MAILBAG - Jan. 19, 2007

Day labor center serves city

Most of the article [“Behind the Headlines: Eileen Garcia of the Minuteman Project”] in the Coastline Pilot on Jan. 12 was about Eileen rather than the issue, and since I am not in favor of Eileen’s viewpoint, it’s easy to pick at the article

The issue you failed to mention, again, is that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that all “persons” have a right to congregate AND to solicit work. The question, then, is whether you want to maintain some order to the process or just let them be on any street corner on Pacific Coast Highway.

It was about a year ago when the Lake Forest City Council decided they did not want workers congregating in an area adjacent to a lumberyard and a nursery. It took about an hour for the lawyers in the community to advise them that a decision by the Supreme Court gives every person a right to solicit work, whether it is on a sidewalk downtown or on a road near a lumberyard.

It’s your choice. Should the city designate an area in Laguna Canyon for individuals to look for work, or should they allow them to go back to the Circle K on North Coast Highway where they were for several years?

The City Council made this decision to minimize the impact on neighbors and to be in compliance with the Supreme Court decision.

WAYNE L PETERSON

Laguna Beach

Minutemen patriotic, not controversial

Your new feature, “Behind the Headlines,” is an excellent idea. And you really started if off right by allowing patriot Eileen Garcia to explain her position (and the position of a lot of us) regarding the illegal day labor site and the massive invasion of illegal immigrants in general.

Thanks for doing that, but I must mention in your introduction of the article you continue to demean the Minuteman organization by referring to it as “controversial,” which it is not. It is that type of misleading reporting that makes it appear as controversial. You could have just as easily been correct and used the adjective “patriotic” instead of “controversial.”

The Minuteman organization is a patriotic organization, and its members are all patriots using their own money and time to help save our country. Any controversy is introduced and fostered by those who have agendas other than patriotic or are just uniformed people misled by those who have “special” self-serving agendas.

I am not a member of the Minuteman organization, but as a military veteran and patriot, I wholeheartedly support their program and have a deep respect for their dedication and courage.

DAVE CONNELL

Laguna Beach

Study history of foreign relations

If Ms. Garcia is as compassionate as she portrays herself, it would be a simple matter to find outlets for her compassion that do not involve sending people back to a country where their options are starve or foment a revolution.

Also, she exhibited in your interview a naïve and faulty knowledge of foreign policy. What does she think the U.S. government would do if the kind of revolution she is suggesting in Mexico was imminent?

She needs to study the history of relations between the U.S. and South and Central America in the last 50 years. She might learn about our overthrow of Allende in Chile, our several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, our support for Nicaraguan death squads in the ‘80s and our training of military forces in Guatemala that slaughtered thousands of Guatemalan peasants.

Things are changing, but this government is a long way from allowing any revolutions by the poor and underclasses to occur inside the borders of a next-door neighbor.

MARY DOLPHIN

Laguna Beach

Woody’s owner sold out community

Woody’s [“Woody’s sold to Mexican dining chain,” Coastline Pilot, Jan. 12] is a sell-out to the gay community. He had a choice and took the wrong approach. The Little Shrimp “Woody’s” has been a gay landmark for 30 years. It’s a shame!

RICH RUNYAN

Aliso Viejo

Gays no longer need ‘comfort zone’

Is it possible that the demise of these locations has more to do with the comfort level of these groups in eating and drinking in nonoriented establishments?

When some of these places opened, the gay-lesbian community needed a place to be accepted. They are now accepted everywhere by nearly everyone in the area.

The Boom Boom Room has an atmosphere all its own and will be missed for what it is, not for who it draws.

FRED GOLDBERG

Aliso Viejo

Watchdogs made Laguna what it is

We sometimes hear it this way: “From your ink to God’s ears.”

Your editorial on citizen watchdogs is sweet but way too short. It offers only a tantalizing peep into that other world of caring and hard work.

Can you imagine for only a moment what our great state’s coastline would be like without the Coastal Commission or without the efforts of the dedicated citizens who are willing to sacrifice so much of their time and energy for causes they believe in? Certainly our beautiful Laguna would not be what it is today without them.

So to the Debbies, Lisas, Pennys, Rogers, Bonnies and Arnolds, and to the Tom and Darrilyns, Anns and those unnamed — we all owe them thanks.

And to our well-paid city officials who sometimes feel “inconvenienced” or “not happy” with some things, as the citizens’ “personal representative here on earth” it’s your job to steer the good ship Laguna Beach into a future that’s good, better and best for everyone. And not try to move things forward in a timely manner just to clear the calendar.

We all know why the big bucks and developers come here. It’s because many of those watchdogs have worked hard to help make Laguna what it is — an incredibly valuable and wonderful place to live and raise their kids and invest in the future.

Another of our mottos should be “Don’t Trash Laguna.” It reflects very badly on the community when a few would dare to deface other people’s property. Our property. OurLaguna.

RIK LAWRENCE

Laguna Beach

Women still

subjugated

It is encouraging to read about the progressive women described by Barbara Diamond in last week’s front-page story, “Female bonding” [Coastline Pilot, Jan. 12].

At the same time, it is discouraging to know that there are still some people today who embrace archaic texts that command that women stay at home.

That women be subservient and obedient to their husbands who shall rule over them — to learn in silence with all subjection.

To not be suffered to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man — but to be in silence.

Let’s hope these people will soon join the rest of us in the 21st century.

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach