Sebastopol's Future - by Sebastacat

[sebastacat]

Recently, two Sebastopol business women and a few of their cohorts submitted some ultra-critical letters to the editors of The Press Democrat and The Gazette. Having lost traction with the readership of the Sonoma Times West after submitting -- and having had published -- several letters containing the same tired, old rhetoric, they have now attempted to shift the battleground to other untried venues. They are continuing to use the media as part of a misguided effort to turn public opinion against Mayor Michael Keyes and -- more recently -- Vice-mayor Robert Jacob, as well as the entire progressive Sebastopol City Council. Their harsh, mean-spirited letters have, unfortunately, inspired a few others to post some of the most vitriolic, hurtful online comments on public comment boards that I have ever read. Those doing the writing -- as well as those doing the posting -- should be ashamed of themselves for putting their own destructive agenda ahead of what is good for Sebastopol and for dragging the local political discourse down to what surely must be a new low.

Based on the content and number of their sore-loser letters over the past two months since the last election, it is almost a certainty that we will be agonizingly subjected to more of the same for the next two years until the next election unless they come to their senses soon.

This is the same handful of people whose candidates were soundly rebuffed at the ballot box in the latest Sebastopol City Council election. Apparently, the results of the last election aren't good enough for them. I will remind them -- once again -- that elections are one of our most cherished democratic traditions.

We must put such pettiness aside. The problems facing our newly elected city council are numerous and complex. Accordingly, its members need our faith and support, not more venom and derision.

I am a 15-year resident of Sebastopol and a LIFE-LONG resident of Sonoma County, having lived for 32 years at the WEST END of Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa, in one of Santa Rosa's last old agricultural districts where prunes and walnuts were raised in an orchard outside my door. You could walk outside the door on the second story of the old farmhouse where I lived and hear a pin drop, that's how peaceful it was...

Now I live just outside the city limits of Sebastopol, next to an old apple orchard. While it is not quite as quiet as my old neighborhood, it is still quite peaceful. Let us hope that this is the year that some peace and civility will make its way into our current political discourse.

[photolite]

"What is good for Sebastopol" is a value judgement lacking consensus. There is a substantial segment of our community that are less than thrilled with the outcome of this election. Many consider the agenda of the new city council to be the agenda that is most destructive, so, again we're speaking of value judgements. Yes, the electorate have spoken but the results were not so overwhelmingly one sided as one might infer from so many of the posters on this site.

These folks who you so readily dismiss are only exercising their rights to freedom of expression, also one of our "cherished democratic traditions". Their "mean spirited...hurtful...vitriol..(and) venom" would be hard pressed to hold a candle to that expressed on this site time and again by many to whom you call "progressive" in the months leading up to this recent election. Hard to imagine the political discourse being dragged deeper into the mud than it was by those who were so unhappy prior the seating of the new City Council.

I haven't heard a single person suggest the legitimacy of the democratic process was in question. I HAVE heard people express disappointment and concern over statements made by, and the intentions of, this newly elected body. As so many mobilized to elect our new city council when they were concerned about the city's direction, so too are these folks, who you so quickly malign, simply exercising what they see as their civic responsibility to speak out against that which they perceive as being harmful to OUR community's future. I fail to see anything wrong with that, except that it's THEM instead of US.

Recently, two Sebastopol business women and a few of their cohorts submitted some ultra-critical letters to the editors of The Press Democrat and The Gazette. Having lost traction with the readership of the Sonoma Times West after submitting -- and having had published -- several letters containing the same tired, old rhetoric, they have now attempted to shift the battleground to other untried venues. They are continuing to use the media as part of a misguided effort to turn public opinion against Mayor Michael Keyes and -- more recently -- Vice-mayor Robert Jacob, as well as the entire progressive Sebastopol City Council. Their harsh, mean-spirited letters have, unfortunately, inspired a few others to post some of the most vitriolic, hurtful online comments on public comment boards that I have ever read. Those doing the writing -- as well as those doing the posting -- should be ashamed of themselves for putting their own destructive agenda ahead of what is good for Sebastopol and for dragging the local political discourse down to what surely must be a new low.

Based on the content and number of their sore-loser letters over the past two months since the last election, it is almost a certainty that we will be agonizingly subjected to more of the same for the next two years until the next election unless they come to their senses soon.

This is the same handful of people whose candidates were soundly rebuffed at the ballot box in the latest Sebastopol City Council election. Apparently, the results of the last election aren't good enough for them. I will remind them -- once again -- that elections are one of our most cherished democratic traditions.

We must put such pettiness aside. The problems facing our newly elected city council are numerous and complex. Accordingly, its members need our faith and support, not more venom and derision.

I am a 15-year resident of Sebastopol and a LIFE-LONG resident of Sonoma County, having lived for 32 years at the WEST END of Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa, in one of Santa Rosa's last old agricultural districts where prunes and walnuts were raised in an orchard outside my door. You could walk outside the door on the second story of the old farmhouse where I lived and hear a pin drop, that's how peaceful it was...

Now I live just outside the city limits of Sebastopol, next to an old apple orchard. While it is not quite as quiet as my old neighborhood, it is still quite peaceful. Let us hope that this is the year that some peace and civility will make its way into our current political discourse.

[sebastacat]

Thank you for your post. I will attempt to respond to your rather dispeptic diatribe.

There is no way to have a consensus in a democracy without one important thing taking place: an election. Without an election, democracy cannot survive. Without a way to gauge the will of the majority, confusion would result, possibly even tyranny in the most extreme cases, as we have seen recently in other countries.

You say that it is a "value judgement." I couldn't agree with you more. Accordingly, I will note that during the last election cycle (and subsequent to it), I saw/heard the following disparaging, derogatory, hurtful terms used against various individuals:

1. "Boss";
2. "Idiot";
3. "Radicals."
4. "...rot in hell."
The individuals to whom these disparaging remarks were hurled at so freely did NOT deserve to be labeled as such, for they, too, were exercising their right of free speech. These are not reflective of any values I want to see in people with whom I chose to associate. And I certainly do not feel that they reflect the values of the majority of the people in this town.

I will further note that these terms were used by long-time and born-and-raised Sebastopol residents.
By doing so, they have given the progressives in this town the greatest and best argument of all for the dawning of a new, vibrant, progressive era and, along with it, a town of which we can be proud - a place we call home.

May peace be with you.

[photolite]

Sebastacat,
Nothing like a dyspeptic diatribe to get the juices flowing.

Please note that the harshest words in my comment were those that were direct quotes from your original posting.

Many people I have spoken to clearly don't support the chase/cvs project but feel some sense of outrage about how the opposition has comported itself. It is that which they oppose and it appears to be misinterpreted as support for cvs/chase. Anyone who believes that the moratorium on drive thru windows, for example, is not directed exactly at this project is either naive or not being honest with themselves.

The perceived inconsistencies are considerable. The progressive community you say you belong to has a vision of a Sebastopol that never was yet it seems to be often confused with "old" Sebastopol. "Old" Sebastopol was a dusty little farm town. The vision we've seen presented here and elsewhere by progressives appears both exclusive and boutique. When the progressive mayor is quoted in the daily paper as supporting a requirement for all new construction to incorporate solar at an additional cost of $16,000 for the average home, that smacks of progressiveness to some but as exclusiveness to others. How many people of color, or minorities, might find themselves denied access to this community by such policies. What percentage of our community currently consists of minorities or people of color? That might be the true progressive question to address. Do we want to further exclude those whose primary disadvantage is to whom, and where, they were born from our vision of the future?

There has been much talk around the opposition to the chase/cvs project as to how it would be corrupting downtown and polluting our roadways with unsupportable additional traffic. At the same time many of these folks sing the praises of the Barlow which will draw people away from downtown, negatively impacting existing downtown businesses and increasing traffic infinitely more than the significantly smaller cvs/chase project. Regardless of your opinion of these two corporations the cvs/chase project consists of goods and services people require daily while the Barlow is primarily boutiques.

Then there was the mayor's quote about keeping out large franchises, except for maybe Verizon and Apple. Now what is that about? What is the progressive standard that allows Verizon and Apple get a pass?

Many of us feel that these are legitimate issues that don't receive very much representation on this site.

Focusing on names and labels that different interests may toss at each other only obfuscates concerns voiced in good faith by other concerned and caring citizens that don't belong to the same club as you. It doesn't mean their opinions are any less valid. They might even be correct for all we know.

Namaste

Thank you for your post. I will attempt to respond to your rather dispeptic diatribe.

There is no way to have a consensus in a democracy without one important thing taking place: an election. Without an election, democracy cannot survive. Without a way to gauge the will of the majority, confusion would result, possibly even tyranny in the most extreme cases, as we have seen recently in other countries.

You say that it is a "value judgement." I couldn't agree with you more. Accordingly, I will note that during the last election cycle (and subsequent to it), I saw/heard the following disparaging, derogatory, hurtful terms used against various individuals:

1. "Boss";
2. "Idiot";
3. "Radicals."
4. "...rot in hell."
The individuals to whom these disparaging remarks were hurled at so freely did NOT deserve to be labeled as such, for they, too, were exercising their right of free speech. These are not reflective of any values I want to see in people with whom I chose to associate. And I certainly do not feel that they reflect the values of the majority of the people in this town.

I will further note that these terms were used by long-time and born-and-raised Sebastopol residents.
By doing so, they have given the progressives in this town the greatest and best argument of all for the dawning of a new, vibrant, progressive era and, along with it, a town of which we can be proud - a place we call home.

May peace be with you.