How To Support The Troops

One week ago today, before Christmas, the Santa Barbara city council unanimously passed a resolution calling for an end to combat operations in Iraq and withdrawal of American troops. The room was celebrating the accomplishment.

Perhaps there can be "Peace On Earth, Goodwill to Men." Consider this event part of a growing national groundswell. Our county seat has joined more than 300 other cities that have passed similar resolutions!

In fact, in June, The annual U.S. Conference of Mayors was held in Los Angeles and passed a "Bring Home the Troops resolution." (See page 200.)

According to the Santa Barbara Independent, "the (Santa Barbara city's) resolution was crafted by Councilmember Das Williams and Mayor Marty Blum, who are hoping it will persuade the State Legislature to enact a similar proclamation, which, in turn, will increase the pressure on any presidential aspirants seeking to win the hearts and minds of California voters in the state primary this February."

California cities and counties that have passed a resolution to end the Iraq War or a similar Peace Resolution:

Alameda County, Arcata, Berkeley, Coachella, Davis, Los Angeles, Marin County, Oakland, Richmond, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Sebastopol.

Will this energy soon spread to Lompoc, Santa Maria and cities in SLO county in 2008? (San Luis Obispo's city council passed an anti-war resolution in January of 2003.)
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Morninglory Music Moving On

Just browsing the online Lompoc paper and this news hit me. Now there's no place in Lompoc I can visit and check the old and new music CD's and discover something great.

Morninglory Music on H Street is closing at the end of the year. I will miss the place.

Don't tell me "there's always Wal-Mart!" Yes, but it will be a cold day in you-know-where before I set foot in one. Got my reasons.

I first heard Jimmy Eat World and The Verve at Morninglory Music. The clerk must have had some extra sensory perception that these tunes would get me to buy the disc.

There's still a thrill in holding the little package, liner notes and graphics. Can't do that with an intangible mp3 file, but what the hey. If I really need the "strolling down the aisles" fix, I'll drive down to the Morninglory Music main store on State Street in Santa Barbara.

There's enough volume of record buyers to keep that store alive. And that will have to be enough for me.

Late Note: July 21 the Daily Sound reports the sad demise of the Santa Barbara Morninglory store on State Street.

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What The Lompoc Grinch Sent To The Dump

This is an estimated $4550 worth of new bunk beds, sitting sadly at the Lompoc dump.

Thirteen bunks and 26 new mattresses were donated to the Bridgehouse Homeless Shelter in Lompoc a day before Thanksgiving.

Godsend? For some reason, the shelter management decided against using them and sent the items to the landfill instead.

What were they thinking? They don't need the extra beds? Single cots are better than bunk beds?

In an effort to actually learn more about this, I read an editorial in the Lompoc Record. "If outsiders are given free rein to attempt to micromanage shelter operations, the community will have failed in its mission to help the less-fortunate among us." Oh really?

Apparently the bunk beds, similar to what's in use at other shelters on the Central Coast, were just not in their plan for the area's homeless. For church ladies to decide to make a donation and drop it off is characterized in the editorial as an "attempt to micromanage shelter operations."

Would a donation of a case of toilet paper be treated the same way?

What's the hubbub anyway? Ask Liann Noble, a county child welfare worker and one of the people who gathered the donated beds from PXP, a major oil company on the Central Coast. PXP uses these kinds of bunks for their crew in the offshore oil rigs.

Whether the shelter needs any new beds really wasn't why they refused the gesture.

Last year, Noble attempted to stay overnight to learn more, firsthand, about the actual homeless shelter conditions. She used a fake name and was recognized and later fired. Since then, she has won two appeals of her case and is waiting on a third appeal.

The full story is in this week's Independent. It's amazing how a personality clash, can interfere with an attempt to help single moms and their families have slightly more comfort and more privacy within the facility. For whatever reasons, these families are homeless.

If you want the Noble "was harrassing us" angle, here it is. It still appears to be a matter of "attitude" from where I sit in little old Lompoc.

Does improving things at the shelter make it more of a "country club"?
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New Radio Ownership: Less Local Morning News!

Hello, dear reader. Yes, it's been some time since the last post.

I was waiting for something big locally to happen. Like when El Dorado Broadcasting actually took over KVEC and the other broadcast outlets they bought from Clear Channel some months ago.

The new owners of KVEC 920 AM, have officially taken over and less than a week later, changes have been made.

Last Friday, 11/30, the word came down:

• News Director King Harris is history.
• Program Director and morning news sidekick, Ben Greenaway, also gone.
• 6am -9am weekdays will be filled by the Laura Ingraham show.
• General Manager and two other employees also cut loose.

Details here. Would it be a good move if King were to "anchor" the morning news on San Luis Obispo's Air America station, KYNS 1340 AM?

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