initiatives by the Biden Administration at the federal level will impact that process. Also on the panel will be a representative of the City of Santa Cruz who will speak on the city’s response to climate change issues and a representative of Santa Cruz County’s Office of Resilience, Recovery, and Response. This forum will be open to the public and there will be an opportunity for questions and answers about the state and local response to the challenge of climate change.

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