People just want to be heard, I’ve come to learn. It explains so much about us on so many levels.
It’s why social media is a nearly universal addiction among people in the younger generations. It’s why protesters take to the street, sometimes fighting with each other. It’s why people voted for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
It was also the reason for a meeting of local youth at the Vets’ Hall in Santa Maria on Oct. 12, an event hosted by a bevy of local groups, like CAUSE and One Community Action. At that town hall event, kids got to pool their ideas, vote, and talk about solutions to problems they see as affecting them directly.
The event followed another contentious Task Force on Youth Safety meeting on Oct. 9, where local parents and youth chastised the city’s approach to the community.
It’s the mayor’s task force, so I have to ask Alice Patino, how many times do Santa Marians have to ask for English-to-Spanish translation at these meetings before it’s just there for them, without asking? At the Oct. 9 meeting, a bilingual task force member was available the whole time, but didn’t translate until after someone complained during public comment—a half hour into the meeting! This came after multiple meetings where the same complaint was levied again and again.
Hello, habla Inglés, Alice?
Most people who spoke at the city’s meeting were parents, but there were some youth there. Only one spoke out though, and said that two youth representatives aren’t enough for the city’s task force.
“I came to ask for youth to have a seat at the table and they totally dismissed me,” she told City Manager Jason Stilwell and other task force members.
To be fair, the youngster did giggle a bit during her comment, had her phone out, and her friend was playing with her hair during comment. Just a point to local kids: Hey, if you want to be taken seriously, treat situations like that with a little more maturity. Bet hey, you’re young after all!
The town hall event was definitely a rambunctious affair, but those kids came up with some good ideas. Sure, they suggested nearly half a dozen million-dollar capital projects, but again, they’re young and idealistic! They don’t know the reality of budget deficits or pension crises.
You can say what you want about these darn millenials—entitled, immature, self-involved—but at least they say what they want and aren’t afraid to speak up if they feel like they’re getting shut out. At least they care enough to get involved, which is not true of most generations’ youth.
They just want to be heard, after all, and it’s refreshing to see representatives like 5th District County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino there to listen. While the thought of Lavagnino waving a shiny new toy (for a raffle) to the group of youngsters as they “oh and ah” is worth a chuckle, he gets it; he’s there.
The Santa Maria City Council and Mayor Patino should take note—it pays to listen to the people. The council’s meetings have been filled with outspoken residents lately who are fed up with the council’s approach to community engagement. We’re not just talking about translation services while addressing violence in the community—some have complained about a lack of openness when hiring Stilwell as city manager, another for their ignoring Santa Maria’s first PRIDE event, and now the Public Art Master Plan getting kicked back to a committee.
Santa Maria’s arts community is another small but vocal cross section of the population. There were the usual faces at the Oct. 3 meeting when the plan was delayed, pro-arts people like Craig Shafer (letter on page 14) and Ruben Espinoza, who argued that stipulations in the plans that would require new development permits to pay a percentage to a public art fund should be approved.
Another small cross section of the city’s population was there to counter that sentiment though—developers. They wanted their voices heard too. “We pay enough,” Ernest Armenta said. “If you want art, go fund it yourself.”
Local arts advocate Stefanie Hassett was at the meeting, and she wrote on a Sun Facebook post that she saw Councilmember Etta Waterfield suggest two developers for the committee, but what about anyone from the arts community? Everybody gets to speak during public comment, but the City Council really should give both sides a seat at the table, right?
Everyone deserves to be heard, especially those who’ve been pushed out of the public dialogue. Like the Dreamers whose residency status is threatened by President Trump’s executive order to rescind the DACA program.
We talked to a few local Dreamers for last week’s cover story (“This land is yours,” Oct. 12), and boy did that piss some people off. “Why don’t you write about how bad all these illegals are,” they chide.
Well guess what, DACA doesn’t cover anyone with a criminal record, so that’s not relevant to the story. You know what is relevant to the conversation surrounding DACA? The young man whose mother put a backpack and a strawberry crate in front of him as a child and told him to choose. He ended up going to college, works for a local school district, and is a contributing member of society thanks to the program.
Who else is going to tell that story, or talk to someone like that?
But according to all you Trumpkins out there, we’re biased just for talking to undocumented people. But we hear from you all the time, and have no problem running your letters, even when they take personal potshots at me, a freakin’ bird.
Last week Steve Cruz from Nipomo called me a “dumb-dumb” (“Canary hits new low,” Oct. 12), which is fine, I don’t mind name-calling, especially when it’s a Trump supporter doing it (should I be called Crooked Canary now?). Cruz went on to say I should change my name to “Donkey,” which besides calling me a jackass is suggesting I’m a Democrat.
You can call me a lot of things, Steve-O, but “Democrat” is not an accurate pejorative to describe me. Just because I criticize Trump doesn’t mean I’m a partisan, it means I’m paying attention, you know, doing my job.
And you know who doesn’t like journalists doing their job? The president. He recently said that it was “frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write,” in reference to a report on leaked information shared by NBC News.
Yeah, we’re “disgusting” for exercising the right granted in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, you know, the one about freedom of speech, assembly, the press, and religion? Ever read that one, Donnie?
The Canary has got your free speech right here. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 19-26, 2017.