Well, it’s official. The apocalypse is back in full swing! Indoor activities are mostly off-limits, and the state is closing down again.
Gross! I don’t want to write about this, again. I’m tired of it. You’re tired of it, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tired of it, believers and nonbelievers are tired of it. We’re sick and tired of it!
But. It’s. Not. Going. Away.
So here we are again. Facing off with the pandemic, in the throes of rising cases, blaming every which wayward soul that we can.
“It was the protesters!” says one set of people.
“It was the holiday weekend revelers!” says another.
“It’s people not wearing masks!” says yet another.
“It’s the bar patrons!” says yet, yet another.
“It’s a lie!” say the idiots. Those people get their own category, because I really don’t know what else to do with them.
Gosh. You know what we’re good at in this country?
The blame game!
You know what we’re bad at?
Listening to solid reasoning and addressing the root of problems.
Like the wineries who are blaming cannabis projects for an anticipated future lack of tourism business. You know the ones. They keep appealing Santa Barbara County Planning Department decisions to approve cannabis cultivation land use permits.
This is a bit of a rerun for those of you who tune in regularly: But now they have a group called the “Santa Barbara County Coalition for Responsible Cannabis.” And by “responsible cannabis,” they mean “not growing cannabis.”
And I know this next part sounds like a rerun, but it’s not. This is a different cannabis project and a different winery owner who’s pissed off about it—but, yes, that coalition is indeed involved!
John Wagner of Peake Ranch Winery is concerned that a cannabis growing operation 2,000 feet from his property is going to smell so bad that it’s going to ruin the experience for his customers. That’s two-thirds of a mile!
So how far is too far and how far is too close?
Seems like something the county should study, since odor is No. 1 on the anti-cannabis complaint list. At least, then, there will be some scientific study to back up the claim on either side. Seems like the perfect thing for the county to do as part of the ordinance it’s making changes to.
But then again, people don’t believe scientific studies that they don’t like or agree with.
Cough, cough: All the folks out there who think COVID-19 is a liberal hoax to destroy the economy and prevent Donald Trump from getting re-elected.
Because that’s the world that we have built for ourselves. You see the reality you want to see and I see the one I want to see—even though we’re both probably wrong and we’re too stupid to notice to the fog of our self-righteous opinions about how incorrect the other is.
I, for one, am tired.
Can we just stop arguing about everything and try to find something we can actually see eye to eye on? It’s actually easy. We just have to stop yelling at everyone, and we need to start listening to each other.
Now is not the time to dig our heels in. It’s the time to come together and find a way forward.
The canary feels melancholy. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 16-23, 2020.
