We need better than this. And if the current council is incapable of complying with a voter decision and dealing with the issues, we need a new team.Delton Lee JohnsonSanta PaulaEarly Independence DaysTo the Editor:Happy BirthdayA birthday is a very special day. Everybody celebrates a birthday once a year. But in the United States we celebrate another birthday, too. It is called the Fourth of July. It is the birthday of our nation. On July 4, 1776, United States was born. America’s birthday is her biggest holiday.Early Independence Days... John Adams was one of the most important American leaders. He had worked hard to make the other leaders vote for independence. Adams said that the day congress voted for independence should be celebrated forever. He believed America’s birthday should be marked with parades, shows, games, sports, guns and bells and bonfires. Americans had to fight a long war with England to get their independence, but even during the war they found time to celebrate the Fourth of July. The people built bonfires - shot guns - and rang bells.After America won the war, the Fourth of July celebrations became much bigger. In most towns and villages were set up in the public squares, all the people from each town had a picnic together. The men who fought in the war against England were special guests. There were exciting games for children. There were potato races and watermelon eating contests, often a boy read the Declaration of Independence to the grownups. It was an honor to be chosen to read it.The years went by - on July 4, 1826, America would be 50 years old.John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were still alive. They had both helped make independence possible. Adams had worked for it. Jefferson had written the famous Declaration. Adams had been the second president of the United States. Jefferson had been the third president. Both died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson and Adams died on the day they helped make famous. Without these two patriots there might not have been a Fourth of July to celebrate.The birthday of our country is a big summer holiday for everyone. Almost every town has a celebration. Sometimes it starts with long parades. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts march behind the band, waving flags. After the parades there are BBQs - picnics - often the Little League team in one town plays the Little League team from another town. People everywhere have something going on. Children play with their sparklers. Sometimes the grownups set off a firework display.The United States is one of the newest nations in the world. Yet our Fourth of July is one of the oldest of all Independence Days.It’s a day for parades and picnics, fireworks and fun. But it’s also a day for remembering that first Fourth of July.We are proud of the patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence. They had the courage to make our country free. So that’s how we got our Fourth of July holiday.Have fun - keep safe - this year the birthday is 230 years old for the Declaration of Independence. Let’s show our country that we do care and love our freedom.Keep the flags waving.Happy Fourth of July.Lynda LloydSanta Paula
Letters to the Editor
June 30, 2006
Opinion
Thanks to dedicated men
To the Editor:As you already know, our varsity baseball team did not make it to the playoffs. But, this was definitely not due to a lack of dedicated coaches and talented baseball players. Both Manuel Herrera and Robert Segovia are fine examples of men with integrity who commit their free time to make an impact on the lives of our community’s high school students. It takes people like these men to enable our kids to participate in the sports they love. We would like to publicly recognize and commend their efforts.During the games, we could hear each coach giving the boys encouragement to “play tough,” “don’t give up,” and “do your best.” Coach Segovia, especially, could be heard with specific words of praise, even when the plays were not going our way. He could watch a broken play, and still find something positive to shout to one of the boys. We never witnessed either coach “lose his cool” inappropriately during a tough loss; instead we saw consistent modeling of what good sportsmanship looks like.When we had our Cardinal Baseball Banquet to celebrate the boys getting their varsity letters and to recognize those boys that earned league honors, Coach Herrera commended each boy individually. He shared highlights from the season, but he also told them what has to happen to make next year even better. He was honest about how the large amount of errors had hurt the team, but optimistic that their skills would improve through their hard work and dedication. These coaches know and care about the boys as athletes, and as young men. Both coaches also showed appreciation to parents, school staff, and community members who have provided the team with encouragement, transportation, financial support, helping hands at events, and equipment.We hope you will join us in recognizing Manuel Herrera and Robert Segovia’s tremendous dedication to the Santa Paula Cardinal Baseball team.Ben and Teresa VillaSanta PaulaBeing peopleTo the Editor:As seen in our recent election, rational thinking decreases as opposing positions solidify. Differing parties extol their own ideas while ridiculing the opposition’s opinions. Yes, 26,000 vehicle trips do seem like an exaggeration and no, a seller cannot exclude non-Santa Paulans from buying homes here. Also 150 or so biased voters do not speak for all Santa Paulans even when the 150 voices are cloaked with fancy names like “Imagine Santa Paula” or “the charrette process”. So maybe doing four more charrettes will improve the results??Thinking about the post election claims, by some people, training and experience makes one wonder why they are so surprised with the voting results. The tally must be due to the dirty tactics used by those dirty blah, blah idiots on the other side. It would be good if some of our elected representatives could refrain from serving as shills of developers or special interest groups.History shows that our current events are just additional examples of people being people. On a positive note we always have the chance to do better the next time. If we evaluate the issues on facts versus opinions and emotions we will do better. Also we can take the initiative to communicate our individual opinions to our elected officials.I support reviewing and updating the general plan to view all three expansion areas as a unit for estimating the final development impacts. I would support a city survey of a large percentage of Santa Paula voters to find out what they want and don’t want. A short well done questionnaire can’t be that hard to do.I commend Mayor Cook’s recent suggestions and leadership. Let’s all do what’s best for this, our wonderful home of Santa Paula.Jerry SchmidtSanta PaulaBumblingTo the Editor:In my latest letter, I wrote that I was pleased to read the suggestions of Mayor Cook published in both the Times and Star. His observations seemed to recognize existing problems and offer hope. I will repeat what he had to say: “The elections this year seem to indicate that Santa Paulans want to see development, but only on terms that fit the unique character of our community.... they do not want unplanned growth in Adams Canyon; and they do not want too much growth in Fagan Canyon.... the voters of Santa Paula have rejected these efforts [past proposals] and want something different.... The city council must take leadership to develop a proposal that addresses growth in all three development areas. The process up until now has been developer driven.... A developer presents a proposal for a property and the community and City government react.... Santa Paulans need to come together as a city to look at these projects in the larger perspective and develop a unified plan that is community, not developer, driven.”The mayor seemed on the right track and the meeting he called was held on Monday. There were numerous thoughtful comments and suggestions from citizens who had been on both sides of Measure E-6. Persons who spoke were not opposed to all growth. They spoke of the need for balance and emphasized that most growth should occur in areas where traffic would least impact existing streets and current residents.But council members, including the mayor, utterly failed to deal with either the issues included in the mayor’s article or those raised by citizens attending the meeting. They seemed in a different world. There, on television before god and the entire community, they whined over the voter decision on E-6 and questioned whether it “gave us any definitive mood of the community”. Council member Krause still talked of mitigating Fagan traffic by utilizing a series of stoplights. The city manager proposed and council members planned a series of four additional useless meetings, spending our money to bring back the same consultants they used to sell us on the already rejected Fagan proposal. Council members failed to even mention the matters delineated in the mayor’s article.This council is under court order to place on the ballot a voter initiative requiring citizen approval of future very large developments. Their efforts on Monday were apparently their first shot in an effort to distract voters from this initiative. Their bumbling only further illustrates the need for it.
