Did You Know? Bonnie Donovan
“Beware of Darkness.”
— George Harrison
This Tuesday is the last chance to vote in the primary election.
Unfortunately, candidates for many important positions are running unchallenged. Running unopposed means no promises, no platforms, nothing for which the new “representative” is accountable.
An attitude of apathy is prevalent for the sacrifices and the tenets that made this country flourish for so long. A great nation that still attracts people here today, for endless possibilities that now hang in the balance. Weak leaders prevail where we used to have strong candidates in abundance. Weak leadership with a passive constituency is a recipe for disaster.
Standing up for what is right or even one’s opinion can be met with a social and financial takedown. Is this why so few good people run for office?
Our elected officials were so bullied with shouting and name-calling, by BLM/Healing Justice, that they bowed down and continue to give in to BLM demands. Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gregg Hart voted to give our taxpayer money to HJ, with more to come. Recall that Mr. Hart, as a member of the Board of Supervisors, the body that accepts or rejects the demand for housing, did not reject the RHNA of 8,001 additional housing units for just the city of Santa Barbara.
Presently Supervisor Hart is waiting for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s direction on how to address the tax dollars, or lack thereof, from the cannabis industry — the industry that “would even the playing field with the drug cartel” and infuse the counties with additional tax dollars. It has not happened.
The cartels just switched to a more profitable, more deadly, more easily manufactured product, fentanyl. It’s easier to transport and to conceal. Last week, the local law enforcement agencies busted a drug ring that traffics in fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine.
More than 100,000 people a year die in America by these drugs and opioids. During the traffic stop, a semi-automatic handgun was in plain view. Hmm, criminals do manage to get guns.
Speaking of what’s criminal, why weren’t the voters given the opportunity to observe the candidates debate the issues? Do the candidates consider the voters unnecessary?
Why only one debate for the first contested election in 40 years for the position of Santa Barbara County superintendent of schools? Two hundred and sixty people signed on to the Zoom presentation. It’s an election that is pivotal for the future of students in the Santa Barbara County school system.
Today’s curriculum and role modeling in schools now has the students believe there are no accountability, nor consequences in life. Why would they think otherwise? They have been taught that grades don’t matter, and detention is passé because it is a “direct line to prison.” If your feelings get hurt, the world must change, not you.
Last week a Santa Barbara High School senior prank went overboard, and those students deserve an F. As in felony. Behaving like a mob, 60 kids polluted the hallways with gallons of baby oil, Vaseline and seafood, and graffiti in addition to broken windows. Creating the scenario for a fall takes the fun out of a prank. But no bother, no consequences for them.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, is a career politician running for another term. He is proud to promote wind turbines farmed out in the ocean, first at Morro Bay. However, the life cycle of wind turbines is only 20 years. Solar panels have about the same lifespan.
Currently there appears to be no practical way of salvaging the wind turbine parts. Just like the electric car batteries, will these well-intended ideas all end up in landfills? Is this a short-sighted approach to our energy crisis? We wonder what Rep. Carbajal along with the green deal Pelosi and others accomplish by flying to Ukraine? We see a lot of hand shaking, shoulder shrugging and an increased carbon footprint. Meanwhile, we are reduced to riding bicycles with gasoline at $6 a gallon.
What are our politicians doing except putting us in the poor house, permanently? We deserve better. Remember, neither Gov. Newsom, Rep. Carbajal nor Supervisor Hart have done anything to lower the price at the gas pumps and instead voted to ban oil transportation locally.
And the forecast: “It’s going to get worse.”
We deserve better.
Recently Rep. Carbajal promoted doubling the College Pell Grant to $13,600.
But an enrollee can receive the Pell Grant, drop out two weeks later and keep the collected $13,600. Remember, he was so excited to distribute the COVID-19 relief money to Santa Barbara City College kids, who attended by Zoom. Free money is destroying the work ethic.
But God bless Mr. Carbajal, he is so proud of his accomplishments, you would think he just invented peanut butter.
“Those who do not harden their hearts to the pain and need of others, who do not give evil entry to their souls, but suffer under its power and so acknowledge the truth of God – they are the ones who open the windows of the world to let the light in.”
— Benedict XVI
