When I take a deep breath, I smell spring in the air. Join me and take a deep breath to awaken your senses. Inhale the cool air, fragrant with blossoming flowers and budding trees. Smell the freshly cut grass, hear the birds singing their sweet, melodic songs. Spring is in the air. The days have […]
Commentaries
Posted inOpinion
Every day is March 10
The Fukushima crisis is far from over
It’s been a year since we sat in front of our TVs, drop-jawed, open-mouthed, watching in horror as an earthquake and monstrous tidal wave engulfed the coasts of northeastern Japan. A year since video of an exploding nuclear reactor played again and again. A year since I called my brother in Tokyo, begging him to […]
Posted inOpinion
Support nonprofits, support transparency
Groups seeking to better the community deserve your help��”and your scrutiny
It is a terrible shame what is happening with—and allegedly by—the Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation. Those of us who work in the nonprofit sector, providing services not readily provided by our government or by the for-profit sector, hate to see any services lost or cut. We know how difficult, and how important, it […]
Posted inOpinion
Get in-FESTED!
Or, how best to fest
OK, this is a bit embarrassing, but I’m just going to admit it now and get it over with. I had already been the director of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival for about a year and a half before I really understood how to “do” a film festival! And when I say “do,” […]
Posted inOpinion
Avila’s voice was heard
Now is the time to remember residents who stood up for their community
The community of Avila Beach is in the news again; attention is being focused on “Lachen Tara,” the community’s affordable housing apartments. It seems timely to think about the history of how this tiny community was able to secure the affordable housing in the first place. It’s a story that needs to be told before […]
Posted inOpinion
Protest Santa Maria’s proposed rate increases
We’re not too busy or tired from making a living to speak up
Via a recent mailing as required by Proposition 218, the city of Santa Maria has notified me and other property owners and tenants of their intent to increase our water and sewer rates by 16 percent over the next three years. Details were not given in the mailing that would justify raising our rates at […]
Posted inOpinion
Emotions for everybody
Embrace community members for who they are as people
A recent week was particularly rough. It was enlightening, but the process was tough. To share my “tough and enlightening” week with you, it is important that you have a little bit of history: It was four years ago that I started teaching a yoga class at a local nonprofit, UCP WORK, Inc. UCP WORK […]
Posted inOpinion
Support nuclear power
The great source should be our main source
Those who oppose the use of nuclear power and think that solar, wind, and others will be substitutes do not understand that the real issue is in the numbers. Those nuclear power plants turn out two to three billion watt-hours of power every hour of every day, night and day! That is enough for two […]
Posted inOpinion
Let love, not hate, prevail
A local Islamic leader encourages people of all faiths and cultures to reach out to each other
My name is Mohammad Mohabbat and I’m the author of the internationally selling book “My Name is Mohammad,” which is a heart-wrenching story of my life. I have been working diligently for decades to bring people of the world together and not allow just a few misguided individuals to pit us against each other. My […]
Posted inOpinion
Online porn is risky
More kids are being exposed to–and harmed by–Internet pornography
Several years ago, researchers Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor published a highly disturbing article in Pediatrics magazine about youth exposure to online pornography that highlighted its effects on youth ages 10 to 17. Very few kids or young teens find their way into my office, but I’m beginning to see more and more young adults who […]
Posted inOpinion
Help Santa Maria protect and maintain essential services
A quarter-cent sales tax measure would lead to a safer and healthier city
On Jan. 17, the City Council will decide whether to declare a State of Fiscal Emergency and place an Essential City Services ballot measure before the voters this June. While many of our neighboring communities have multiple local funding mechanisms, this will be the first time we have placed such a measure before our voters. […]
Posted inOpinion
Homeowners need relief
The administration must take immediate action to alleviate the continuing crisis of foreclosures
I read the recent op-ed by Maria V. Eyles (“I’m dancing the foreclosure shuffle,” Nov. 17), which laid out, in excruciating detail, her incredibly difficult experience trying to obtain a mortgage modification. For the sake of our community, I wish it were a unique experience, but constituents call my offices on the Central Coast every […]