As I mourn the loss of my friend, I find it very disheartening to see such a one-sided, negative report in your paper. Steve was not The Lighthouse Foundation. I find it increasingly scary that a paper I thought was a little more balanced focused only on the one man that died at Lighthouse and the legal issues surrounding that incident, rather than focus on the hundreds, possibly thousands, of lives it has saved.
The other thing I find horrible is, that is the only side of Steve you cover. Do you talk about his family? No. Do you saying anything about how long he was a Santa Barbara resident? No. Do you speak of the things he loved or his accomplishments? No.
Your biased article about my friend Steve is disgusting, Yes, he struggled with addiction, Yes, the addiction won. During the course of his life there was much more to this man, son, and father than one event at Lighthouse resulting in a lawsuit, and, sadly, his fatal overdose. I guess the rest doesn’t sell. Remember, no one asks to become an addict any more than they ask for cancer. – Anonymous
Editor’s Note: We received several letters criticizing our news brief about Steve Hartman. The authors requested anonymity, in keeping with fundamental principles of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery model. As a rule, the Santa Barbara Independent does not print anonymous letters, but we are making an exception in order to print a representative letter. People are invited to comment anonymously online.