Oct. 28, 2021

The scariest part of Halloween? The dairy industry.

Little scares me about Halloween or trick-or-treating. Ghosts, zombies, skeletons and witches have nothing on all the milk ingredients in candy and the frightening truth about the dairy industry.

This is the industry that has spent billions convincing humans that drinking the milk of another species is okay.

This is the industry that feeds millions of dairy cows in favor of feeding starving humans.

This is the industry that creates pastures for dairy cows which accounts for a substantial reduction of forestland and other wildlife habitats. Add to this that the digestive system of cows discharges large amounts of methane, and their waste discharges nitrous oxide, both contributors to global warming.

This is the industry that perpetually impregnates cows in order to keep them lactating to produce milk meant for their offspring and then kills them off after they are “spent.”

The dairy industry is more frightening than any Halloween nightmare.

But, we’re lucky. Our local supermarkets offer a selection of plant-based milks, cheeses and ice creams, as well as a colorful display of fresh fruits and veggies. And the dairy industry reporting slumping sales is just the treat we need this holiday season.

Victor Castanza
Ventura

No gun play for entertainment

Movies and TV films and series feature guns and shootings as required forms of entertainment these days. The bigger the gun, the more buzz it stirs.
 
Years ago I told our kids we would not take them to any entertainment that featured guns in its ads or plot lines. What could their kids not see these days? Top grossing “Action” and “Horror” films lead the way in 2021 with all sorts of murderous mayhem for our enjoyment, gun blazing in any confrontation with so-called evil.
 
We only have to check the morning papers to keep track of the carnage of our U.S. gun culture. About 37,000 people die of gunshot each year in the U.S., most by suicide. El Salvador and Brazil beat us out on that score.
 
With the real accidental slaying of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust, we see that even simulated gun play can kill. My advice — stop going to gun play films and entertainments, and maybe they will not be so profitable and stir the imagination of young and old to think about how cool guns are supposed to be.
 
Robert Chianese
Ojai

In response to the Oct 21, 2021 opinion piece written by Paul Moomjean, titled “Purple Is The New Party/Chappelle 3:16,” DSA Ventura County would like to say that while the piece seems to support those in our LGBTQIA+ community, it does so in a superficial way.

While he says the “Left” won regarding gay marriage, we say, no, “humanity” won. He says the world is still fighting over pronouns and identity. No, the world is evolving and becoming enlightened to the ways in which minority groups prefer to be addressed — what they consider respectful and dignified. Chappelle, a Black man, should understand this. Instead he doubles down as he derisively calls us the “Alphabet People,” an insulting term Moomjean chooses to repeat unnecessarily.

We don’t believe the term “Reverse Homophobia” used here by Moomjean is appropriate, if even a legitimate term.  We are talking about gay and trans lives in danger compared to a handful of comics having their careers stalled for a few years because they were called out for hateful so-called “jokes”.

Moomjean maintains gay hate only goes back to the Reagan Era.  Many of us have lived tortured lives starting way before that. Anti-gay and trans bigotry has been happening for centuries in most patriarchal cultures.

We on the Left would gladly accept sincere apologies from those who were once bigoted.  Instead, comics like Chappelle, a celebrity many in our culture laud, continue their brand of thoughtless and insensitive comments that embolden their most hafetul fans to deadly action. Moomjean seems to suggest at the end that we should put down our swords.  We are just defending ourselves.

Allen Chinn
Secretary, Democratic Socialists of America – Ventura County