Required Reading

Gwyn Lurie’s Editorial, “Wreck-Quiem for the Santa Barbara News-Press” (MJ August 3-10) should be required reading for every high school Civics class in the land.

It captures the infinite value of “The Third Estate” (sic), as journalists and newspapers were once called. It describes in fearsome detail what happens when there are no gatekeepers watching over the local happenings – the polluted drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, being a perfect example.

I had also read the article in The New Yorker about the McCurtain Gazette, in Oklahoma, “A small-town paper sizes up the county sheriff.” I applauded its courage and determination to get to the truth of a story and the ugly croneyism/corruption that would have gone undisturbed had it not been for this amazing short-staffed local paper. And I wonder about the deceit, the duplicity, the human-interest stories, the “shared set of facts,” that hundreds of towns have missed without a daily paper.

Mr. Buckley notes that the failure of a newspaper is a matter of indifference. It’s much worse. It’s a matter of ignorance with years and years of underfunded public education! Critical thinking, that invaluable skill of an educated person, is not only rare, but is now under attack! Too many people are simply unconscious of what is lost when their news is what they read at the end of a 30-second thumb scroll. And too many are perfectly content to submit to the masses of misinformation that flood the internet. Depth of content, fact-based analysis, and nuance are increasingly rare commodities.

When my family arrived to Los Angeles in 1947, one of the first things they did was to subscribe to The Herald Express and to the South Gate Press, in a suburb of L.A. At age 9, I don’t remember reading much more than the funnies, which was a great way of learning English, but I remember my parents reading these papers daily when their English language skills were far from proficient. It was understood that you couldn’t learn to become a citizen without being informed, even before they became citizens!

I hope Mr. Roberts’ guarded optimism about post-daily newspaper organizations comes true and that honest journalism, critical thinking, and a more informed citizenry can still emerge. I fervently hope that the “dangers of living in a world where power goes unchecked” does not come to pass.

Josie Levy Martin

Difference of Opinion

For years, Santa Barbara News-Press had a regular Guest Opinion commentator. His long columns appeared frequently, except last year’s when the opinion section of the paper was only on Sundays. His opinions dealt with politics be it local, state, national, or international, and always leaned heavily to the right. I read his opinions and mentally always disagreed. 

One column dated December 2014 dealt with Michael Brown and Eric Garner and obedience to government authority. This time, I wrote a letter to the editor strongly disagreeing with his logic. OMG! A few days later, he wrote a long essay questioning my wisdom and patriotism. He also involved my husband and used our names freely. My friends and family thought it was amusing and I was going to reply, but my husband said, “Do not pick a fight with someone who buys printer ink by the gallon,” so we just canceled our subscription that we had since 1970.

Danute Handy

Santa Barbara Good Time for Growth

Journalism is a guardian of the public interest. ‘Nuff said.

Maybe the former News-Press building can be converted into a combination transition center for the homeless and an “annex” office for the police department? Hmm… Crazy, no?

And maybe both the Journal and the Indy can hire the Press’s veteran reporters to fill the void in local news, and as a result become a twin-liaison reaching out to the larger national outlets like the Times. 

Sometimes two living heads are better than one dead one.

Growth in local journalism, by way of something lousy dying – it isn’t such a bad thing, is it?

LeeAnn Morgan
Montecito

Receptionist Revolution

On Wednesday, when you and your cohorts compile, compound, calibrate, cogitate over, and eventually cough up your next edition of the Montecito Journal by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers, may you consider including the following in your cough:

I have an idea that will increase the health and well-being of Americans and bring down the cost of healthcare as a result: Create a fund (I haven’t figured out by whom yet – small detail) to help out all of our poor, money-strapped corporations pay to reinstate that frontline position they eliminated oh-so-many years ago in the name of progress: the receptionist. The living, breathing, thinking, talking, sometimes even chuckling humanoid who could answer your question or transfer you to someone who could. 

Think of it: No more hours spent with the robotic “Chat Assistant” who has 10 programmed answers, none of which pertain to your question at hand. No more hours spent on the phone, lost in voicemail hell, listening to what must be the favorite tune of the Devil himself for the 23rd time. No more scaring the children with expletive-filled screams after being cut off shortly after you got a real person to talk to. And for me, no more calls like the one yesterday to my insurance company, where I was put on hold, transferred, put on hold, transferred… for 3 and a half hours – the time it takes me to fly nonstop from L.A. to Minneapolis – and my issue still wasn’t resolved! I would happily sit in a middle seat in coach with a crying baby next to me, a kid kicking my seat from behind, and my dinner of five mini-pretzels over another experience like this any day. Give us back living, breathing people who answer the phone, and I swear blood pressures, heart attacks, and strokes nationwide would go down, insurance rates would go down (certainly!) and everyone’s happiness level would go up. Here’s to the Hallowed Human Hello!

Caryn Schall
Montecito

Tomato, Tomato

I read a very interesting article recently in the MJ about tomatoes. In the article, the author touched on a few of the cultural aspects of tomatoes that might be of interest to the home gardener.

Stores buy unripe tomatoes and expose them to ethylene gas to “ripen” before they sell them. The result is a red fruit that is not physiologically ripe and has little taste. Home gardeners have the chance to harvest tomatoes at their peak of ripeness and flavor. Gently tug on a tomato that appears to be ripe and ready to eat. If it comes off easily, the tomato is ready to eat or store on the counter for a couple of days. In warm weather, do this procedure every two or three days.

Tomatoes are botanically a fruit – a swollen fertilized ovary containing one or more seeds. If tomatoes, squash, peppers, and many other summer vegetables are classified as a fruit, then what is a vegetable? There are many definitions of vegetables. Select the one that suits you best.

Santa Barbara County Master Gardeners are volunteers and agents of the University of California that extend to the public research-based information, verified by UC experts, about home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices. There is no charge for this service. Visit our homepage at Santa Barbara County Master Gardeners to learn more about our activities. Check out our free home gardening helpline and newsletter.

John Cookson MG