Andy’s Commentary

Andy’s Commentary

 

During the past eight weeks, it has been my privilege to host a three-hour talk show every morning on 1440-AM and 1410-AM.  Some of the interviews I conducted are available at the Coalition of Labor Agriculture & Business Web site at www.colabsbc.org.  I couldn’t help but observe over the course of the show the systematic failure of government, at all levels, to provide leadership, and to accept moral and fiscal responsibility for a number of issues threatening public health and welfare.

With respect to the Zaca Fire, why do politicians wring their hands in public over the tragedy of this fire when, year after year, they refuse to lift a finger to implement prescribed burns in the rural areas of our county?  Is it any wonder a wildfire burning through brush that hasn’t burned in 100 years is going to present a threat?  Have you considered the fact that much of the watershed in the Zaca Fire dumps into the Sisquoc River and that this river has no flood control mechanisms whatsoever?  There is a good chance that winter runoff, heightened by the burned-out watershed, will breach the compromised Santa Maria levee.  The levee is another example of failed leadership.  We have known about the levee’s design flaws for decades, yet no fix has been secured.  If and when we get the funding and go through the needlessly cumbersome environmental review process, it will probably be too late to avert a disaster.

I interviewed the author of the book the “The Mexican Mafia,” Tony Rafael.  Imagine my shock and surprise when he brought up several Central Coast communities as focal points of the mafia’s operations.  This criminal enterprise controls some 40,000 gang members in Los Angeles County alone.  They make some of their money by taxing local gang members on drug sales - must be democrats?

I interviewed Phyllis Schlafly, a pioneer in the conservative values movement.  She has written a book about the judiciary in America.  She maintains that the founding fathers of our nation never envisioned that our judiciary would be considered an equal branch with the executive and legislative.   She said the role of the judiciary should be like that of umpires in a baseball game - calling the close ones, but not making up new rules as the game proceeds.

One of the most shocking and despicable issues we covered was with a gentlemen from South Africa who heads up an organization called Africa Fighting Malaria.  Even though this disease is entirely preventable and curable, tens of millions of people have died because we have served to restrict the availability of DDT throughout the world.  Did you know that 3,000 children die every day from malaria?  In total, over one million people die each year.  The disease afflicts over one-half a billion people each year.  We continue to sacrifice innocent lives on an altar of junk science, as there never was any proof that DDT had any health effects upon humans.   The chemical can be used in such a way to minimize impacts upon the environment, but regardless, should we have allowed tens of millions of people to die needlessly? 

One of the most enjoyable interviews I did was with a young man who helped write a book called “A Field Guide to Left-Wing Wackos.”   Kfir Alfia started going to leftist protest rallies with his own protest signs that from a distance seemed to fit in, that is, until you read the fine print.  One of my favorites was “War Never Solved Anything except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism and communism.”

Finally, I got to play a clip from Penn and Teller.  They circulated a petition at an environmental rally to ban a chemical they only described by its chemical formula - a chemical that is found in rivers and lakes across America.  Hundreds signed the petition.  The chemical was water! 

Andy Caldwell is the Executive Director of COLAB and a 39-year resident of the Central Coast.  For more information, visit the COLAB Web site at www.colabsbc.org.