Dan White's report on the town hall meeting fairly captures the essence of the event - thank you.

Robert Muller, former UN Assitant Secretary General proposed some time ago that we create a "World Media Watch" that would support journalists in serving society as educators rather than mere communicators. See below a letter I recently wrote a to the editor of the Sentinel which he declined to print (I acknowledge that he has published a fair range of my letters in the past). My issue with the Sentinel is not with the caliber of reporting but rather with the choice to continue the entrenched tradition of 'above-the-fold' alarmist or disheartening news.

Re Mala Notte (The relocation and persecution of Italians in Santa Cruz during World War II - by Geoffrey Dunn) Cuba, FOR, And - where are we today?

We very much appreciated Geoffrey Dunn's 'Mala Notte' presentation last Wednesday at the Vet's Hall. My husband and I heard about the event because we attended the Day of Remembrance the week before. My husband is full-blooded Italian (Sarnataro) and so had some interest in the second event. I was interested also but for more generic reasons.
First, thank you to Geoffrey for being willing to re-trace these steps, to feel and to heal. The unexpressed pain, the inability to tell the stories, the denial and smoke screens are all sure signs that we remain in danger of self-betrayal and projection no less then the generations before us.

In the days following Geoffrey's slide show I was consumed with the juxtaposition of Tommy Kadotani's photograph in the Sentinel, used first to affirm him as a stalwart, trustworthy community member and then cropped to portray him as an 'Enemy Alien' only by virtue of the fact that the FBI had arrested him.

In today's equally unpredictable climate I am acutely aware of the newspaper 'above-the-fold' phenomenon. There is every kind of considered column and opinion contained within the pages of all our daily's. A balanced forum seems to exist. Yet the damage is done by that one snap-shot above-the-fold headline news.

What does Sentinel really mean, I started to wonder:
sentinel [sntnl]
n.
1. a person, such as a sentry. assigned to keep guard.
3. to guard as a sentinel.
4. to post as a sentinel.
5. to provide with a sentinel.
[from Old French sentinelle, from Old Italian sentinella, from sentina watchfulness, from sentire to notice, from Latin]
Source: The Collins English Dictionary 1998 HarperCollins Publishers

Much like 'tribune' then, implicit in the name 'Sentinel' is the promise to uphold/guard/protect the rights of the people. Obviously, in this instance the Sentinel failed in its self-assigned duty. As Geoffrey Dunn wrote in Mala Notte:
"The Santa Cruz Sentinel quickly jumped on the relocation bandwagon. In an editorial dated Feb. 3 (1942), the local daily reasoned, "The United States can take no chances by trying to pick for exclusion only those aliens who are known enemies. All aliens originating from countries with which we are at war [should] be banned from the defined areas."" www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/06.20.01/italians1-0125.html

Sandy Lydon in his Internment Commemoration presentation challenged us: "Don't say you didn't know this time", jabbing his finger at us all seated there; "YOU KNOW!!" And here am I sitting in the sea of faces, a resident alien, fully aware that any rights I may have had have already been rescinded under this Administration - detainment without representation or deportation; either could happen. So what's to be done?

I am convinced of one thing: local daily's have a culpability for their above-the-fold emphasis - so do nationals of course but my concern here is with the role of a local daily as the voice of a community.

Last Friday evening I was present at an historic community gathering at which Sam Farr, Jeff Almquist and 30 or so community representatives were reporting back as the first delegation to Cuba under our Sister County Alliance program. The Cuban Study Group has accomplished something of great magnitude. www.uscsca.org/santacruzguama.htm Their achievement was recognized and honored in part by the community hall at the Methodist church filled to capacity. For research sake(!) I checked out the Sentinel above-the-fold today (Saturday, March 1, 2003).

Sentinel Top News this morning: 'Pain at the pump spreads', 'Suspect was freed despite reports - alleged rapist', Capitola's 'guardian' vandalized, swiped', 'White House adds exile to demands - Saddam must disarm, leave..' I was reminded of one woman's comment at the mike on the Cuban event; that before her involvement in the Cuban delegation she had been losing hope in humanity. I have to say, these selected top news stories serve to feed that hopelessness... and fear - Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) is right.

The period 2000-2010 is designated the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence by the United Nations and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) We are edging inexorably towards the halfway mark of this 'Decade of Nonviolence' and it's looking pretty ugly even while we may understand that there are many perspectives and real reason for hope.

The end of the decade will bring the felowship of Reconciliation close to its centennial. What must we do now to realize FOR's Vision: "a world of justice, peace, and freedom... a revolutionary vision of a beloved community where differences are respected, conflicts are addressed nonviolently, oppressive structures are dismantled, and where people live in harmony with the earth, nurtured by diverse spiritual traditions that foster compassion, solidarity, and reconciliation. www.forusa.org -That's the question.

Sandy Lydon reminded us that susceptibility was such in World War I, that local residents turned in 'suspicious' neighbors to the degree that the Sheriff's dept. could not cope with the volume. Will we re-act under pressure (repeating history) or will we have the tools to respond with consciousness and our collective humanity? Because I know that intention prevails, we must set our collective intent before fear-mongering twists the mind of a heretofore peaceable community.
May Peace Prevail on Earth.
Corrina McFarlane

tribune 1 [trbjun]
n.
1. (in ancient Rome)
a. an officer elected by the plebs to protect their interests.
Originally there were two of these officers but finally there were ten.
b. a senior military officer.
2. a person or institution that upholds public rights; champion.
[from Latin tribunus, probably from tribus {tribe}]
tribunary adj.
tribune 2 [trbjun]