Lessons for Santa Barbara from New York

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

We could easily find agreement from a substantial majority of residents that Santa Barbara’s outstanding university and community college, along with its restaurants, parks, and much else, are worth preserving. The only question would be how best to do so.

Another though much larger city blessed with similar attributes – New York City – is demonstrating, in a sad way, how not to handle challenges certain to increase as long as millions of unvetted people continue to pour into our country.

Consider, for example, the events taking place at Columbia University as people in power fail to follow the warning of William Faulkner. “Peace is not the absence of conflict,” he warned, “but the presence of justice.”

First a review of the failures of the people in power, and then a proposed solution for Santa Barbara to consider.

The Federal Government  

President Joe Biden walked into a Sheetz convenience store in Pittsburgh recently, perhaps trying to emulate the cheering crowd that gathered around President Trump when he stopped at a bodega in New York City.

However, President Biden was greeted only by a mother and her two children and a clerk at the counter saying to his team, “Step back.”

The day after Biden’s snub, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a case against Sheetz alleging that their failure to hire felons – perhaps to run cash registers? – was racial discrimination because a higher percentage of felons are black.

Was the timing a coincidence? 

Meh.

For the EEOC, this extends their previous holdings that it was racial discrimination for employers to use an applicant’s arrest record, since blacks are arrested at a disproportionate rate. This reasoning was used to convince law enforcement and the press to stop disclosing the race of alleged attackers, even when asking for assistance in finding them.

The theme of where was, and is, the EEOC while the religious discrimination against Jews is so blatant, is at least a little entertaining when inserting “EEOC enforcers” for “flowers” in the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone…long time passing.”

Have the enforcers all gone to Sheetz?

“Where has our Vice President gone” could be asked almost every day as Kamala Harris, who Biden has named “Czar” of so many things that, if she ever stopped giggling, she would have more power than any Czar of Russia ever had.    

Same tune for “Where have all the DOJ gone…” as Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared uninterested in upholding civil liberties protected by the 1^st Amendment. 

“Where has the FBI gone” appears to be answered by Director Christopher Wray’s apparent position that religion is so unimportant that they were planning to infiltrate the Catholic Church.

“Where has the Secretary of Education gone” was partially answered by Secretary Miguel Cardona, who was busy publishing new regulations for Title IX that will discriminate in favor of transgenders and those confused about their genders, and against those that Title IX was passed to protect. 

Same answer for the head of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon.

New York State

“Where has the governor gone?” remains an open question as Governor Kathy Hochul has not yet made an appearance in response to the riots taking place on campuses. 

“Where has the Attorney General gone…?” as A.G. Letitia James’s office apparently was too busy convicting President Trump of defrauding no one as he paid back his loan in full, to take any actions against the borrowers failing to repay their loans, sending N.Y. Signature Bank into bankruptcy that was barely avoided by New York Community Bancorp when a former Trump official bailed them out.

“Where has the head of the N.Y. Office of Human Rights, Denise Miranda, gone?” Does she think the religion of students in N.Y. is not a “human right?”

New York City

No need to ask “Where has the New York City District Attorney gone” as D.A. Alan Bragg’s office is busy using a misdemeanor charge that even if it ever was valid, it no longer is, as the Statute of Limitations has run, and an allegation of a federal charge that Bragg is not empowered to bring, to keep President Trump off the campaign trail.

A news source answered the question of “Where has the NYC mayor gone?” by spotting Mayor Eric Adams boarding a plane at the Miami airport.  

It is an open question “Where Cliff Mulqueen, Deputy Commissioner/General Counsel is” as he has yet to, as we say in legalese, “make an appearance.”  

University Presidents

“Where has the Columbia University President gone?” is an interesting question as Minouche Shafif approaches her six-month anniversary after her inauguration following three decades of teaching economics. Shame, as it appears her studies did not include resolving conflicts while satisfying financial sources, as significant contributors, such as Leon Cooperman, are cutting off their contributions.

Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned after being one of a trio of university presidents to testify to Congress, under oath, that protecting Jewish student on campus was dependent on the circumstances.

Claudine Gay, another of the trio, resigned as president of Harvard after she too was charged with multiple plagiarisms, including in her dissertation, but remains a professor at $900,000+/year.

Sally Kornbluth, the third member and president of MIT, recently said the anti-Jewish encampments are a “clear violation” of campus policies… Actions to follow?

The Solution

C.S. Lewis is quoted as having remarked that “One of the cowardly things people do is to shut their eyes to the facts.” The facts are that all the above cited people have “shut their eyes to the facts.”

Incidentally, all are Democrats. 

Who you vote for matters.