Still kickin’!

If this newspaper is 40 years old, that makes me 34! I’ll always be younger than New Times, even though sometimes I sound like I’m 80. 

I was just reminiscing about the first shred ever: April 16, 1992. I waxed poetic about a pro-choice rally sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW) looking like a Gloria-Ochoa-for-Congress rally and wondered why she was the only pro-choice candidate who spoke.

“After all, if the pro-choice abortion issue really transcends party ideology as NOW contends, you’d think they’d have invited Republican congressional candidate Michael Huffington and Democratic Assembly candidate John Ashbaugh—two widely acknowledged pro-choicers—to address the rally, too.” 

Well, 30-something years later, abortion is an issue that really doesn’t transcend party ideology, and Huffington served only one term in Congress after winning that 1992 race and not seeking reelection. Although, he did try to unseat Dianne Feinstein to represent the great liberal state in the Senate. Spoiler alert: Feinstein served in the Senate until she died in 2023.

Why don’t we have age limits for elected officials? 

Ashbaugh didn’t win that 1992 race, Republican anti-choice, rabble-rouser Andrea Seastrand did before moving on to serve only one term in Congress. Thank God for two-year terms, amirite? 

But “former Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand” held a lot of power over Republican candidates for a lot of years—endorsing them left and right, advocating against taxes, and taking up all the limelight in this column.

She has actively campaigned against SLO County’s self-help transportation tax over the years, including in 2016 when she said, “Taxpayers need to provide tough love by saying ‘no’ on Measure J.” 

They did say no and so has the state when it comes to grants that could help SLO County complete major transportation projects. Ten years later, this county still can’t get a half-cent transportation tax passed. SLO County supervisors nixed a recent effort to put it on the ballot after finding out that voters in several counties just said “no” to tax measures in the primary. 

Why? The economy sucks. Thanks, Donald Trump!

“By this motion today, we continue to be a loser county,” Third District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said during an Aug. 5 meeting, “losing millions of dollars in matching funds that Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Ventura … do get because they have their self-help half [cent] sales tax.” 

Well, the Seastrands of the world are delighted. And the Paso Robleses of the world are left wondering how they will complete multi-million-dollar transportation projects! 

The Highway 101/Highway 46 traffic situation is out of hand and getting worse. Paso’s had a $150 million project to fix the issue on the backburner for three decades. 

“We’re at a crossroads,” Paso Public Works Director Leslie Frazier told the City Council on Aug. 4. “We have a very expensive project, and the project remains unfunded today.” 

Boy, that self-help tax probably would have helped leverage some state and federal dollars! Instead, the city is stuck searching for alternatives, and that northbound 101 backup keeps getting longer.

Ashbaugh eventually served on the SLO Planning Commission and SLO City Council and made many Shredderific appearances in this column over the years, including for shouting during council meetings, among other things! What can he say? He gets a little, umm, passionate. 

Now that dude is a regular columnist in this paper, serving alongside me in the opinion section and opining on the trials and tribulations of the second Trump administration and all of its shenanigans. The second! Thirty years ago, I never would have ever dreamed he would have been president once, let alone twice! 

I also never would have dreamed that Roe v. Wade would actually be overturned. 

“It’s not complicated: if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it could be up to state legislatures to decide the issue,” I wrote in that first column.

Well, 30-something years later, the Supreme Court did exactly that. 

Turns out, it’s actually very complicated. 

Some states have tried to outlaw abortions completely, some states have criminalized the doctors performing the abortions, some states have criminalized the woman having the abortion, some states are running down people who get abortions in other states. The abortion pill got criminalized in some states. People in states where the pill was legal were mailing it to people in states where it wasn’t legal.

A Texas law enforcement officer even used Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader system to track a woman who had an abortion. Yes, there are now cameras surveilling public spaces across the country that all connect into one easily searchable database that law enforcement officers everywhere can gain access to. 

And guess who gets to weigh in on all of it while we all wait with bated breath: The Supreme Court of the United States, now stacked with Trump appointees! 

WTF happened? 

Again, age limits? 

I guess a lot can happen in 34 years. We’re now fighting misinformation and disinformation at every turn, short social media attention spans, and even more entrenched political ideologies. Conspiracy theories are mainstream! 

Thank God news organizations like New Times still exist in small communities everywhere! They’re safe and sane, like legal fireworks, and fight for your right to hear about, understand, and talk about what’s happening. ∆

The Shredder is happy to still have a job. Send salutations and celebration to shredder@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in 40th anniversary edition.