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closeI don’t know Carson Szarek, but I’d like to thank him from the bottom of my lungs.
Carson built a bench, as an Eagle Scout project, that now sits at the top of Hazard Peak in Montaña de Oro State Park. Last Sunday, I huffed and puffed to the top of the peak and collapsed on his bench.
From there I was able to eyeball our beautiful coastline. I gazed as the slithering fog slid around the ears of Morro Rock, leaving only the top of its bald dome. It was an ethereal sight.
I chuckled as the fog crept into the estuary, covering the house of my friends Bill and Sharon Morem. (“Hey, Bill! Sharon! Up here!”).
Carson’s is just one of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Eagle Scout projects, all of them helping somebody. I interviewed young Steve Lewis last year when he built a much-needed entrance sign for Shandon.
Here’s a mid-summer salute to Steve and Carson and other Boy and Girl Scouts who have been serving the community all these years.
•••
Political observers have moaned and groaned for decades about how money corrupts our national governance.
I invite those unfamiliar with this to observe the current national health care debate and watch Big Pharma and the insurance lobby kill reform.
If changing the effects of money on legislation at the federal level seems impossible, what about locally?
Sorry, the news there is bad, too.
The Atascadero City Council just scrapped its spending cap on local elections. Those opposed said there are too many ways around it.
Instead of cementing shut the loopholes, Atascadero will settle for posting candidates’ financial disclosure forms on its Web site.
That’s nice, but it’s not going to keep big spenders from throwing cash into elections.
Well, at least Atascadero tried.
•••
What’s in a word? Plenty, if that word is “not.”
Contrary to what our mothers may tell you, we journalists are not infallible. We have an elaborate system in place to guard against making mistakes. And we have overseers cracking whips — we call them “editors” — who keep an eye on what we write.
For us, it’s especially important. If we make a mistake it goes out to tens of thousands of readers, and can do serious harm.
Last week, writing about casinos, I wrote that the Salinan tribe had spent close to $900,000 trying to prove the tribe’s legitimacy. Salinan leaders said money disappeared fast when you were paying specialists in anthropology, ethno-history, law and other disciplines.
I quoted John Johnson, curator for the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, as saying the $900,000 the Salinan tribe has spent “is unreasonable.”
Unfortunately, that’s not what he said. He said it “is not unreasonable.”
Oops. That’s worse than leaving the “l” out of public meeting (a common typing error and a source of many newshound barroom laughs).
I apologize to Johnson, the Salinans and anyone who may have taken the wrong idea away from the story.
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