Let’s face it, it just isn’t working. You Democrats have grown too far apart. It is time for a divorce. After losing the election to political zombie Donald Trump, who arose from the crypt of loss, impeachment, and prosecution, you are looking for a way forward. New leadership is being pushed by your progressives, with […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
The middleman
While warm-blooded American patriots were enjoying their weekends like warm-blooded patriots, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was out doing the work of the people: arresting rapists, pedophiles, and murderers (and I assume, good people, too)—according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security press release you can find right on its website! Direct-to-the-people news, direct from […]
Posted inOpinion
The U.S. should look to New Zealand for democratic inspiration
On No Kings Day, a chant reverberated throughout America as 7 million protesters marched in 2,700 cities and towns all across the country—including the Central Coast: “Tell me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” After a two-week tour of New Zealand, here’s what one version of democracy looks like: This small […]
Posted inOpinion
Our divided nation needs to heal with empathy
Empathy is not a “new age” idea. It is a hard, often uncomfortable discipline that requires patience, humility, and the courage to listen. Certain voices in our culture dismiss empathy as soft or naïve because they mistake it for agreement. It is easier to sneer at the idea than to do the difficult work of […]
Posted inOpinion
Rhetoric or reality?
The thin ice that Sable Offshore Corporation skates by on just keeps getting thinner. Ramming this overly aggressive push to get oil flowing through its pipelines down California’s throat isn’t really helping the Texas-based company’s case. And a reliable Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors oil vote switched sides because of Sable’s seemingly never-ending chain […]
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Lompoc’s school district is failing the community
The Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) is failing our community when objectively measured against the state of California education standards. Keep in mind that California rates in the bottom third of the nation, and the LUSD performance is well below that. A recent report in the Santa Maria Times put it this way, “Results from […]
Posted inOpinion
Trump’s campaign against detractors smacks of repeated history
I am old enough (barely) to remember the era when Joseph McCarthy declared that there were communists within the government, the military, and Hollywood. He claimed that he was going to ferret them out and put them on trial. And he did, not in secret but on television, ruining numerous lives. Finally, when McCarthy charged […]
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Conflicting interests
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office’s contract with a rental car company for its law enforcement vehicle fleet gives a whole new meaning to the company’s slogan: “Enterprise. We’ll pick you up” … in handcuffs. Since 2021, the Sheriff’s Office has rented its fleet from Enterprise at a cost of $3 million with an additional […]
Posted inOpinion
Dana Reserve development hurts the environment and doesn’t help the people who need it most
San Luis Obispo County’s biggest development proposal in decades, the Dana Reserve in Nipomo, just cleared a major hurdle—but the new Dana Reserve plan is still a bad deal for both housing and the environment. After a settlement with the developer, the project now promises only 78 deed-restricted affordable homes instead of the original 156—that’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Sacrifice is a calling
Sacrifice is a calling only the brave can hear. I’ve seen bravery in the still innocent eyes of an Air Force para-jumper, who drops from helicopters on a thin cable to bring home fellow airmen. I’ve seen bravery in the slumped shoulders of soldiers who disappear into the jungle at dusk, so that we could […]
Posted inOpinion
Have the courage to speak out loud and clear
My heart is breaking as the damage created by an undemocratic Republican Party under President Trump continues to destroy this country to the point of I do not recognize it anymore. A mere shell exists today of the America that was. The evildoers will soon think nothing of removing opposition to the point of physical […]
Posted inOpinion
Slippery slope
What brought us here? A tit-for-tat escalation of actions that we all agree are bad—and yet we’re doing it anyway. It started in the Texas Legislature, which—after a show of resistance from state Democrats (who ran away so there wouldn’t be enough legislators to vote)—voted in August to redistrict its congressional districts mid-decade to add […]
