I am a 1970 graduate of Santa Barbara City College. Following that, I graduated UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in political science, spent a lifetime working for a top 10 international corporation, and along the way was an elected official and a member of the California School Boards Association.
I would just like to say how disturbed I am that a SBCC school board trustee would suggest the removal of the Pledge of Allegiance from their meetings. The suggestion that this pledge somehow invokes shades of white nationalism is simply ridiculous.
The community of Santa Barbara has always prided themselves on their liberalism and forward thinking on matters related to the human condition and the environment, and that’s all fine. I took those classes, I have spent a lifetime continuing the fight in communities all over California.
On the subject of the Pledge of Allegiance, here’s what I believe. At the very least, reciting this very short, very generic statement does one thing — it connects all of us as citizens or residents of this country back to a long line of service in the preservation and protection of our society.
Right now, there are people from Central America walking many hundreds of miles, Chinese nationals risking their lives in small boats, and literally millions of displaced people from around the world forming lines to have the chance to kiss the ground we walk on.
There are people in this country who have lived in this lap of luxury and are jaded; they live in nice homes in nice places, they show up at a meeting and want to prove themselves to be just a little holier than thou when it comes to a liberal agenda. There are plenty of conservatives who are just as bad.
I don’t have much time or patience for these dilettantes. There are bad people in this world, people who would take our freedoms, and much worse. I’m more than happy to recite the Pledge, and when I say it I mean it, not a moment of hesitation. If you don’t feel the same, then I don’t think you have any business being on the board of trustees of a public institution like Santa Barbara City College.
One of our great freedoms is the ability to vote for those we place our trust in. If the citizens of Santa Barbara don’t replace the members of this board with better values and better sense, then shame on them.
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