To: theproject@studentmedia.ucsc.edu

I’m like you. I’m not against murder. I’m not against eating meat. I know that sounds sarcastic, but I mean it: meat is murder, and that’s okay. I’m a realist and I understand the laws of nature. But the way we get the meat we eat today, its sadistic nature, its toll on the environment, and the way it warps our own understanding of the world makes our literal thirst for blood a social cancer and WE NEED TO SHUT IT DOWN, like right now.

Poerty from the PROJECT
March 2005

Out of the Closet
How to Grow Your Own

For Entertainment Purposes Only (duh)

The month of February saw 5 new victims of the drug war in Santa Cruz, young and greedy pot enthusiasts who crowded a few too many medical marijuana licenses in one house. They would have been fine; they had way less than the legal limit. What busted them was the proliferation of cash and scales. The Sentinel reported that law enforcement throughout California are now trying to "weed out" those exploiting medical marijuana for "dealing" instead of "healing."

While war is shredding shrapnel into the citizens of virtually every other continent on the planet, we here in La-La land are busy bopping our heads to a new kind of politics. As exemplified by the February 25th Bay Area Tsunami Benefit concert, such forms of vicarious involvement present the opportunity to "get active" from abroad while maintaining contemporary comfort levels and capitalist consumption patterns. Though such acts no doubt play a crucial role in the raising of awareness, funds, and potential networking efforts, it is crucial to maintain a critical position on the final fallout they do or do not engender. As we groove our way towards new understandings of "activism" and "involvement," we must remain reflective of the extent to which such acts can become limiting when understood as an ends in and of themselves instead of being used as a starting point for more long-term, sustainable efforts.

On March 3rd, Students Against War (SAW), a newly formed UCSC organization, held a teach-in about the war in Iraq. SAW is comprised of three different campaigns that work closely together to fight against manifestations of the war-machine on a very local level. At the teach-in each group presented its current projects and through break-out groups, encouraged new students to get involved. Here is an overview of what was brought up at the event.

A powerful new lobby tells the world its purpose is to direct Congress to act on behalf of the State of Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world demonstrated against the War in Iraq on Mar. 19th and 20th.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005—Santa Cruz, California…. The Santa Cruz AIDS Project’s (SCAP) HIV Resource Drop In Center (HIV-DIC) has been a topic of much discussion as of late. In the midst of repair from the December 2004 fire that drastically slowed down center programming, HIV Resource Drop In Center staff reported two acts of property damage last week. In addition to the smoke and water damage, the building owner and occupants must now deal with graffiti and a broken window. Susan Pratte, SCAP’s Harm Reduction Program Coordinator and HIV-DIC point person, is not deterred. “We are taking quick steps to deal with this small set back.“