Letters to the Editor
Opinion
Published: August 08, 2008
Ya basta
To the Editor:
Santa Paula is in a racial time warp. Hardly a housing issue arises that is not accompanied by innuendos of racial prejudice. Unfortunately for rational discourse, those who blather this nonsense hope to gather support from those naïve kind-hearts on the other side of this imaginary societal line etched in the sands of time by bitter old men and women.
What our local torchbearers of “Chicano power” might observe is that the movement long since took its rightful place on the dusty shelves of history. The torches have gone out; they’re not even smoldering anymore. Even the term “Chicano” has faded for lack of useful definition. “Latino” and “Hispanic” are rapidly becoming meaningless as well. “Mexican” is, and always has been, a nationality not a race. And “race” - well, try to define it, I dare you.
Look around, fellow Santa Paulans, do you really see anyone being denied full membership in our community if they choose to embrace it? The angry whiners are the ones who have set themselves apart. They’ve drawn the line, not us.
Who then keeps beating this dead-horse issue at every opportunity and why? Who stands to gain if we buy into it? Clearly, glaringly, the sources of the racial grumbling can always be traced back to the minions of the taxpayer-subsidized low-income housing developer. It’s a gimmick. The developer’s objective is not a humanitarian social endeavor; it is nothing more than a business enterprise geared to sup very well at the trough of government largess.
To accomplish its corporate goals, the developer even has a road show, complete with scripted players who come before our City Council to wheedle support for more crowded housing. Their performance of “pobrecito de mí” is often followed by the grim lawyer citing chapter and verse, conjuring up the specter of dire consequences if the city leaders don’t fall into line.
Thankfully, we have achieved the desired color and hue of city leadership dreamed of by those who unsuccessfully tried to inflict voting districts upon us, and we did it without their help or influence. It is patently ridiculous for those old diehards to keep trying to play the race card, however cunning they imagine themselves to be. ¡Ya basta!
Bill Glenn
Santa Paula
Pushcart problem
To the Editor:
At a recent City Council meeting Andy Castaneda spoke to the group regarding the pushcarts that have frequented his neighborhood for so many years.
I wish to thank him for trying to do something about this problem and wish to let him know that we also have carts in the Oaks. We have also had problems with people living in garages and in custom built neighborhoods. On occasion when residents complain to the City, nothing is done. Although the owners are making big money from the garage occupants the homes often deteriorate.
In my opinion Andy is a great asset to his neighborhood and Santa Paula. I am glad to see him getting involved.
Kathleen Hobson
Santa Paula
When things get out of control/balance
To the Editor:
NATIONS, COUNTRIES, COMMUNITIES suffer when things get out of control/balance. Throughout the world this is the rule today as it always has been. A definition of a third world country is ANY COUNTRY THAT PRODUCES MORE POPULATION THAN IT CAN PROVIDE FOR.
Without economic balance we will end up with too many people and not enough food, housing, poorer schools, uneducated people in poverty. Some classic examples close to the US is Haiti, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Women that produce children that they can not provide the necessity for, control the degree of poverty in every part of the world. In our hemisphere we are witnessing terrible poverty. HUNGRY people become desperate and vote with their feet. One doesn’t have to read or write to vote with their feet. As intelligent people can get together and improve their own countries poor administration ways that are failing their people. Some find it easier to desert their own country and get out, rather than do anything to improve what they have at home. Educated people can see disasters coming, and ask for balance before it is too late. Uneducated people can not look into the future because all they can think of is NOW. Only a educated technical society could ever produce an air plane, car or a ship.
Santa Paula is fortunate to have many concern citizens that can see the handwriting on the wall. Santa Paula needs economic balance NOW!!!
We lost our Hospital for a number of years, WHY? We had too many people needing services and too few people able to pay for the services. Our hospital went broke! Is this the direction we are going again?
David Kaiser
Santa Paula
|
