Mailbag: Health-care reform is not ‘socialism’

Did you know that folks working at a minimum wage or on unemployment are paying taxes that pay for social security, Medicare, veterans benefits (there are plenty of them collecting benefits even if they had desk jobs and never were in the line of fire) and for the bonuses and perks being paid to the idiots who caused the Wall Street debacle and ran companies into the ground with their excessive salaries and perks?

There are folks whose employers don’t provide health-care benefits, or even if their employers did, they cannot afford to buy it for themselves or their children.

Then there are folks who cannot afford the co-pay or deductible. Of course, then there are those who are in fear of being dropped from their insurance plan.

These folks cannot afford to pay for health care for themselves or their families and don’t have the tax deductions available to them like those folks who earn more than $150,000 or more a year, have multiple homes, fast cars and the other trappings of the wealthy.

All of these folks aren’t yelling and screaming “socialism” as the issues of health-care reform is being beaten to a pulp by greedy chief executives of health insurance and drug companies.

The ones yelling “socialism” are those who have friends, family and loved ones who do collect from social security, Medicare and other government benefits or make $150,000 or more a year, and they aren’t ashamed to yell out “socialism.”

These folks may have communicable diseases or are in pain or dying because they don’t have health insurance.

This is a travesty and apparently it is a hallmark of capitalism at its worst. Actually we don’t have capitalism any more; we are an oligarchy.

I am not a card-carrying party person “” I am a humanitarian with a social and moral conscience.

G. BROWN

Laguna Beach

Action on speech disappointing

Thank you for your article expressing the opinions of other dismayed Laguna Beach residents regarding the dismissal of our president’s message to students.

As a resident for 20 years, I have seen various changes to the landscape as well as the personality of our town. We have rolled with those changes as one would in support of a loved one or a friend.

You see, we feel we have a very personal relationship with our generally wonderful village.

Like many other families here, our children have always attended the Laguna Beach Unified Schools.

For our son, it was from start to finish as he is now in college. For our daughter, we near the end as she is now a senior at Laguna Beach High School.

When our daughter returned home from her first day of school on Tuesday we promptly asked her what she thought of President Obama’s speech to students.

“We never saw it,” she told us.

At which point my husband and I looked at each other with disbelief. Laguna Beach Unified did not air the leader of the free world’s speech of encouragement?!

A motivational speech not unlike the one principals usually offer up at every back to school night. What was that all about? How could there be anything negative about encouraging our kids to stay in school and work hard?

What a disappointment. We felt betrayed by the Laguna Beach Unified School District. The same district we have diligently volunteered in and made numerous contributions in support of.

Wow, we just experienced legitimate censorship! Where are we again? It feels more like the Soviet Union than the West Coast of the United States of America. What comes next, guys, burning books?

DEBORAH DRUCKER

Laguna Beach

‘No’ to cameras, ‘yes’ to cops downtown

Regarding the City Council Wrap-up (Sept. 11): I believe considering surveillance cameras downtown would be extreme and invasive.

This is Laguna Beach, not Rodeo Drive (yet), and galleries and jewelry stores should install their own security cameras and silent alarms, and practice due vigilance in keeping an eye on their merchandise and who’s entering and exiting their place of business.

A “beat cop” actually wouldn’t be a bad idea, as this presence would not only be a deterrent but an interactive hands-on person to deal with things that arise on a daily basis downtown and elsewhere.

Lastly, in regard to the upcoming smoking ban in Laguna’s public parks “” there is currently zero enforcement of the smoking ban on our beaches, indeed, there’s not even one single sign informing people of the ordinance.

What makes anyone think it will be enforced in our parks?

KURT MAHONEY

Laguna Beach

Superintendent erred on Obama speech

I am outraged that a speech from the president of the United States was not allowed to be shown to our children because some parents thought it would be inappropriate for some children to see!

The Laguna Beach [Unified School District] superintendent has shown that his judgment is clouded with political demagogy and a blatant disrespect for the office of the president of the United States of America. I call for a public forum on the school board’s actions.

I have put five children through the Laguna Beach school system. I was a board member of SchoolPower, a past vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, past member of the Rotary, the Exchange Club and a retired officer in the U.S. Army.

As a veteran who has put his life on the line for our country, I am saddened that this country and the board of education have sunk to such a partisan quagmire that we can no longer see ourselves as all Americans!

It is a sad state of affairs that we as a people have fallen to such low regard for the principals of our great nation.

MICHAEL R. EVANS, 1st Lt. Ret.

Laguna Beach

School lighting intrusive to neighbor

St. Catherine School has built a new, improved facility. They are rightfully proud of their accomplishment, but in the process their lighting system has invaded the adjacent neighborhood and ignored the city’s energy conservation and carbon footprint reduction commitment.

Briefly, they installed an outdoor lighting system that is intrusive and glares into our home.

It is the equivalent of looking at a lighted shopping center. They have the lights on a timer and run them each evening until 10:30, including weekends.

There are no activities at the facility during this time yet the school chooses to run all of the lights.

I have respectfully asked Father O’Gorman to please turn them off at night and at a minimum only run them when there is an event.

The nightly glare is affecting the quality of our life. I asked him to view the lights from our property so he can see the problem. He did and agreed that they were extremely bright.

However, he has taken no action to have them turned off or adjust the timers. Outreach to city officials was met with: “There’s nothing we can do.”

Father O’Gorman’s only concern seems to be the completion of the facility. I am asking that he and the families of the St. Catherine School show compassion and sensitivity to their neighbors.

Go to the school at night and see all the lights in the school on with no one there. Please do not lose sight of your values and compassion for your fellow man. You have an opportunity to lead by example by showing empathy for your neighbor.

The families and children can learn that while a new school is valuable to the Parish and parents so are the values that are taught in that school. Whatever happened to “do unto others?”

If the school won’t remedy a simple concern, then the city should intervene via the project’s conditional use permit and demand that the intensity and broad swath of the lighting system be altered.

RONALD KOTKIN

Laguna Beach

Obama speech reaction appalling

Aren’t two of the school board members who recently approved not showing the president’s speech to America’s school children the same two who voted to allow MTV to come into the high school to tape a TV series?

And we’re supposed to believe that “interference with teachers’ current lesson plans and the obstacles that could potentially create for curricular goals” played a large part in the thinking of these board members?

I am appalled.

BARBARA DRESEL

Laguna Beach

City must find solution to homeless

I continue to find it unbelievable how this quaint city by the ocean has steadily gone downhill since the city caved in and allowed the homeless to take over.

Just look at the weekly papers and the crimes reported. We’ve never had crimes like this, and the vast majority involve the disrespectful homeless population that have descended upon us.

Homeless people taking over and living on the beach, a homeless person harassing singers and taking out a knife, homeless people occupying Heisler Park and harassing people strolling through, homeless panhandler assaulting a citizen after asking for money, a fight between two homeless people at Heisler Park, a homeless man and woman stealing and cashing a money order, and on and on and on.

This is just in one week. Do you think the homeless care about being arrested? Of course not; it gets them a bed to sleep in and a free meal. They laugh at being arrested; I’ve seen it.

I have heard many people say they aren’t comfortable going downtown anymore. It’s easy to understand. I’ve heard tourists comment that they had no idea Laguna Beach had so many homeless people and not remembering seeing this many before. Again, understandable.

I’ve heard other visitors state they won’t be coming back due to the homeless and summer traffic congestion (another thorn in our side).

Businesses are going under, and don’t fool yourself into solely accusing the tough economic times. If foot traffic is down, who is there to go into the shops?

Why would someone want to endure being harassed or threatened in downtown Laguna when we can travel north or south and have an enjoyable, hassle free evening?

The word is out, and it’s showing.

I’m not sure what the humane solution is, and too bad our City Council didn’t think this far enough ahead to realize the consequences of their actions in putting up the “welcome” sign for the homeless. Now we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I suspect it’s only a matter of time before Laguna turns into another San Diego Gaslamp District that went through the same situation years ago and almost witnessed the total destruction of that area.

Since then they’ve come to their senses and things are turning around. I wonder when our city will come to its senses.

DENNIS KLINE

Laguna Beach

Democracy needs to start at home

I moved to Laguna Beach 26 years ago and have always been proud to live in the only area of Orange County that stood for democracy for all against the conservative bastions of the rest of the county.

I was appalled and outraged to learn that the school board did not allow our students to listen to the president speak to the school children of our nation last week.

Since when has encouragement to succeed from the president of the United States become a controversial issue? When I was in grade school in Oklahoma a radio was brought into the classroom so we could all listen to Gen. MacArthur present his speech to Congress after being removed from command by President Truman.

I would suggest that might have been perceived as controversial at the time, but even in the 1950s in Oklahoma schoolchildren were encouraged to think for themselves.

Everything has become so politicized lately that some cannot reach beyond their own self-interest. We should all be ashamed.

What has happened to the democracy in this country? We are sacrificing our youth in other countries to teach democracy. Maybe we should start at home.

SANDY PRICE

Laguna Beach

Kids could have seen speech on Internet

The furor is fine, and the fitting quick fix was forged, given the parental fracas. Kudos to the superintendent.

What’s funny is that students could watch Obama’s speech both on YouTube and on the White House site, not long after its airing.

The Internet makes the rules. In a perfect world, one would like to believe it’s possible to delay and/or deter students from viewing public information (i.e., the speech), but it’s futile. They will find it, cyber-sleuths that they are.

Drama only fuels faster ferreting out, due to a student’s faculty for search (and fleet search engines). Not being a gadget person, I would wager some students were able to view Obama’s speech real-time on hand-held devices.

Furor, once again, is fine! Debates are healthy for society and are frequently fertile. However, one should not be fooled into thinking it’s feasible to hinder what students can or cannot view.

The equivalent would be forbidding them from using an “f-word.” Smiley face.

STEVEN BATZ

Laguna Beach

‘Pro-life’ not accurate description of group

I detected an inaccuracy in the heading of the story, “Bullhorn pulpit denied to pro-life group” (Sept. 4). Instead of the word “pro-life,” “anti-abortion” should have been used, which is what the plaintiffs are.

However, the word “pulpit” was accurate. The plaintiffs are obviously promoting a sectarian agenda. They’re trying to take away from Caesar that which is Caesar’s, i.e. the existing right women have to own and protect their own bodies. I find it telling that no women are listed as plaintiffs. What is incredulous is that abortion is not even mentioned in the scriptures. Hmmm?

I can see calling the plaintiffs pro-life if they promoted matters that actually are in the scriptures, such as love, compassion, forgiveness, caring for the poor, the hungry and the sick.

I’d find them more credible if they were concerned about real, living, breathing and sensing lives, not the feeble concept that life begins at conception.

If they really want to be pro-life and must bullhorn, let them bullhorn the Vatican for its insistence on denying birth control to Africans whose overpopulated masses are dying of disease and starvation.

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach

Speech upset parents more

Parents have every right to threaten keeping their children home because they don’t want them to hear a live message from the president of the United States, but if they are so concerned with a speech that encouraged children to believe in themselves and the things they like and are good at, I think those same parents could be alarmed at many topics and subjects presented in our public schools that could be far more negative in their opinion than the speech by President Barack Obama.

I think they should take their children out of public school and home school them, so they hear exactly what the parents want them to hear or send them to a private school where they won’t hear anything that might upset their parents.

ROGER CARTER

Laguna Beach