Mailbag: Our community is not immune to post-election intimidation

As people who live and work in Laguna Beach, we are concerned about the safety of our fellow humans in town. While most of your readers experience Laguna as a friendly place that has no room for hate and bigotry, unfortunately, it is not always friendly to everyone.

In the weeks since the election, we have seen an increase in violence throughout the country, including the use of Nazi symbols, racist language or images, as well as harassment of and violent attacks on individuals because of their racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or gender identity.

Our place has not been spared. A member of our community shared her personal story of strangers directing hate speech at her (and, sadly, it has to be assumed that this was not the only incident). People passing by made statements, such as “go back to where you came from.”

We know that the majority of people, who live and work in town, find this type of hurtful, threatening behavior unacceptable and would agree that each individual, who lives, works or visits has the right to be safe in Laguna Beach.

And yet, no one intervened during this incident. The community member, who had the courage to come forward and talk about the experience of being harassed, specifically said that it would have meant a lot to her to have fellow citizens stand with her.

We therefore appeal to everyone’s sense of justice and human decency to treat each other with kindness and respect and to step in in case you witness harassment, discrimination or a violent attack.

We also suggest that the city, the business community, churches and other groups active in the community take a public stance against bigotry and violence.

One model to adopt could be the Joint Statement from California Legislative Leaders from Nov. 9, which states that “California is — and must always be — a refuge of justice and opportunity for people of all walks, talks, ages and aspirations — regardless of how you look, where you live, what language you speak, or who you love.”

We leave it to your kind and creative spirits to come up with ideas to keep this place livable for all of us. In civil society, silence cannot be an option. Let’s stand up against discrimination and work together for true peace, equality and community in Laguna Beach — and beyond.

Annette Schlichter, Robin Pierson, Yasuko Bush, John Bush, Scott Alan

Laguna Beach

Ad misrepresented my position on Museum House proposal

I woke up Sunday morning a supporter of the Museum House.

Since I’ve spent the last year as a vociferous opponent to the Museum House, I was more surprised than anyone.

But there I was: the marquee name in the middle of a full-page ad of supporters of the Museum House, saying that I thought it was a beautiful project.

How could this be? Perhaps it was opposite day?

If so, I would read the Daily Pilot to find that our City Council had decided to honor Greenlight and call for a citywide vote after all. I scanned the paper, but no such news.

A tiny memory peeked through. Last summer, I had spoken at a meeting in which I commented that the architecture was beautiful but that the building was huge, didn’t belong in Newport Center and that I opposed the project.

The developer had used surgical precision to extract a few words from my quote and splash me across his ad.

Yikes! Imagine what else I might have said that could be taken out of context and used against me. I can only hope that the karma of the universe rains down upon the developer in the form of huge referendum petitions and that he forgives me, his marquee supporter, for working like a madwoman to defeat his project.

Susan Skinner

Newport Beach