Cultural Asset

Long Beach has been robbed! It has been robbed of a great cultural asset. The Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, having finally taken its place among the great symphonies, is now silent. Under the outstanding leadership of Maestro Murry Sidlin, our symphony has been honed and molded into one of the finest musical ensembles in the country.

The sounds of our orchestra remain silent because of lack of support from the city, the media and our civic leaders. If the civic leaders would cease bickering over past history, and if the newspapers would provide balanced and accurate news reporting of the important Blue Ribbon Committee meetings being held at the present time, we would perceive a more positive image for community support.

Currently, there are tireless Symphony Guild members and hard-working committees, appointed by the Symphony Board, attempting to plan and carry out events to help in the payment of symphony debts. In addition, we have the commitment of our most talented conductor that a revived symphony will operate on a bare-bones budget.

We must all concentrate our efforts to back the present symphony administration and look forward to the sounds of beautiful music in Long Beach once again.

EDGAR E. HAMER

Los Alamitos