Our three children all went to Dos Pueblos High School, between the years of 1989 and 2000. I worked part time in the library and have positive memories of coaches Scott O’Leary and Jeff Uyesaka. I also know Kyle Shotwell, a Cal Poly graduate as my husband and I are as well.
While I read all of Mark Patton’s columns, the nearby one from Sept. 11, 2007, has had a lasting impact on me. I was at this game. It is etched in my memory all these years later. Such a powerful and positive response to the devastation and grief of 9/11.
With another 9/11 just past, and the turmoil around us, I found comfort in reading this yet again. There is always hope even in what seems like the worst of times.
Thank you for choosing to continue to cover Santa Barbara, as chronicled in the Sept. 4 article, “SBART Hall of Fame: Sports Journalism Is in Mark Patton’s DNA.” Thanks as well to Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen for keeping him here.
Dale Oftebro
Goleta
• • •
Regarding the Sept. 17 article, “ICE Reportedly Detains 4 People in Santa Barbara County,” there is little more polarizing right now than the subjects of immigration and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Noozhawk story uses Instagram posts as its source and states that one of the detainees was “allegedly brutalized” with no additional details. That is a serious allegation, and deeply troubling if factual.
How could a statement like that be written with no additional sources?
This is potentially impactful and inflammatory information that appears to be unsubstantiated. Writing something like that requires far more care.
The article was posted on Sept. 17, and as I write this on Sept. 19, there have been no updates.
I hope that when Noozhawk writes about weighty topics like this, it does the diligence required to keep the public properly informed. It truly is disappointing if Instagram was the source for this article.
I am a fan of Noozhawk and will continue to subscribe to witness firsthand the move toward better reporting standards.
Mark Philibosian
Santa Barbara
• • •
Regarding the Sept. 9 article, “Closure of Santa Barbara ER Vet Clinic Leaves Gap in After-Hours Pet Care,” Horizon Veterinary Services in Ventura offers 24/7 emergency services.
Thirty minutes down the coast, depending on traffic.
Linda Buerge
Santa Barbara
• • •
Regarding the Sept. 12 article, “City of Santa Barbara Adds Five Hires to Leadership Team,” this is just what Santa Barbara needs: Five more people on the “leadership team.”
That’s five or more secretaries, five or more offices, five or more decks, five or more cars to roam around and show the masses where they have gone wrong.
Of course their salaries will be six figures, plus a hefty bonus, like all the others on the “leadership team.”
Bob McNall
Santa Barbara
• • •
In the Sept. 14 article, “Supporters Rally at Santa Barbara Courthouse to Remember Charlie Kirk?” the reporter writes that Charlie Kirk’s “stature rose in 2025 when Gov. Gavin Newsom hosted him on his podcast.”
Methinks the reporter should expand his ideological horizons. Kirk didn’t need Newsom to raise his “stature.” If anything, it was the other way around.
Louise Green
Santa Barbara
• • •
I was in third grade when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. What I remember most was the quiet. Teachers talked in hushed voices and sent us home. No one knew why.
As we walked home, whole neighborhoods seemed silent. I had never seen adults cry before, and it unsettled me in a way I can still feel. Their silence was heavier than any words.
A few years later, in 1968, I was in eighth grade, flying to California when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. No announcement came over the airplane speaker. An eerie stillness pervaded the entire Los Angeles International Airport.
We only learned about it when we climbed into a taxi and heard it on the radio. Even then, it was delivered in a voice that carried weight, grief and reverence.
Now I fear for my grandchildren in a world where tragedy and entertainment blur together in a single scroll. When, in a split second, a child can witness the cold-blooded murder of a human being, and in the next instant be laughing at a lighthearted TikTok or a clever meme.
That shift is too sudden, too unnatural. We were not created to take horror and humor side-by-side as though they carried the same weight. Our minds and our souls were never meant to work that way.
What troubles me most is how easily this constant rhythm of scrolling makes us calloused. The more we consume, the less we feel. Outrage dulls. Compassion weakens.
Yet there is still a voice with in each of us that says, this is wrong. We could choose not to listen. We can turn off the noise. We can look away, refusing to let our attention — and our hearts — become numb.
I want the next generation to hear and hold onto that inner voice, to guard their minds and souls against hardening. Because this world does not need more indifference — it needs tenderness, compassion and people who still have the courage to care deeply.
Jane Tucker
Santa Barbara
• • •
The House of Representatives adopted a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk’s life and legacy and condemning political violence.
It was approved by a bipartisan 310-58 vote, but Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, voted “present.” That was a disgrace and was cowardly.
A man’s life was ended. All the members of the House should have condemned this shooting.
Going forward, as a nation we should remember that violence is not the answer. Furthermore, “united we stand, divided we fall.”
America is better than this.
Diana Thorn
Carpinteria
• • •
Regarding D.C. Collier’s Sept. 18 commentary, “Charlie Kirk’s Killing Part of a Millenia-Long War on Faith,” Kirk’s lamentable, tragic death should not be equated with a purported “war on faith.” Certainly not faith as we commonly understand it.
On the contrary, Kirk was a racist, misogynist, propagandist and proponent of civil discord and hatred.
Kirk was not shy about his provocative views on issues across the spectrum. The documentary record is rife with comments absolutely antithetical to positions associated with faith and Christianity.
In fact, if Kirk is an apostle in the dissemination of faith, we’re in deep trouble.
Thomas Edson
Goleta
• • •
Spare me the aggrandizement of Charlie Kirk. He was a vile, racist bigot, a sexist and a misogynist. And he was a fanatic enemy of the LGTBQ+ community to the point of obsession.
Now we’re expected to believe he’s some kind of a Christian martyr, whatever that is? Hardly. More likely it was all a shtick to fleece the gullible.
I’m not surprised that Noozhawk would give D.C. Collier a platform to spread this garbage. It’s disappointing that they would do it without checking the facts first, however.
I’m sure Noozhawk will censor this.
Alex Richard
Santa Barbara
• • •
Kudos to Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen for the clever headline on his Sept. 19 “Best of Bill” column, “Tropical Storm’s Humidity Makes the Moist of Its Visit.”
It’s very punny and it made me laugh.
Corinna Adams
Santa Barbara
• • •
Regarding Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s Sept. 12 column, “New Gracie Restaurant Serves Up Harbor Views With a Fresh Catch,” good luck to Gracie. They will need it.
Even for a tourist trap restaurant like the Breakwater Café, longevity counts on the business from locals. And I, and everyone I have talked to, will never go for a meal there anymore.
You don’t change an institution’s name and expect my dining experience.
Good luck, Gracie.
Mark Stienecker
Santa Barbara
• • •
Wayne Mellinger’s Sept. 15 commentary, “Santa Barbara’s Hidden Suffering Deserves Compassion, Not Sweeps,” seduces us with its intimacy: Jesse and Ruben rendered not as statistics but as breathing contradictions.
This is compassionate journalism at its most affecting, and yet it performs a sleight of hand.
For in humanizing these figures, Mellinger renders them curiously inhuman. Following Gabor Maté’s deterministic gospel, addiction becomes not choice but inevitability, not the terrible reflection of human weakness but mechanical response.
Jesse shoots drugs not because Jesse chooses to, but because trauma has programmed the needle to become as involuntary as breathing.
This is comfortable fiction. It allows us to feel both superior and sympathetic, extending pity while withholding respect.
What is more patronizing than assuming another human being lacks the fundamental capacity to choose wrongly? What is more dehumanizing than stripping away our terrible capacity for self-destruction?
Research tells a different story. Recovery often turns on the precise moment when an individual stops saying “I can’t” and starts saying “I won’t.”
Meanwhile, ripple effects spread outward: families fractured; children stepping around needles en route to school; elderly residents who no longer venture out after dark; business owners who spent a lifetime building, closing their stores.
These casualties of compassion rarely find their way into our literary considerations of homelessness.
True compassion must be large enough to hold contradictions like offering treatment while demanding accountability. This is harder work than pure sentimentality or indifference, but it alone honors the complexity of human beings.
In paradise, even angels must choose which way to fall.
Peter Sadowski
Santa Barbara
• • •
It’s time for me to again write about how allowing cars back on State Street is a bad idea.
It will not improve business success as Jim Knell writes in the Sept. 12 letters to the editor. Instead, it will hurt businesses there.
There is NO parking on State Street. Parking is accessed from Anacapa and Chapala streets.
A friend who owns a large business in the area regularly uses the Santa Barbara BCycle service to travel to restaurants to eat and to go to meetings.
Allowing cars back on State Street will make it more dangerous for him to ride. He will either drive, which will be more expensive for him and make parking lots more crowded, or he will forego spending money on local businesses.
I’m stunned by how this obvious fact is overlooked by people who promote reopening State Street. Not only that, but the loud, noisy bumper-to-bumper parade of cars every weekend night will return, so there will be no access to businesses from State Street at all.
The arguments for reopening State Street are flawed. Let the parklets be installed so people can enjoy a meal in peace.
Brian Epstein
Santa Barbara
• • •
I learned many years ago that two wrongs don’t make a right.
As a physician, in recent years I have supported Democratic Party candidates who supported the Affordable Care Act so people had access to health care. So I am writing this not as a partisan.
Winning elections and convincing voters is hard work. And, both parties need to do that to make their points.
Once you make cheating “OK,” when we say “Everyone is doing it,” then we are lost.
Russia can’t participate in the Olympics because cheating in athletics became a norm in that country. Cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his medals and titles because he cheated. At football games, we see the referee throw a flag when someone breaks the rules.
That is our standard. If you cheat, you lose.
California has already voted to have an impartial Citizens Redistricting Commission determine the congressional districts. Don’t dismiss that vote by trying to change the rules.
Some will say it is just temporary. Or, we have to do it, because “they” are doing it. Maybe, maybe not. But, once you go down that path, we are going to increase polarization.
Vote no on Proposition 50. If you want to earn people’s votes. Go out and do it the old-fashioned way with hard work. You’ve got to earn it.
P. Joseph Frawley M.D.
Santa Barbara
• • •
When Cachuma Reservoir was built in the early 1950s, it supplied water through the mountain to the coast. In the ’60s, there was a strict moratorium to building more houses.
Now, there is a land rush to build hundreds of apartments and townhouses in Goleta. Same amount of water, but a rush to get it built due to California’s requirements for more housing.
Where is the water coming from?
J.B. Baker
Buellton
• • •
Mail Calls
Noozhawk welcomes and encourages expressions of all views on Santa Barbara County issues. Click here to submit a letter to the editor.
Letters should be BRIEF — as in 200 words-BRIEF — and letters under 150 words are given priority. Each must include a valid mailing address and contact information. Pseudonyms will not be accepted, and repeat letters will be skipped. Letters may be edited for clarity, length and style.
As a hyperlocal news site, we ask that you keep your opinions and information relevant to Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast. Letters about issues beyond our local region have the absolute lowest priority of everything we publish.
With rare exceptions, this feature is published on Saturdays.
By submitting any content to Noozhawk, you warrant that the material is your original expression, free of plagiarism, and does not violate any copyright, proprietary, contract or personal right of anyone else. Noozhawk reserves, at our sole discretion, the right to choose not to publish a submission.
Click here for Noozhawk’s Terms of Use, and click here for more information about how to submit letters to the editor and other announcements, tips and stories.