I know I’m the most opinionated yellow-feathered fiend you know, but it’s so hard to know how to feel sometimes. The nuance of life is lost in political debate and the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Details glossed over. Rush to judgment solidified.
The virus is spreading faster in Santa Barbara County than it is in most other areas of California. In other words, people become infected faster here for some strange reason. We are in the top three counties statewide. Kudos!
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, here’s how county Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg explained the spread: “Santa Barbara County is simply a beautiful place. It attracts lost of visitors. It attracts a lot of activities. It’s very social, and people like to get together and party.”
What is San Luis Obispo County? Chopped liver?
Northern Santa Barbara County also has densely populated housing situations. But you can’t really place blame virus spread on low-income residents with essential jobs who can’t afford less congregated living spaces, right? So partiers and tourists it is!!
All you party animals better knock that crap off!
Meanwhile, county Public Health Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso said the county is in dire straights, with COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU stays, and deaths increasing fourfold—and the state isn’t holding up its end of delivering promised vaccine doses.
Counties are blaming the state, which is in turn blaming the federal government. So, rest-assured, the vaccination rollout will be just as tinged with political angst and bad policymaking as the rest of the pandemic. And we likely won’t fix a damn thing in the process.
Could it be that public health departments are severely underfunded and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the poor state of the U.S. health care system, which isn’t built to tackle anything above a payday? No. Definitely not. It’s Democrats! It’s Republicans! Recall Gov. Gavin Newsom! Impeach President Donald Trump!
Speaking of the president who is no longer our president: OASIS Senior Center CEO Doug Dougherty resigned from his position due to … you guessed it, social media! According to Noozhawk, Dougherty was in Washington, D.C., during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6 and made comments on social media that some residents didn’t exactly like.
There’s no evidence that Dougherty actually entered the Capitol during the riot. And so I wonder whether a person who’s served a local organization well for a decade should be forced to resign due to his political views—and, by the way, without Facebook or Instagram, we would have been blissfully unaware of what he thinks.
What gives people the right to try to cancel somebody for the perceived wrongs of their worldview? Isn’t the whole point of free speech to enable society to engage in a public exchange of ideas about how society should operate?
I mean, he probably shouldn’t have responded to his critics on social media because we all know that never ends well: “How many more people want to threaten my life and job today? I’m not going to back down,” he wrote in response, according to Noozhawk.
Truth be told, none of the events of Jan. 6 and what followed would have been possible without social media or the internet, so maybe we should give that some serious thought.
The Canary wants to cancel Facebook. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2021.
