A collection of communications from readers about kelp, ducks, cannabis, and more Tide Guide 11 Community Voices

LETTERS (Continued from page 8)

Cannabis Capital

This message in support of Nick Schou whose articles on the cultivation of cannabis in Santa Barbara county and shedding some light on it’s behind the scene shenanigans couldn’t be more welcome.

Personally I find it ironic having spent a great deal of my life in Latin America (Guatemala / Mexico) to finally settle in this part of the world and be surrounded by cannabis plantations and having to bear its pungent odor when the wind blows the wrong way.

Santa Barbara is known the world over for its wonderful climate, elegant and sporty lifestyle, ocean views, well protected landscapes, polo, sailing, wineries and vineyards, lovely hillside properties and home to a community of local and cosmopolitan creative, entrepreneurial spirits who embody cultural diversity and live in graceful harmony. To imagine it now as the cannabis capital of the US is not only absurd but sounds like a bad joke. Mr Schou’s writings offer us a chance to unite and raise a red flag. This is not about vilifying Cannabis but a wake up call to consider growing it elsewhere and not jeopardizing a century old community whose image as a world-class destination was forged otherwise.

The day will come when mainstream media and emblematic lifestyle magazines will highlight Santa Barbara county’s odd change of course favoring cannabis growth above most else, which will no doubt cause quite a giggle. In these darker days of Coronavirus best humor enlighten our spirits.

Thank you, Nick Schou, thank you Montecito Journal, please carry on the good work!

John Edward Heaton

Thanks, Joanne!

A couple of recent issues of the Montecito Journal have educated me with interesting new information.

I’ve been associated with Read ‘n Post for almost 19 years. But after reading Joanne Calitri’s entertaining photo feature about the Montecito Country Mart, I am now much more familiar with our business neighbors. She did an excellent job of summarizing the variety of shops in the Mart, plus showing that their owners and staffs are an engaging group of people – even when disguised as bank robbers!

Despite being a lifelong Methodist, I learned a great deal from Hattie Beresford’s fascinating two-part series about St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Finding out about the historic struggles and successes of this local African American congregation gave me a new appreciation for the AME branch of Methodism. Due to the contributions of St. Paul Church and its members, Santa Barbara is clearly a more spiritually diverse and compassionate city.

Thank you for including those stories in the Journal.

John Devereaux

This Stinks

Nick Schou is to be congratulated for his excellent series. As a Carpinteria City resident living within 100 feet of totally unregulated cannabis greenhouses under county jurisdiction it is refreshing to see some honest reporting on the subject. Schou’s work compliments the well-researched Grand Jury report. In California, where law has become optional one can see the natural outcome of failed governance here. Government officials wringing their hands over all manner of politically correct causes turn a blind eye to real corruption within their own ranks. Many living next to cannabis greenhouses are suffering health effects because of the off gassing of 24-hour factory farming next to their bedrooms. This problem is increased by an odor control system mandated by the county. The system adds essential oils to the air we breathe, and while partially masking the odor, only increases the air pollution. The much-ballyhooed environmental ethic of Santa Barbara County does not seem to apply to residents’ health if tax dollars are to be made. It seems odd. If a problem like this were being created by the oil industry our government officials and political activists would have a fit. But with cannabis a blind eye is turned. Greed is one thing, but corruption is another. The absolute breakdown of fair and accountable government in the First District Supervisor’s office, County Administrator’s Office and Planning Department causes one to think about racketeering and interstate commerce. One wonders where the District Attorney is and why the Sheriff allowed his union to back an obviously compromised Supervisor Das Williams. Both these Santa Barbara County law enforcement officials are highly regarded, including by me. Why are they not acting? It is understandable that people are appealing to the US Attorney. They say things are bad in Washington, D.C. but they are just as bad here in Santa Barbara County.

John Culbertson

Not a Pin Cushion

A couple weeks ago (MJ # 26/30), Lanny Sherwin lamented that I have responded to personal attacks or criticisms that appear in the letters column with my own “Letter to the Editor.” While I appreciate that there are many on the left side of the political equation who would prefer, indeed even mandate, that there be but one opinion on any subject – and that would be their opinion – I don’t agree. I have sold the paper that I founded over 25 years ago, but remain an investor and have not given up my right to reply when criticized. If my letters “undermine the credibility of the paper and stifle people from expressing their thoughts without concern for being ‘reprimanded,’” as Mr. Sherwin suggests, then don’t choose me as your subject. I am not a pincushion and will respond to unfair or unwarranted pinpricks.

Last week (MJ # 26/31), Danute Handy took on my most recent letter that questioned her assessment of Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech that he famously gave after descending the Trump Tower escalator in New York City. She pronounced confidently that “Yes, Donald Trump is a misogynist. For confirmation refer to the Access Hollywood tape!”

For the record, the Oxford Dictionary defines misogynist as “a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women.” Now, say what you will about our president, but I suggest that he really does like women. At one time he was a young, handsome, and very wealthy bachelor in New York City who dated any number of beautiful women. Was he a “hound dog”? Most likely, but if anything, that would put him in the category of, say, former president Bill Clinton. But misogynist?

Later in her letter, Danute goes on to state that “it is almost universally agreed that Donald Trump is racist” and that racism “is part of the DNA of the Republican Party.”

I had to laugh.

Is she referring to the Republican Party, whose first presidential candidate was Abraham Lincoln? Is she referring to the Republican Party that mobilized and fought a great war in order to outlaw slavery in the face of open rebellion by the Democrat Party that fought to maintain the evil institution? History will recall that it was the Democrat Party that wrote the Jim Crow segregation laws. Every southern state in the United States had its own version of those separation-by-race standards that repressed blacks from voting for 100 years after the Civil War.

LETTERS Page 384

Montecito Tide Guide

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by Mimi deGruy Taking a Stand in the Sand

Specializing in Fine Homes

• Concept to Completion

• Exceptional In sharing my story, what I am hoping is to create some awareness and understanding that Montecito Home Design isn’t an exception to racism, says Parker Matthews L isten, listen, listen. Learn, Learn, Learn. During these past few tumultuous months, that has been my mantra. As a privileged a guy leaving the house and wanted to be sure all was well. It was unsaid but understood she had been worried because of the visitor’s skin color. • Board of Architectural white woman, I feel it is best to stay quiet and listen deeply. I have much That is how it starts and it is a cycle that has to end. There on my street, Reviews to learn from the BLM and BIPOC I was reminded that while we do movements. And yet there are times indeed live in a beautiful bubble here when darkness surfaces and it feels complicit to stay quiet. in Montecito, suspicion and racism often lurk just beneath the surface. • All Phases of For 21 years I lived just off Miramar Beach, a stretch of earth I walked One of the most rewarding things about raising kids here is the sense of Construction at least once a day. If I didn’t know everyone’s name, I at least recognized community in which we share each other’s joys, triumphs, heartbreaks, Entitlement the faces I saw: people who shared and sadness. So when our dear fama love for the ocean and the landily friend, Parker Matthews, expescape of rocks and sand that, like life, could change radically overnight. We rienced racism on Miramar Beach, I needed to know more. Parker was • Custom quality would wave as we walked quietly along, looking out over the waves. featured not long ago in the Montecito Journal as someone our community Construction That beach was my kids’ sandbox. As has raised and can be proud of, and always, the ocean served as a remindhe talked about the benefits of living er there are forces larger than we are. in Montecito. “Santa Barbara Design and Build was fabulous. Don and his There is a rhythm to the moons and Parker is a vibrant, huge-hearted, crew were the BEST from day one. He was honest, timely, tides, and the ocean is the engine fuelsmart, handsome young man whose fl exible, artistic, patient and skilled. They understood my ing our existence. And yet, even here skin is an enviable shade of brown. vision and built my dream home”. in paradise, on a stretch of beach we call home, there is sometimes a disParker is the guy out there rooting for the underdog, so when he was the -Santa Barbara Resident turbing underbelly. target of racial profiling and name

By no means is Montecito the most calling, I wanted to know more. I sat ethnically or socio-economically diverse part of California – it is almost laughable to suggest such an idea down to talk with him about what happened recently while walking by the Rosewood Miramar private club. Don Gragg – but I did believe our little beach community was more open-minded than most. Unfortunately, over the Q. How do you identify? A. I am a person of color and am 805.453.0518 years there have been hints that it mixed race; if you want to be specific, wasn’t as accepting as I’d thought. my dad is white, and mom is Hispanic. One Sunday morning about five years ago, a Black family friend who’d been I grew up in Montecito and have lived here for the last fourteen years. WWW.SANTABARBARADESIGNANDBUILD.COM visiting went out our front door to meet someone giving him a ride. Soon thereafter a neighbor rang my doorCould you describe what happened and when it was? FREE CONSULTATION bell and asked if we were OK. When After spending a great afternoon Ca Lic # 887955 I assured her we were fine and asked why she’d asked, she said she’d seen COMMUNITY Page 214 6 – 13 August 2020 • The Voice of the Village • MONTECITO JOURNAL 11