Santa Maria Sun / Letters to the Editor

Chumash annexation

Susan Tate - Santa Ynez -

In the Feb. 16 Sun article, “A slow fight for tribal land,” Chumash Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn reportedly said, “the federal government would closely regulate construction on Camp 4 should the land become part of the tribe’s reservation.” What does the federal government know about the Santa Ynez Valley’s general plan? One must only see the massive 12-story hotel addition and added parking structure constructed on their reservation to understand why so many SYV residents are concerned about the tribe taking more land into trust.

That high-rise structure, with another multi-story parking structure, would have never been allowed if the county had oversight over development on the reservation.

The Chumash have a right to build housing on their property. No one is against that. But like other property owners in the Santa Ynez Valley, they must follow the valley general plan and have county oversight and local input.

Salud Carbajal's no vote on Kate's Law

Marlene Hudson - Solvang -

"Help me Dad." These were Kate Steinle's last words as she died in her father's arms after being shot by an illegal alien who had been deported five times, had a record of seven felony convictions, but still found refuge in the sanctuary city of San Francisco. As a result of this travesty, Kate's Law was introduced in Congress to punish deported illegal aliens who re-enter the United States with a mandatory five years in prison.

Rep. Salud Carbajal voted against Kate's law. In doing so, he chose to play politics rather than protect the safety of his constituents. Kate Steinle was an innocent young girl whose life was cut short because there were no consequences for her killer's serial illegal conduct. The devastation of a life so cruelly taken will have lifelong effects on those who knew and loved her. We cannot let tragedies like this keep happening, and as citizens we need to hold Congress accountable for protecting us with laws that prioritize our safety.

Many illegal immigrants are hardworking and contribute to our society, but this legislation was a no-brainer and that's why it passed the House easily in spite of Carbajal's no vote. We need representatives who look out for us constituents, not ones who play politics just to receive more votes. Please call Congressman Salud Carbajal's office at 730-1710 to tell him that we don't approve of this vote and we demand that he do what's right for his constituents.

We can do more for environment

Bill Kleinbauer - Orcutt -

The Santa Maria Times July 13 editorial, “Our View: Facing sketchy future,” is a good start on educating readers on the extremely destructive and rapid path that we humans are on regarding our planet’s ability to sustain the lives of its creatures, including humans!

Let’s point everyone to very powerful breakthrough education in the July 10 article in New York magazine, by David Wallace-Wells, “The Uninhabitable Earth—Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak—sooner than you think.”

The Times wrote that “we could do more,” such as more solar and wind for power, and desalination of ocean water. An even bigger and immediate aid to the planet, and to your better health, is to go to healthy whole foods, plant-based, tasty nutrition!

Islam in the U.S.

Hugh Robinson - Nipomo -

The coverage by Brenna Swanston, “Humans of Islam” (March 30), is a nice piece and it portrays Muslims as peaceful and good citizens, and no doubt many are. But I wonder if you just played into the hands of Islam in their goal of replacing Western morays with the “one and true ideology/religion of Islam.”

The Judeo/Christian Western world is indeed under attack by Islamic extremists. Europe and England are already heavily infiltrated by Islamists who don’t want to “meld,” as our early immigrants did, but want to impose their ideology on their host nation. Islam’s ideology as written in the Quran is one where Allah is the one god and Muhammad his prophet, any non-believers are infidels to be eliminated or become subject to the believers.

Unfortunately, the average American has no idea as to how much has already been given away to Muslims. I strongly recommend you do some homework regarding Islamic ideology. A good place to start is to read Bridgette Gabriel’s Because They Hate and They Must Be Stopped. Gabriel is a Lebanese Christian who, when she was in her early teens, was driven out of Lebanon by the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). She experience firsthand the change in Lebanon from a Christian democracy where Beirut was called “the Paris of the Middle East,” to its being nothing more than a place where the PLO can send rockets into Israel. She founded Act for America to make Americans aware of Islamic extremist goals.

The U.S. has its great “silent majority,” who like most Germans, Russians, and Chinese, did nothing to prevent a few extremists like Hitler from taking over their countries, killing millions, etc. Please look on the internet for Gabriel’s answer to a young Muslim woman’s question: “How will the U.S. cope with the ideology of Islam?”—It’s an eye opener. None of us want to be “irrelevant.”

I am an 89-year-old man who cares very much about America and the wrong direction society is moving—away from God and love of country. We were a melting pot, but now with many languages and cultures, the country I grew up in is being fragmented and irrevocably changed for the worse. God bless.