DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
Did you know ballots for the upcoming elections were mailed out last week? As you can see, throughout our country, state, city, county and school elections, there are important decisions to be made by us.
Everyone needs to do their research and vote. This is particularly true for the various propositions. Two of them ask you to vote for the extension of gambling to sports in general. One is to approve online gambling ,and the other is to extend gambling in casinos to almost all sports events. Gambling is another addiction. As a nation, we are already crippled with addictions. Do we want to facilitate more? Is our apathy tied to addiction, or are we so numbed by the world in turmoil?
Why is it so easy to galvanize the normally apathetic public to demonstrate in the streets and produce almost 5,000 signatures to save some trees along Modoc Road?
Larry Donovan
Why do we not, with the same strength of purpose, defend our police department from left-wing woke politics? Why do we not use this power of numbers to protest and defeat the city staff and council’s destruction of the character and history of downtown Santa Barbara?
Why are there not 5,000 or more people applying extreme public pressure on those responsible at all levels for the management of Santa Barbara County public schools for the unacceptable student performances in English and mathematics? And for the inexcusable number of hours that should be spent on basic educational needs used instead to indoctrinate our children in anti-white, racist theories, and in LBTGQ+ propaganda on gender transformation and sexual practices?
We learned the state will not release student test results for all our school children until after the next election. Why? This is unprecedented. If the results were fair to good, why won’t the local schools release them?
When is education in this state going to be really for and about the children? Not about teachers’ union power? Not about cover-ups of constant failures in educating our young? Why are the mothers, fathers, grandparents and members of the public protests being ignored?
Again, we see party politics overwhelming the public’s right to know and, more importantly, the parent’s and students’ rights to know. This kind of manipulation of the facts and the dumbing down of tests is endemic in the pseudo-education, failed results and other cover-ups in our morally corrupt public school system.
Why are there not 5,000 people protesting, demonstrating, and acting to stop the destruction of single-family neighborhoods orchestrated by Sacramento, led by Sens. Scott Wiener and Toni Atkins? Especially as they are being aided and abetted by our own local, elected representatives and senior bureaucrats at city and county levels. They are supposed to represent us as our local elected officials and our employees. Now is the time to fire them all.
What do we fear?
Is it retribution from the powers that be? After all, we know that the federal justice system has directed the FBI to monitor parents at school board meetings who protest the policies and the bureaucrats managing the schools. Anyone who speaks out is identified as a potential, domestic terrorist.
Is it just fatigue from fighting the system? We cannot allow fear nor fatigue to deter us from obtaining our children’s constitutional right to free education.
Look at our world. Recently, it was revealed that several Los Angeles City Council members were caught on tape making derogatory racial comments about a co-worker and about recent Hispanic immigrants from Mexico. If a city council made up of people of color can’t get along, how will our world move forward or live in peace?
If we continue to allow accusations of systemic racism to divide us into warring racial tribes, instead of us joining together to form a better union, we cannot survive. Re-ordering our country with race as the fulcrum of every policy, procedure, and funding, will not strengthen this nation. We will become weaker, as our enemies circle and strike at our world.
“Every city or house divided against itself, shall not stand.”
— Matthews 12:25.
On a sad note, a great and gentle man passed away last week. We met Larry Donovan at his annual St Patrick’s Day Party. He made an immediate impression on us. First, he was surrounded by love and happiness from his family and warm affection from his friends.
He was a generous soul who extended a helping hand to everyone, quiet and kind with a high moral standard. But also, a man of determination and resolution. He is the great-grandson of Irish immigrants. He held onto the immigrant qualities of hard-work, and the value of a good education to succeed in America. His family was his priority. His family was his home. He represents much of what is good about this nation of immigrants.
R.I.P., Mr. Donovan.
Bonnie Donovan writes the “Did You Know?” column in conjunction with a bipartisan group of local citizens. It appears Sundays in the Voices section.
