I write this in response to what I saw as a very unfair, and in my opinion orchestrated attack against Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo. I would also add that I am a conservative Republican so this is not at all a partisan move on my part in defending Ms. Schiavo.
I personally know all of the individuals involved on both sides of this with the exception of prosecutor Jonathan Hatami, whom I have met on a few occasions but can’t honestly say I “know” him.
As Assemblywoman Schiavo pointed out in her response to these personal attacks and ridiculous — in my opinion — allegations against her as a woman, daughter, mother and survivor of sexual abuse, it would have certainly been nice, not to mention professional, for the editorial staff at The Signal to contact her for comment before publishing the scathing personal attack against her.
The submissions by Mr. Patrick Lee Gipson, Matt Funicello and Hatami are their opinions, which they are certainly entitled to even though I personally question the actual research they did or did not do on this very voluminous and complicated piece of legislation they commented on in their articles slamming Ms. Schiavo.
I have had the pleasant experience of working with and getting to know Assemblywoman Schiavo in regards to her tireless work for veterans and the military and have always found her to be extremely open and honest on her views, even those where she knows we will not agree.
Bottom line: I believe she is a very honest person who is not one to say what she thinks you want to hear rather than what she truly believes.
I would hope that the editorial board at The Signal, which is basically Richard Budman and Tim Whyte, will take this truly unfortunate incident to heart and in the future not use the pages of a widely distributed newspaper to attack and accuse someone without first offering them the opportunity to respond before it is printed and sent out. And to print the person’s response side by side with their editorial so the readers have the opportunity to hear both sides of the story and make up their own minds.
As always, just my opinion.
Rick Barker
Valencia
