By Loretta Redd

Subjects for my articles come from a variety of sources: concerned citizens, community meetings, emails, newspapers and magazines, and occasional pizza dreams where indigestion somehow engenders weird topics of interest. Then I begin phone calls, research and scanning the internet via Google, Yahoo and any other portal I can squeeze through…

This week, in light of the President’s trip down the birth canal of acceptance on gay marriage, I thought I first would investigate the heartbreak of those traditionally wed, heterosexual couples whose unions have crumbled under the pressure of living in states or countries where same sex marriage is permitted.

Can’t find a damn one…let me know if you hear of any, I’m always open to sources.

I suppose Britney Spears could have blamed the end of her fifty-five hour long sanctified marriage on the pressure of gays wanting to share in her marital bliss, or John Edwards’ defense team could conjecture some connection between changes to societal traditions and the infidelity to his wife to whom he had vowed to “love, honor and cherish.” Or maybe Mr. Limbaugh’s first, second, third or fourth sacred union dissolved because of those who dared to share or improve on his definition of “marriage.”

Last week I met a dear friend and one-time coworker at Cantwell’s for coffee. A divorcee herself, she said quite sincerely, “I don’t mind if gay people want to have a union…and I think they should have all the same rights, but just don’t call it marriage. That term has tradition, and it should belong to straight couples.”

I wanted to remind her that “separate but equal” had been part of our nation’s societal struggle against bigotry and prejudice since the days of segregation, but I didn’t. I wanted to assure her that rather than denigrate this sacred institution, gay couples wished to celebrate and honor its intention just as fully as anyone else.

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Loretta Redd

There’s a famous golf course, built in 1933 on a former indigo plantation site, that is kept so pristine its 300 members and guests get to play on it only eight months of the year.

At 7435 yards, the only things longer than the fairways at the ‘Aww-gusta’ National Golf Club, are its traditions.  The venerable and challenging Master’s tournament will be played among the manicured lawns and blooming azaleas next week, but there is another challenge unfolding before the first divot is taken on the tee box.

Tradition has it that the CEO of the lead sponsor for the tournament receives the “green Jacket” of membership to the Club.  IBM has long supported the Masters, and its three prior heads-  Louis Gertsner, John Akers and John Open, have all been welcomed into the small world of membership.

Most parts of our planet continue to evolve, but apparently Georgia is exempt.  At the Augusta National Golf Club, located south of Atlanta, anything wearing a hoop skirt is not allowed to join the ranks of its privileged members.

Even in 2002, when  activist Martha Burke threatened to have such companies as Coca Cola and Citigroup withdraw sponsorship support because of the club’s gender discrimination policy, the Club Chairman, Mr. Hootie Johnson (only in the South would Hootie be considered a masculine name)fought back successfully and the men-only TRADITION remained.

Although I never saw a photo of Ms. Burke dressed in battle fatigues, Hootie’s  famous retort in this war between political and anatomical correctness was that he refused to be pressured into having women as members “at the point of a bayonet.”  Apparently, in Hootie’s world, the ‘war of the Northern aggression’ had not quite ended.

Billy Payne, genius of Atlanta’s successful Olympics, replaced dear Hootie as chairman of the Augusta National in 2006.  Speaking of evolution, six years later, on January 1, 2012, Virginia ‘Ginni’  Rometty replaced Sam Palmissano as CEO of IBM, the Master’s title sponsor.

With that little ‘inconvenience,’ the ‘member-gender’ controversy has been teed off again. Do I hear, “FORE!”?

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Weekly column by Loretta Redd

I recall Das Williams, who was an often pragmatic liberal on Council, but always an environmentalist savior. His vision of helping recover steel-head trout by restructuring their pathway into original spawning areas has almost been completed;  his passion for the More Mesa protection and other coastal areas helped protect our community from land-hungry developers.  His UCSB education clearly colored his thinking about environmental protection and community convenience.

But, ‘presto-changeo,’  and Councilmember Das becomes Assemblyman Williams and suddenly he represents the most destructive, self-centered, money grabbing efforts of State government: growth.

Let me be absolutely clear about this: The State government of California does not give a tinker’s damn about how ANY community looks, or the impacts on their arbitrary mandates.

Preservation and slow growth are inconvenient impediments to their solution.  Overzealous funding promises and utter cowardice in reducing the size of state government have resulted in a dysfunctional elected body in constant search for additional income.  Rather than considering the impact of additional population on this state- the strain on infrastructure, the use of already strained resources like water, the cost to health care and other social services- the Sacramento sissies have decided to make us the sacrificial lambs by forcing additional housing ‘allotments’ on our area.

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Weekly Column by Loretta Redd

There was enough adolescent enthusiasm, parental pride and community curiosity percolating at Saturday nights’ Teen Star vocal finals to blow the doors off the Granada!

The production is the brainchild of Joseph Lambert and family, whose determination has grown the event into a countywide treasure.  Though only in its third year, the event was a sell-out, and the list of sponsors continues to grow.

The grueling challenge of whittling down the voice talent from over 100 hopeful teens to the final 12 (ten finalists, plus two alternates: William Mann and Allie Nixon) was the unenviable task of Deborah Bertling, Jim Sirianni, Jackie Lambert and Lin Aubuchon.  Before the finals, Ms. Aubuchon shared with me that the kids have worked with music teachers and coaches all year long.  “I get so excited to see their commitment and enthusiasm.  I cry and fight for each one because they’ve al l worked so hard.”

Teen Star has “risen to the top in Santa Barbara County,” another audition judge shared.  In only its third production, the audience size has more than doubled each year.  I caught up with Alison Lewis, the 2010 Santa Barbara High School winner, who is now a senior and  Carnegie Mellon hopeful.

“I finally get to watch this year,” she said excitedly, adding, “did you know this event has travelled through Facebook all the way to Alabama? They’re beginning to have teen voice competitions all over the country…and now, because it is streaming live, people will be voting from anywhere in the world!”

Last year’s winner from Santa Ynez High, Bear Redell and his family were still soaking in the year long exposure of his talent to various audiences.  “Having a vocal artist like J R Richards as one of the finalist judges is just huge,” his father said. Comparing Bear’s winning performance last year to his Teen Star ‘swan song’ on this years’ stage, I can tell you that his talent on the guitar and his voice have gone from fantastic to phenomenal.

Decker’s Outdoor Corporation was the major sponsor of the evening.  One of their representatives put it best, “We want to support youth in pursuing their dreams.”

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Weekly column by Loretta Redd, PhD

June is fast approaching, which means small armies of signature gatherers are hitting the streets in order to find sufficient voters to help a myriad of ballot initiatives qualify for the election.

After the 2010 election, I felt as though I should receive an honorary law degree–or ticket to a comedy club–for working my way through the fourteen statewide initiatives.  But fourteen was a minor nightmare, compared to the 90 different Title and Summary letters submitted to the Attorney General for approval.

Some of those 90 initiatives failed for legal reasons; others because they couldn’t find 433,971 registered Californian voters needed to qualify for a state statute, or the 694,354 folks required for an amendment to the California constitution.  That may sound like a high bar to sail over- but not really in a state with over 17.3 million registered voters.

Of the fourteen initiatives which qualified in 2010, eight were defeated at the ballot box.  It takes time and money to gather those signatures, but anyone who wants to try can certainly hit the pavement.

Personally, I think it’s sad that private citizens or groups must do the work that our legislators would rather not bother with.

They’re so busy raising funds for their own re-elections and chasing their recalcitrant partisan tails, why should  waste valuable time actually legislating?  Why not let special interest groups and well-funded private citizens do your work for you?  After all, six of the 14 Ballot Initiatives in 2010 passed into law.

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Weekly Column by Loretta Redd, PhD

If you were asked to fall backward into the arms of a stranger, would you trust them to catch you?

Each day, we are asked to take action, accept authority or align with beliefs based on the simple, but powerful  human trait of trust.  Where is trust engendered?   How is it lost?  And once lost, how can it be regained?

From Scientific American and other articles on physiology, we learn the neurobiology of trust lies within a molecular chemical known as  ‘oxytocin.’  Released from our pituitary gland, in small amounts it induces feelings of good will during acts of social bonding like sharing a hug, to a spike in volume for women during labor and childbirth.

Oxytocin is sufficiently powerful for Scottish author George MacDonald to boldly declare, “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”  It is difficult to build, and easy to destroy.  A powerfully simple booklet by Charles Feltman, titled “The Thin Book of Trust” defines it as “choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.”

But where there is trust, there is also distrust.  Local author and ethicist, Jim Litchman, suggests that trust is greatly dependent on truth.

Though we can try to be honest, keep commitments, and offer oxytocin-releasing hugs of emotional support, divisions among people regarding ideas and beliefs will naturally create silos that cultivate distrust.   In today’s society, we are invited, if not forced, to fall into the arms of a stranger called ‘the media,’ but can we trust them to provide us with the truth?

Is it true, as newspaper great Walter Lippman suggested, that “mass media is an ineffective method of public education.”

The competition for our precious attention span increases with every new means of sensory invasion from 900 cable stations, to endless information on the world-wide internet,  to talk and satellite radio and every YouTube, TED and Skype video ever recorded.

Problem is, for the most part, we no longer trust any of it.

Reasons for mistrust and darkness abound on a global and national scale. In the content of one day’s news last weekend, the basis for our obliteration of our trust molecules becomes obvious:

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Weekly Column by Loretta Redd, PhD

There have been plenty of political and social subjects recently to get all of our hearts pounding this Valentine’s Day.  Whether liberal or conservative– wealthy, middle class or poor– buying, selling or upside down in your mortgage–or simply reading the headlines of child molesters and drugged up celebrities, there seems to be no end to the news designed to get our blood boiling.

In the midst of it all, I am searching for a little love.  Not the Match., Joosk., or ChristianMingle.com type of connection, but simply something to believe in that might raise my endorphin level slightly higher than my blood pressure.

I had hoped that Valentine’s Day would be more than a marketing tool for American Greetings cards, or the method of moving mountains of chocolate into the mouths of millions.  Though the sentimental expressions celebrating  this day of love originated with Chaucer, a brief search of history indicates Pope Gelasius pronounced Valentine a saint in 496 AD, but Pope Paul VI removed his sainthood (along with all others in the Roman calendar) in 1969.

What harm this poor symbol of romance had done to the church, I cannot imagine; but poof, our Valentino was stripped of his saintly powers.  Now that I think about it, Saint Valentine’s fall from grace was about the same time this world began to spin out of control…hmmm…1969: first moon landing, NY Jets win the Super bowl,  Led Zeppelin’s first album, the Stonewall riots, Eisenhower dies, Chappaquiddick, the Nixon Doctrine, HIV/AIDS, Midnight Cowboy, cross country anti-war protests, and the Santa Barbara oil spill.

It might just be time to petition the present pontiff to re-instate a little symbolic love into the world, especially since we are slogging through the results of another malady, far worse than the emotional roller coaster of falling head over heels.

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Weekly Column by Loretta Redd

The politics of outrage took center stage this week, mirroring the lines from William Congreve’s 1697 play, The Mourning Bride: “Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”

“Love,” in the form of pink ribbon tied to our hearts through the Susan G. Komen foundation, turned instead to “hatred” by their misguided decision to politicize and de-fund breast cancer screenings done through Planned Parenthood health centers. Then, in its’ unfortunate cycle of deceit and damage control, a once honored foundation for breast cancer research and education brought doubt into the minds of thousands of its supporters as to its cross-over political agenda.

More than ever, it seems the ‘cancer’ of ideology is becoming invasive in women’s lives. As each day passes toward our next Presidential election, what a candidate once ‘stood for’ seems of less consequence than which of his statements moves the needle of public opinion.

I watch ‘truth’ devolve into a meaningless mass of message testing, looking not for bedrock beliefs, but rather for the right words to assuage every potential voter’s values. Flip-flopping with Romney on pregnancy planning, bed-hopping with Gingrich on moon-colony fidelity, or hand-washing Cain’s wandering paws, women are feeling justifiably “scorned.”

Unfortunately, board and staff members at the Komen Foundation, like VP for Public Policy, Karen Handel, decided to inject the poison of politics directly into the bosom of health care.

It was Ms. Handel who crafted the policy for Komen not to fund any organization that is under investigation by local, state and Federal authorities, knowing full well that Cliff Stearns (R-Fla) had called for investigations regarding funding for Planned Parenthood. “If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political,” she was quoted.

The backlash to the organization was a reflection not only of its policy decision, but also its poorly nuanced lies.

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