When I ran for SLO City Council in 2020, I was puzzled that there was no event where candidates could address each other’s ideas—also known as “a debate.” Maybe this goes against our county civility code, which mandates “listening to understand, not listening to find fault.” It certainly goes against the city’s instructions for its advisory bodies: “The public meeting should not be used to express … disagreement.” (Presumably the Planning Commission is supposed to come together with developers and sing “Kumbaya” for two hours. Which, in fact, is pretty much what happens now.)
Unfortunately, if you’re forbidden from disagreeing in an election, you never learn to sort through policy in any kind of productive manner if you’re elected. The last time I addressed the SLO City Council—on an appeal of a Planning Commission decision based on violations of the California Environmental Quality Act—rather than addressing the issues our citizens committee had brought up, three council members accused me of using “trigger words.”
The concept of “trigger words” is that some people may have trauma that certain words trigger, so undergraduates may be given a warning they could hear a “trigger word” in a class discussion. No rational person has ever suggested politicians need “trigger warnings,” but I wrote to the council members and asked what my “trigger words” were (suspecting their trauma was actually trying to read the California Environmental Quality Act, with which they showed no familiarity). Aaron Gomez never replied, Erica Stewart said she’d get back to me but never did, and Carlyn Christianson, to her credit, apologized, adding that she didn’t like the fact that I used the words “rich” and “poor”—which was ludicrous but at least honest. So we took our case to superior court instead, where the judge didn’t complain about trigger words.
As I run for SLO City Council in 2022, I suggest to my fellow candidates that this time we have debates, to see whether we can discuss people’s legitimate concerns without just dismissing them.
James Papp
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 4, 2022.
Well said, Dr. Papp. The concept of people being traumatized by simple words that are not inherently inflammatory is ludicrous. Embracing the concept is contrary to productive discussion of issues where disagreement must be aired in the interest of clarification and attempting to achieve agreement. People traumatized by “trigger words” should simply retreat to their “safe place” and allow reasonable people to transact the City’s business.