Rebecca Whitnall, Patch Staff

Becca has lived in Southern California most of her life.

With the exception of spending a few years in Jamaica as a child, she grew up here. She ventured up north to go to school at UC Berkeley, where she studied English and one of those only-in-Berkeley disciplines called Peace and Conflict Studies.

After school, she stayed up in the Bay Area for a while, and though she enjoyed the culture, the people and even the excursions to Burning Man, she's a SoCal girl at heart and eventually found her way back.

For the past few years, she's served as the editor of the Moorpark and Woodland Hills Patch sites and helped in Calabasas for a short time. Before that, she worked at a daily newspaper covering interesting people, places and events in Ventura County, both in print and online as a writer and editor.

She welcomes any feedback you might have. Don't hesitate to write to her at rebecca.whitnall@patch.com or, if you see her out and about in town, stop and say hello!

Beliefs:

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible and human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal certain key beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable.

This disclosure is not a license for our editors to inject these beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will force us to be ever mindful to write, report, and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you, the user, ever think you see evidence that we failed in this mission, we wholeheartedly invite you to let us know.

Politics

▪	How would you describe your political beliefs?

I tend to have strong feelings on both ends of the spectrum, which lands me somewhere in the middle, I suppose. I guess if I had to boil it down, I tend toward the liberal side where social issues are involved and a bit more conservative on fiscal issues.

Mostly, I'm a big fan of individual freedoms and being an informed citizen.

Also I don't subscribe to the idea of voting for candidates or ballot initiatives based on which party is backing them, but rather like to dissect an issue and decide for myself.

Religion

▪	How religious would you say you are? Casual, observant, devout, non-religious?

My dad's side of the family is Quaker (yes, Quaker; no, we don't eat tons of oatmeal or only use a particular type of motor oil) and my mom's side is protestant, but I've never been moved by any particular religion.

I like the idea that there's something bigger out there, but I don't know what it is. I try to live my life by the golden rule, keep an open mind and respect others' beliefs.

Local Hot Button Issues

▪	What do you think are the most important issues facing the community?

I think it might be a little simplistic and, admittedly, rude to say, "it's the economy, stupid." Having said that, it's the economy. Times are tough right now and people in Southern California, like everywhere, are hurting. So are the schools and city governments.