For the People of Waldron Island, Privacy and Isolation Are Bliss

I’ve just finished reading Barry Siegel’s excellent article about life on Waldron Island (“Private Lives,” Oct. 28). What a phenomenal piece of writing! Siegel is to be commended for producing a truly fine and compelling work. Many thanks also to your magazine for giving voice to such worthy journalism.

Mary Spencer Liming

Monrovia

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I have with dismay read all 13 pages about Waldron Island and its people who have “given up almost all creature comforts.” What gives you the right to infringe upon the privacy of people who seek it amid the beauty of nature, and who can only be harmed by curiosity seekers?

I. Pollack

Westminster

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Siegel’s story was about my home. I would like to thank him for an honest, thoughtful, well-written piece. Within the Waldron community, there was much opposition to his writing the article for many reasons, one of which was a fear that outsiders would try to develop and buy real estate there. As I read the article, I laughed at the humor and cried for my own homesickness. When I finished, I was left with a good feeling that he had not “harmed the island.”

A few mornings later this was shattered by an e-mail I received from a stranger who was interested in gaining as much information as possible about Waldron and its real estate. She was asking for, and almost demanding, my help. Siegel meant well. His article was excellent. But sometimes the result of an action is inevitable. What Waldronites feared from his article is true: Inquiries have developed.

Trayle Kulshan

Waldron Island

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Please inform the good people on Waldron that I, for one, will do all I can to ensure that they are never bothered. I think it is great that they have their nice little paradise, and I would not think of invading it. There are probably a lot more like me who believe that we make our own paradise wherever we are. I understand their desire to be left alone to enjoy themselves. Isn’t that what we all want?

John Degatina

Los Angeles