Who the heck is editing the opinion section of New Times? In a week that saw an outrageous, partisan power grab by the Board of Supervisors, New Times decides to print an irrelevant tale of a past (I hope) commentator’s move from California to Tennessee (“From over here,” Dec. 2). I for one won’t miss his retrograde ideas, such as the egregious example from this, his last (I hope) column, in which he speaks of Pilgrims’ “zeal to seek out a land where they could live by their conscious [sic] and practice their faith without fear of persecution.” How about the rights of the indigenous inhabitants to a land where they could live without fear of persecution?
New Times could have invited an expert to write a column, for instance, professor Michael Latner from Cal Poly’s political science department. An expert on redistricting, he could have spelled out clearly all the ways in which the redistricting process and outcome were completely illegitimate.
Johanna Rubba
Grover Beach
This article appears in Dec 23, 2021 – Jan 2, 2022.
The New Times is trying to provide some much needed diversity of opinion, even though some partisans may feel it “retrograde” and ideologically impermissible. The opinions of your favorite sources are not the ones you need to hear, even if you would prefer to hear a chorus of “you bet!” and ” and how! ” confirming your preferred thinking.
It is actually vital to an individual’s self esteem to find other individuals with whom that agree
Listening to and reading those who echo your own ideas and opinions is
only harmful to the degree that other ideas and opinions are not heard at all.
Listen and Learn from your echo and your opposite.