Milestones – Shakespeare was Right! – Opinion

Writing an opinion article does allow for the author to form that opinion based on a variety of sources. Now an opinion writer is sometimes like a dentist working on a bad tooth. On occasion, the dentist hits a nerve that even novocaine can’t disguise. So, it is with opinions.

Last week’s article was based on information from very reliable sources. Evidently, it touched a nerve or, maybe two, based on the response.

Santa Clara City Manager Deanna Santana took umbrage with my opinion and, like the free press, she is entitled to respond.

Acting out of character, she responded with a denial that she had ANYTHING to do with the RFP in hiring a new city attorney. Hmmm. Even though there are many departments in the city, the City Manager has the last word on just about everything. Odd that something this significant would be left totally in the hands and at the sole direction of an “independent” attorney.

My sources tell me she was involved, I trust them and from that share my opinion.

It was also interesting that Santana alluded to ALL the other items that she says were false in my column without specifying them.

Really now, if I was a reporter, it would require me to be as scrupulous as our writers and reporters who are asked to prove every fact in their stories. However, I am an opinion writer, not a reporter. I observe, ask questions, check sources, form opinions, and put them in writing.

Now, my sources also tell me with all the hoopla, not one applicant replied for the attorney position by the December 7 deadline.

Now it is certainly acceptable for any reader to disagree with my opinion. However, Santana exceeds the bounds of respectable criticism when she alludes to “all the other misinformation” that I included without saying what that is.

If Ms. Santana is referring to my description of her tenure in Santa Clara and the havoc she has delivered upon the city, I would have to say in defense, “it’s actually very accurate”. And so I continue to ask, why is she still employed?

For a variety of reasons, I am reminded of a scene from Hamlet in Act III, Scene II when Hamlet turns to his mother and asks, “Madam, how like you this play?” to which she responds, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Frankly, I think Shakespeare nailed it. Then…and now!