Letters to the Editor

Gratitude for Gwyn

My wife and I have been reading the Montecito Journal with pleasure since Gwyn became CEO and Executive Editor. You have greatly improved the overall editorial content of the paper (which I, for one, seldom read under the editorship of your predecessor) and your Editor’s Letters have been uniformly thoughtful and well written.

We want to especially thank you for the inciteful, sensitive and very timely letter in this week’s edition about George Floyd’s murder and its aftermath. We can only hope that your readers, and others who may have the benefit of your thoughts, take your message to heart and begin thinking seriously about the racial injustice that still permeates our country. Please continue to express your enlightened thoughts for the benefit of us, your readers and supporters.

Lastly, we also want to thank you for arranging the delivery of the Journal during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place. A most supportive and appreciated gesture!

Warren Miller

Dear Santa Barbara Police

Dear men and women of the local Santa Barbara Police Department, I appreciate you. I value your bravery and courage to defend the citizens of this town from crime, both violent and nonviolent. I have just completed my first year of college, and it seems that many people my age are very angry with the police across America, blaming them for racial injustice and violence. I, however, don’t think that just because a police officer in Minneapolis killed a man means that the local police here in Santa Barbara, thousands of miles away, are in any way associated with or to blame for that unfair death. Assuming that would be akin to racism – just because one member of a large group does something wrong doesn’t mean that all the rest are bad or to blame. When I see the number of police who have been hurt, shot at, spit on, and yelled at over the past few weeks, I am greatly saddened. The vast majority of these officers are only trying to do their job: protect the Human Rights of innocent citizens as guaranteed by our Constitution. When that document was written, there wasn’t a single country in which the inalienable rights of an average person were protected. Tyranny and direct royal rule were the status quo, societies lacked due process or equality before the law. When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution over 200 years ago, they stated that this new country would protect, rather than violate, these laws. A police force was created to ensure these rights, and, for the most part, they have been doing their jobs well ever since. That is why when I walk down State Street and see police, I am comforted, not afraid. I know that should I be assaulted, or robbed, or threatened, the police are there to help me and find the perpetrator. Without these officers, the tenuous line between civilization – where business profits and people aren’t afraid to sleep at night – and anarchy would be broken, as it has been in recent weeks. Indeed, I recognize how lucky I am to have you, the police, here to protect me and my family because of how many countries still to this day are not safe for the average person to live or prosper. In some of those countries, the police work with corrupt politicians to violently suppress civil rights, in others to oppress or ignore the rights of women. While America isn’t, and never has been perfect, it has never descended into such violent chaos as exists in so many places today. That, in large part, is due to our police finding criminals and arresting them, freeing our society of fear. So, I would like to speak out and say that as bleak as it looks now, with so many young people ignoring this important history and facts, I am one young person who supports and highly appreciates my local Police Officers. Thank you for all that you do.

Sullivan Israel

Missed Opportunity

Too bad Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo didn’t show more sympathy and savvy in her meeting with the Black Lives Matter protestors in front of the SB Police Headquarters. Instead of sheltering behind the line of well-armed cops, a more politically sensitive leader would have taken the police chief by her hand, crossed the barrier into the crowd and together engaged the protestors and their organizers with pledges of support in their campaign against racial brutality by the police. Taking a knee might have capped matters for the protestors – even though resisting such enforced genuflection could be understandable if an otherwise attentive Mayor Murillo had considered that a step too far. One certainly wishes our president had followed such an interaction with the demonstrators in Lafayette Park instead of violently evicting them for his bible-flaunting photo op.

Frederic Golden

Failure of Leadership

Amid the anguish and protests over the horrible, unnecessary death of Georg Floyd I would like to know when the Democrats in charge of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota will be held accountable? The African American police chief, Medaria Arradondo, was tapped in 2017 to lead the department’s reform following criticism of frequent, excessive force and discrimination against people of color. The previous police chief tried to make reforms but was defeated by the police union. The officer, Derek Chauvin, had 17 complaints against him – only one resulted in discipline. He shot two people during his career and was never charged.

George Floyd died because of incompetent governance. It is sad that our politicians, Antifa and the rest of the elite puppet illuminati, looking at the problem through a racial prism, are using this murder, created by a failure of leadership, to divide our nation.

Attacking our country over what happened in Minneapolis is wrong. Individuals are guilty not a group or a nation.

Cheryl Trosky

Grand Slam

I want to express my profound appreciation for your extraordinary “letter” in the current Journal (June 4-11). It wasn’t just a home run; it was a grand slam! I’ve enjoyed the Journal for years. Your stewardship has raised it to yet a higher level.

Thank you,

Bob Levine