Suggestion: Build dormitories for homeless

Are you brave enough to print this suggestion?

All California counties should build dormitories to house couples and single individuals who are homeless. We should also provide state- or county-owned land for those who insist on living in tents, vehicles and trailers. This is a state problem not a county problem.

We should look outside our cities for buildable land to build since our cities are already overpopulated.

Government funds used to build affordable housing must remain government owned and not used for profit, since taxpayers are paying for this housing.

Homeless and low-income families with children can obtain state funding to pay for state-owned housing based on their income using taxpayer-funded subsidies that could be repaid if or when they are able.

— Douglas M. Thomson Sr., Aptos

Climate change? Past three SC winters prove it

Anyone who thinks global warming and climate change are a hoax ... to me, wasn’t living in Santa Cruz the past three winters.

Sheesh.

What next?

— Ben Marcus, Malibu

Corruption and socialism top issues, not housing

The Editorial (Dec. 22) claiming Santa Cruz is “required by the state to create 3,736 more housing units by 2031” is a falsehood.

Stop repeating that lie. The state’s oppressive, but not mandatory, housing and land-use targets arise from double counting actual housing needs, and from developer-lobbied favors who stand to gain markets either way as a free pass on development approvals if we don’t meet these artificial and largely unachievable goals, or as in this case, create a market going Mayor Keeley’s socialist housing subsidy route, or both.

Not in America please. It is a creation of an artificial anti-free trade market. That is the lobby-corrupted state’s idea and a throw in the towel on inflation they have no answers for.

Vote no on Keeley’s socialism when it comes up. Your overtaxed wallet will thank you, even if you are a renter.

— Garrett Philipp, Santa Cruz

Taking a stand against ‘duplicitous’ StandWithUs

Recently, I stood proudly outside Temple Beth El, with local Jewish groups Santa Cruz Jews for a Free Palestine and UCSC’s Jews Against White Supremacy, holding a sign declaring, “Genocide is not a Jewish Value.” As an octogenarian Jew, I deem it unconscionable for a Jewish place of worship to be showcasing StandWithUs, a duplicitous group connected with the right-wing Christian Zionist group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

StandWithUS — dedicated to eliminating all criticism of Israeli policy and actions — masquerades as a neutral, non-political organization. Denying the devastation of Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on Gaza — cited by Amnesty International, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories, and South Africa’s government as a genocide — SWU confronts even moderate Jewish activist groups J street and Standing Together, and strongly opposes the nonviolent BDS movement. The “non-political” organization works to stifle dissent, eliminate dialogue, particularly in university settings.

I stand with hundreds of Santa Cruz Jews, declaring Israel’s bombardment, siege, starvation of Palestinians a genocide/ethnic cleansing. Never Again is happening now.

— Sheila Carrillo, Santa Cruz

Religious intolerance in Bethlehem at fault

A Dec. 24 AP-article “Bethlehem plans Christmas under ... war” omitted the greatest cause of Bethlehem’s diminished celebrations – the Christian population decrease. In 1995, Israel ceded control of Bethlehem to the new Palestine Authority – preparing for a two-state-solution. In 1995, Bethlehem’s population was 80% Christian, 20% Muslim. Due to intense PA religious intolerance, Christians fled Bethlehem, moving to the religious freedom Israel provides. Today, Bethlehem is 80% Muslim, 20% Christian.

The article presented PA/Hamas propaganda, omitting that Hamas started the war by invading Israel and murdering 1,200 Israeli civilians; Israel’s tourism also declined.

Religious intolerance decimated Christmas celebrations. As the world celebrated the birth of a Jew, in Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago, the PA rewrites history, teaching there were zero Jews in the area until 1948.

— Fred Korr, Oakland