This week, at the campus strike and amnesty-for-all rally, I heard an elder introduce himself as having been part of a 1970 demonstration that shut down the Highway 9 and 17 intersection and been jailed in what is now the MAH building. I sought him out to learn more. Currently UC faculty, he explained the campus/community protest occurred when the U.S. expanded its shameful two-decade long Vietnam war – by the 1973 conclusion, 3.1 million Americans had been stationed in Vietnam – into Cambodia. When home, I read that beginning May 1,1970, 900 campuses demonstrated – helping stop the war – with students battered, jailed, shot dead on two campuses.
Our student encampment-protest also began May 1, ending May 31 when an estimated 150 police in riot gear poured into town (at surely-phenomenal taxpayer expense) violently attacking a peaceful protest-encampment, destroying property, jailing 80, forbidding students to re-enter campus for two weeks – cutting many off from dorm homes and food source. This time, no soldiers on the ground, just U.S. bombs and weaponry perpetrating another immoral catastrophic shameful war.
— Sheila Carrillo, Santa Cruz
The Sentinel welcomes your letters to the editor. Letters should be short, no more than 175 words. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letter-writers should include their full name as well as a street address and telephone number. We don’t publish those details in the newspaper, but need the information for verification purposes. Occasionally, we reject letters simply because we’ve had so many on the same subject. Submit your letters online at www.santacruzsentinel.com/submit-letters.