In response to Al Fonzi’s latest op-ed, “Vets are angry,” (Feb. 6) and the fearmongering and absurd mailers Atascadero residents are currently receiving (“Why did Ellen Beraud oppose honoring our veterans”), I’d like to make a few things clear. Firstly, Al Fonzi donated $250 to the PAC responsible for the mailers, “Friends of Veterans in San Luis Obispo County, Primarily Formed to Oppose Ellen Beraud for Supervisor 2020,” so we can assume based on that public donation information and the content of his article that he supports their political mission.
The event that Al’s unfocused op-ed and the aforementioned political mailer both demonize is then Councilmember Beraud’s 2007 vote not to authorize the construction of the Faces of Freedom memorial in Atascadero. I’d like to inform your readers of the actual context of her vote. When I read the council meeting minutes, it became clear that Councilmember Beraud’s “no” vote was contingent upon the fact that the public arts committee tasked with providing guidance to the council regarding adopting plans for public arts projects had voted 4-1 in opposition to allowing the memorial project to proceed.
Their justification? It was ugly; please find a new artist to plan something less hideous, as we approve of the idea of a memorial, just not this dumpster fire of a statue.
Councilmember Beraud cited their recommendation as the reason for her vote, stating that public works require public input (not a terribly revolutionary stance for a public official). She was outvoted, and now we’ve all got to drive by that absurd eyesore with its ridiculous font every day.
Al Fonzi should consider whether supporting shady PACs that send out hit-piece political mailers, both monetarily and in meandering op-eds, is an appropriate way to demonstrate the patriotic values he attests to hold so dear. The least we can hope for is a little integrity.
Shane Eaton
Atascadero
This article appears in Feb 13-23, 2020.
#NEVERBERAUD
#Atascadero4Arnold
#WalkAway
A fellow Atascaderan — a US Army veteran, artist and whose background was in preparing art exhibits for installation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, told me he was invited to sit on the memorial committee. Upon seeing the proposed misbegotten sculptural group, he rejected it as “glorifying war,” recalling that it reminded him of a junior high school boy’s idea of a Hollywood war movie. Instead, he encouraged the committee to look to the universally loved Washington DC Mall’s Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial as a model. He wasn’t invited back, and we got Fonzi’s freakish behemoth instead. No wonder people routinely refer to it as a “war memorial.”
It’s incredibly troubling that in such a wonderful, high quality of life community like SLO County, such McCarthyesque tactics, intentionally negative and denigrating strategies are employed in a partisan fashion against any candidates of a liberal or progressive bent on a regular basis by the same culprits year after year. The vitriol, misinformation, insultingly negative and usually unfounded and misleading attacks are something that have no place in an area where most political positions are non-partisan. Before deciding to invest in a business in Atascadero, I read the local newspaper and the New Times for almost a year to get a feel for the kind of community I was preparing to sink my family’s life savings into. I was and am still shocked and appalled to see the regularity of the inclusion of such hate filled, personal destruction based opinions coming from one writer and then followed by these ad hoc PACs that surface every election. Ironically, his spouse is a long time public official and as a person who pays close attention to local politics, I don’t see anyone from the “left” or any other position on the political spectrum engaging in the level of vitriol against her that her husband has no hesitation engaging in as nearly a full-time job. Since moving here six years ago, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that MOST people here are friendly, fair-minded, forward thinking and motivated by what is best for us as a community, not the politics of personal destruction and attacks. We can and should be focused on the issues our area needs work on, not practicing a type of politics that demeans and diminishes the good reputation our area has worked at building.
I called it 18 minutes after the SLO polls closed…
#NeverBeraud was prophetic
Now go away you Libocrat hippie (doper industry contribution taker).
The District 5 Supervisor winner is D. Arnold.
#Atascadero4Arnold
Results matter.