Youth Sports Aren’t Everything

Bully for Sandra Hyman and Keary Gregg! (“They’re No Fans of Youth Sports,” July 1.)

How refreshing to hear about individuals standing up for what is an ignored or shouted-down privacy rights issue. Apparently, people like Laguna Niguel Councilman Mark Goodman see the right of others to be left some peace and quiet within their own homes as subordinate to the demands of parents who feel that their kids should have carte blanche to all things at all hours and at any decibel level. The rest of us are expected to acquiesce.

And where are the supporters of libraries, school music and theater programs, arts and languages organizations? Are loudly invasive sports events the only way to “keep kids out of trouble”?

Councilman Goodman seems convinced that sports are the only answer, a stance that suggests another attitude prevalent in today’s society--that of “I-want- what-I-want-and-I’m-going-to- ruin-yours-to-get-it.”

KIRSTEN SCHNEIDER

Huntington Beach

It has been my recent experience that youth sports has an insatiable appetite. No matter how many fields are provided for their use, they want more.

The current demand is for lighted fields so they can play well into the night. It is very unfair and unnecessary to demand lighted fields in the middle of residential areas. There is plenty of daylight during the spring, summer and fall months and on the weekends. I can think of no acceptable reason why playing fields (with or without lights) cannot be constructed away from existing homes.

It’s time to stop feeding the appetite of youth sports, before there are no more peaceful evenings in South County.

CATHY GANZE

San Clemente