SERIES:
CEDAR STREET
SUMMIT
Engineer and playwright Harold E. Grice (right) sings karaoke with collaborator
Wanda Sue Parrott at her 85th birthday party in 2020. Harold is the retired founder of Grice Engineering, Salinas. A lifelong writer, the past-president of
Central Coast Writers branch of the California Writers Club passed away in August 2021 at age 87.
Part 1 - Immigration 101 - Or Why Some Folks Are Pissed Off! (August 3, 2018)
UNDERSTANDING immigration shouldn’t be complicated. If you move from one place to another, you
migrate.
Migration interpreted as “moving from one country to another” raises complex questions like:
Is the move legal?
For instance, an illegal-alien bears a child in the U.S. The baby is a U.S. citizen, possibly eligible for
benefits the illegal parent, as legal guardian, collects and spends.
Whoa! Protestors are pissed off and human rights issues are raised.
Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: Everyone has the right to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law.
So we ask:
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 2 - "I Do Not Feel Brave, I Feel Pissed Off!" (August 10, 2018)
UNDERSTANDING immigration, as we’ve said before, is easy: If you move from one place to another, you
emigrate out and immigrate in.
A summit means a meeting of minds to exchange ideas.
This week’s summit features creative community member CeliaSue Hecht’s housing proposal.
Summiteer Hecht is one of 500 homeless women who migrate around Monterey.
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 3 - Are Tiny Homes Really Coming To Town? (August 17, 2018)
RESPONDING to last week’s column, Summiteer Rick Hadlock writes, “Interesting article. CeliaSue has quite
a life in her van.”
If you’re unfamiliar with CeliaSue Hecht, she’s our local senior homeless Summiteer whose monthly
social security is less than $700.
CeliaSue is one of 500 homeless women on the peninsula; she lives with Cici, her 12-year old canine
companion, in a van. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 4 - Homeless Woman Asks: To Have Or Not Have Cancer Surgery? (August 24-31, 2018)
REACTING to last week’s column, 68-year-old homeless Summiteer CeliaSue Hecht bristled with indignity.
If emotions of a homeless woman with cancer won’t offend you, read on. Otherwise, stop!
The paragraph that piqued CeliaSue last Friday is slightly amended here:
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 5 - My Dog Is The Most Important Living Thing In My Life (August 31, 2018)
ACCORDING to statistics cited on Fund for Homeless Women’s new website, estimated number of
unsheltered women on the Monterey Peninsula has now risen by 100.
If the website were a living Summiteer, she’d tell you: “It is difficult to get an accurate count of the
number of women without shelter.”
You’d probably respond, “Why is it so hard to pinpoint the number of houseless women?”
And this dialogue is born! (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 6 - "...Like The Snap Of A Rabid Dog's Jaws On Unsuspecting Prey!" (9/6-13/2018)
LOSING a friend to death is hard to handle, but when my friend is alive, homeless and vanishes, as happened
when Summiteer CeliaSue Hecht disappeared last week, I was stunned.
If two words describe reaction to such loss, mine were: “What happened?”
In all “missing homeless friend” cases I’ve had since starting this column in October 2014, a common
thread connects them all. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 7 - Kayla Cockadoodledos Council At Seaside City Hall (September 14-20, 2018)
CONSIDERING the fact our human brain is believed to keep growing until age 25, did Seaside’s only female
city council member suddenly attain the maturity of a young adult by publicly castigating her all-male peers?
If the young mother were 52 instead of 25, would stunned witnesses have reacted by asking:
What was her September 6 outburst about? A personal “#MeToo” sort of poke in the guts of the good
old guys, or a warlike move designed to win votes from fringe-group voters from the LGBTQI+ community to
homeless women in need of Seaside’s rumored future tiny-homes village?
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 8 - Remembering Ralph Rubio's Big Boondoggle That Worked! (September 21-27, 2018)
FLIPPING through old columns led to rediscovery of this headline from the March 27-April 2, 2015, edition of
Cedar Street Times: Kick the Can Politics--Homelessness versus diplomacy on Seaside City Council.
“If I were empowered to give out public service honors,” the text said, “Seaside City Councilman David
R. Pacheco would have won 2015 Diplomat of the Year Award at last week’s city council meeting.”
I nominated Seaside for “the hypothetical 2015 Boondoggler of the Year Award.”
Why? (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 9 - The Spotlight's Gonna Shine Where It Ain't Shone Before (September 28 - October 4, 2018)
“THROWING shade” on the Monterey Peninsula started shortly after this column’s September 14, 2018
headline hit the ethernet: Kayla cockadoodledos council at Seaside City Hall.
If you’re not up on 2018 election-related lingo, the Oxford Dictionary says, “throwing shade” can be
used as a phrase to “publicly criticize or express contempt for someone.”
What happened? An unknown person shot out an eye from a poster of Seaside’s youngest mayoral
candidate, Kayla Jones, currently the sole black Seaside City Councilmember and the only female.
Does this sound like mudslinging-turned-scary?
Read on!
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 10 - Campaign Contribution Chaos Follows Seaside Councilmember Kayla's Cockadoodledo (October 5-11, 2018)
SPEAKING rhetorically, an Unknown Philosopher once said : For every action, there’s an equal and opposite
reaction.
If open to interpretation, you might prefer “The law of action and reaction,” “Karma” and “The Law of
Retribution.”
Jesus said wisely, “Cast not thy pearls before swine, lest they turn and rend you.”
So, what does this mean?
Basically, that the local level reflects the national level of politics, or vice versa! (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 11 - Do We Inherit Land From Our Ancestors Or Borrow It From Our Children? (October 12-18, 2018)
COCKADOODLEDOING fellow city councilmen as Kyla Jones did is one thing, but giving Columbus the
cockadoodle, as Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio did, was quite another.
If you missed it, folks, watch Channel 25 reruns of the Seaside City Council meeting of October 4, or
click on this link to see live video streams: http://www.ci.seaside.ca.us/129/City-Council-Committee-Agendas
Due to technical difficulties, my TV blinked, so I rushed to City Hall to witness councilmember Kayla
Jones’ trial in the court of public opinion for alleged misappropriation of expenses. Would 25-year-old Kayla be
crucified, or would she attain salvation? (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 11a - The Last Indian On The Trail Of Tears (October 12-18, 2018)
Soh wohm dee chee lah
Soh wohm moh kee
Soh
Soh wohm dee moh kee
I am last Indian on the Trail of Tears... (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 12 - Will Media Honor Survive Today's "Fake News" and Horse-Puckey? (October 19-25, 2018)
DURING the past week, a local trial in the court of public opinion escalated.
If you wonder what kind of “trial” it was, think of the national poohbah who, last week, tweeted about
the blonde porn star who sued him by calling her “Horseface;” her insulting sexual retort was calling him
“Tiny.”
Tacky!
And dangerous.
The public, eager to slurp sleaze like it’s a melting hot fudge sundae, forms judgments based on hearsay, half-truth and pure horse-puckey, and claptrap detracts from major issues. Example: The honorable National Public Radio (NPR) reported on October 15... (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 13 - Boondoggler's Guide To Picking The Right Candidates! (October 26 - November 1, 2018)
BOONDOGGLING tips can help deconfuse voters!
If you’re like me, two weeks before elections are so tense your vision is clouded and mood is so
begrouched you risk not voting at all.
You’re on your own with issues. Let’s talk candidates.
Politicians boondoggle; not all boondogglers are equal.
A Boonbaby is inexperienced at stalling, delaying and avoiding completion of projects; a Boondaddy is
a blusterer who promises to do something, like build a wall to keep out immigrants, even if the idea bogs down. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 14 - "I Kept Asking God Why? How Could You Do This?" (November 2-8, 2018)
FLYING Old Glory at half-mast—again—isn’t working!
If today weren’t “The Day of the Dead” in Latinx communities, the pre-election week headlines might
pass as coincidentally bad--if not downright fake—news.
But facts don’t lie.
Refugees are migrating north in a caravan as wide as a human river and deep as the Trail of Tears death
march that relocated eastern Cherokees to Oklahoma dumping grounds called “The Nations” in 1838-1839. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 15 - On Which Side Of The Barbed Wire Fence Are You? (November 9-15, 2018)
WARNING: Concentration-camp content ahead!
If holocaust questions make you cringe, ask yourself why.
Do crises at our borders raise questions about a rise in possible Fascist or Neo-Nazi activism? If yes,
read this column and its predecessor.
See my Facebook timeline rerun .... and then ask yourself: Is
America skirting around United Nations’ Article 9 of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”? (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 16 - Kayla Quits Council As Caravan Comes To California (November 16-22, 2018)
RESIGNING effective December 1, Kayla Jones, 25, is retiring from her brief stint as Seaside City
Councilmember and 2018 mayoral candidate (she lost to Ian Oglesby whose council seat she won in 2016).
If you recall, this column announced “Kayla cockadoodledos council at Seaside City Hall” on Sept. 7.
It detailed her outburst at the Sept. 4 council meeting at which she railed against alleged sexual
harassment from the older all-male city council and ended with a threat that basically sounded to me like: “If
you don’t stop, I’ll make a lot of noise.” (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 17 - "I Still Remember When You Loved Me And I Mattered" (November 23-29, 2018)
DYING of a broken heart is the stuff that makes for great legendary country western love songs. If, however, a
real life victim like homeless writer CeliaSue Hecht or former Seaside city councilmember/mayoral candidate
Kayla Jones suffers, do people really care?
Last week, following online publication of 25-year-old Kayla’s letter of resignation, I counted at least 75
messages on the Next Door thread announcing “Kayla is gone!” (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 18 - Is Fear Of A New Fuhrer Fake News Or Future Fate? (November 30 - December 6, 2018)
ACCORDING to Thanksgiving weekend posts, the President’s hard stance against admitting the migrants now
seeking asylum in Tijuana drew responses ranging from “Fabulous!” to “Führer!”
If Trump wins the standoff in which he threatened to close the entire US southern border, will a new
policy favorable to all sides of the long-standing immigration issue result?
Conversely, if he loses, will those who fear he’s America’s führer be right?
Entire families of asylum-seekers have been amassing at the southern border in Tijuana. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 19 - Welcome To The Ever-Possible Neighborhood Of Humankind (December 7-13, 2018)
RESPONDING to last week’s column (“Is fear of a new führer fake news or future fate?”), several readers
lauded me; others lambasted me for President Trump’s political Hitlerian innuendo.
If my reaction can be confined to two words, they’re: “Wow! Thanks!!”
Why “wow”? Think about it! Each of us is a communal ambassador, an “agent of our community.”
Thus, the image we citizens present to the world is our collective American neighborhood. (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 20 - The Shortest Presidential Soliloquy In American History (December 14-20, 2018)
DEFINING “human rights” isn’t easy.
If it were simple, honoring those rights should be a civil as well as legal cinch.
Not so, however, as proven by in last Monday’s live episode of the hypothetical National Political
Theatrics’ presentation of “The Battle over the $5 Billion Wall.”
Stars were President Donald J. Trump (R), protagonist who shot off his mouth.
Antagonists were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D), who controlled their mouths by opposing the funding of ... (CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
Part 21 - Santa Claus Does Not Stop Here (December 21-27, 2018)
FOLLOWING your heart isn’t easy if it’s also against the law.
If you could vote on the immigration issue right now, would you say yes, no or maybe to the sanctuary
issue?
How about allowing asylum seekers into the U.S.?
If you’re okay with allowing a selective few, such as the very young, elderly and most-infirm migrants to come in now and take care of legalistic and other asylum-seekers later, welcome to friends of the Love Knows No Border group of caring citizens.
Who are they?
(CLICK TO CONTINUE READING...)
