• On Nov. 21, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) hosted his fourth annual Citizenship Recognition Ceremony where he virtually presented Special Congressional Recognitions to 102 new Central Coast citizens who took their oaths between July 2019 and November 2020. “These new U.S. citizens have rights, responsibilities, and opportunities that will strengthen and shape the future of our great nation, just as generations of immigrants have done before them,” a statement from Carbajal’s office said. “By choosing to naturalize, they are confirming their commitment to our country and furthering our legacy as a nation of immigrants.” In a Nov. 28 Facebook post following the event, Carbajal congratulated the new citizens and wrote, “The day I became an American citizen was one of the proudest moments of my life.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation that recognized the holiday but also addressed the inaccuracies in the Thanksgiving narrative as well as the challenges of celebrating during a pandemic. “Our understanding of the first Thanksgiving, of course, failed to tell the full story of European contact with Indigenous peoples living in what is now the United States,” Newsom wrote. “In the years that followed, Indigenous peoples have rightfully called attention to the inaccuracies and elisions in our national narrative.” The celebration of “friendship, generosity, and resilience” over Thanksgiving, Newsom continued, is the celebration of things that Americans have practiced all year long thanks to COVID-19. “We draw strength and resilience from the heroism of our health care workers, emergency response personnel, and essential workers from all lines of work, as well as volunteers who are safely checking in on their vulnerable neighbors,” he said. “Let us strengthen these lasting ties and resolve to protect and support one another during these unprecedented times.”
• The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department announced on Nov. 24 that the county remains in the purple (widespread) tier in the governor’s reopening system. The county has now been in the most restrictive tier for more than two weeks and continues to see increases in the positivity rate. In the Nov. 24 state report card, the county’s positivity rate increased by 0.5 percent, and the adjusted case rate by 0.2 percent. “These small, but consistent increases indicate that widespread transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 is happening in Santa Barbara County,” a county Public Health Department statement said. “We are continuing to face significant upticks in our local cases, and beginning to see increases in our hospitalizations,” Public Health Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso said in the statement. “Very quickly, we have seen our metrics approach the orange tier metrics and then suddenly revert back to purple tier levels.” The Public Health Department has consistently urged people to change their holiday plans, avoid travel, and limit interactions to those inside one’s immediate household. “It is not too late to change your holiday plans,” Do-Reynoso said. “Although it isn’t the easy choice, it is in fact the right choice this year.”
• Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), who recently won election to the state Senate, wrote in a Nov. 24 Facebook post about her recently passed Assembly Bill 209, which establishes the Outdoor Equity Grants Program. The program, Limón wrote, “creates opportunities each year for outdoor environmental education programs that primarily serve low-income students.” According to the bill, the California Director of Parks and Recreation will now be required “to increase the ability of underserved and at-risk populations to participate in outdoor environmental educational experiences at state parks and other public lands.” Limón added in her post, “I look forward to students having the opportunity to experience the outdoors after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
This article appears in Dec 3-10, 2020.