Mailbag: Commentary offered ‘scary’ reminder of potential for nuclear war

The article, “Atomic veteran’s experience with 31-kiloton nuke is worth recalling as ‘Doomsday Clock’ resets” (Daily Pilot, Feb. 4) was almost like reading a make-believe movie thriller that has a possibility of coming true. The 92-year-old atomic veteran, Ray Calloway, recalls his experience back in April 1950 when he was just under 4 miles from the testing sight of a 31 kiloton atom bomb. He best remembers “the most beautiful crimson he’s ever seen” and the 14-second delay between the initial blast and the blast wave that hit him. It’s been many years without atmospheric testing and reported close calls which seems to have created a sense of global safety with not much thinking on the subject.

But the article had some profound and scary statements such as: “Most experts agree that a reliable defense against a determined nuclear attack does not exist” and “China, Russia and the U.S. are all spending huge sums to expand or modernize their nuclear arsenals” with the U.S. government’s plan to spend $1.5 trillion on a new generation of modernized nukes. And now it’s getting scary again. With what is going on in the world today in the Mideast and Russia, who knows what could happen tomorrow with so much anger, hate and the means by which we could destroy each other with the pressing of a button? Is there any kind of deterrent that could stop a future nuclear war?

In 1959 there was a movie called “On the Beach,” with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner, about the world having had a nuclear war with only Australia having survived the blast, but with a slowly moving nuclear fallout heading towards Australia and everyone knowing that their time is very short. The movie was too real and way too scary. The film was shown in numerous countries around the world in hopes that it would provide ample deterrent and fear to ward off any possibilities of a real nuclear war. So far, so good, as any wars since then have been conventional, sans the deadly nukes we now possess. Perhaps it’s time to bring back that movie to prevent a real-life scenario of “On the Beach.”

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

Surf City politics continue to frustrate

Re: “Huntington Beach City Council stands with Texas in border dispute on split vote,” Daily Pilot, Feb. 8: Why did a “Statement of Solidarity with Texas” appear as an agenda item for the Huntington Beach City Council? A Democrat-bashing statement of solidarity with a Republican governor intent on taking away the rights of women, people of color, and LGBQT+ people? Personal partisanship is the answer, never mind that council members are supposed to represent all of us, not just those who vote Republican.

Comparing President Biden’s purported (not actual) “open border” policy and Gov. Newsom’s housing mandates to Gov. Greg Abbott’s horrific treatment of undocumented immigrants is false equivalency. Neither Biden nor Newsom are violating federal law, ignoring a U.S. Supreme Court decision, erecting razor wire that endangers human lives, dumping undocumented migrants in other cities, or joking about shooting immigrants if only it weren’t illegal.

Councilman Pat Burns and the other three conservative council members need to stop injecting their personal politics into the City Council agenda and focus instead on what actually affects all of us right here in Huntington Beach — like balancing the budget, maintaining our city streets and sidewalks, resolving the homeless problem and cracking down on the speeding/noisy vehicles taking over our city.

This misguided statement should have been voted down and thrown in the trash where it belongs. Let’s not turn Huntington Beach into another Texas or Florida.

Michele Burgess
Huntington Beach

The well-funded MAGA four seem to want to stage a coup in Huntington Beach, not only banning books DeSantis-style, but also rebuking our nation’s Constitution, Texas-Abbott-style. Next they will want to secede from California, following the divisive rhetoric of Greg Abbott. I support law and order and the right to peruse any book of learning I choose, and not to not to support divisive, Constitution-defying followers of insurrectionist Donald J. Trump and all of his lawless ways.

Jim Hoover
Huntington Beach

The actions of the City Council majority at the Feb. 6 meeting may have been, as Councilwoman Natalie Moser described, “bad political performance art,” but it goes much deeper than that. It shows that the amateur autocrats in control have no clue about how to govern and run a city and no inclination to represent any constituents beyond their MAGA-style base. To paraphrase the words of Mayor Pro Tem Pat Burns, the local center of the Texas controversy, and referring in this case to the council majority, “I wish they’d work as hard for us as they do against the people of Huntington Beach. Their policies are destroying our community.”

Equally disturbing to the political posturing on the dais was the political posturing of the “psycho-phants” of the council majority in public comments. This especially applies to the three “anointed” candidates of the council majority running in the November election, which some have begun calling “The Three Stooges.” They make no cogent arguments or show evidence for their accusations. Just pure rhetoric and head-bashing ideology. No wonder it is all, as speaker Wendy Rincon exclaimed, “political theater.” In addition, psycho-phants in the audience were boisterous and rude towards opposing public speakers, requiring the mayor to continually upbraid them for being disrespectful. Not a good look for the autocrats in charge.

The icing on the cake was the council vote on the controversial “Texas two step” move by Burns to align Surf City with the Lone Star state in bucking authority. The council majority may have been calling the tune, but it was clear many opponents were sitting it out. Why follow the lead of amateurs?

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

I write this observation as I’ve watched with despair as my first O.C. hometown in 1972 — Huntington Beach — become a city that seems to have decided behind a highly partisan City Council to return in many ways to the apparently nostalgic era of hatefulness, division and intolerance that was once the national identity of Orange County. Let’s not reconstruct our past history as the home of the John Birch Society. Let’s not return to electing hateful, despotic and ignorant representatives like Bob Dorman and Dana Rohrbacher.

Huntington Beach is not alone in this prosecution of many of the elements of the right wing-inspired culture war agenda — we’re finding it spreading to many local communities around the country. Something happened to our vision of a great country with our recent national elections and exacerbated by the pandemic. People have become more openly hateful and intolerant. Hate crimes and property crimes are proliferating, even though violent crime seems to be down from the 1990s. People drive like the 405 is a new setting for Destruction Derby. It often seems like daily life has become a race to the bottom. Against this national backdrop, we find many cities, counties and states acting like the Huntington Beach council — demonizing enemies and deconstructing institutions that grew up in the last few decades to promote better human interaction and greater tolerance.

So that’s why I’m sad when I see the H.B. City Council cancel the Human Relations Task Force, refuse to adopt a Housing Element dealing with affordable housing and homelessness, censure a fellow council member for her concern about legitimatizing Holocaust denial, banning the Pride flag, and most recently aligning with the Texas’ governor in virtue-signaling racist immigration policies.

It’s clear the council majority’s aim is to diminish the direction we are headed as a county — diverse, inclusive, tolerant of others. Perhaps I’m not close enough to the issues on the ground in Surf City, but why should a City Council purposefully take actions that devalue others’ life choices, create unwarranted divisions, further polarization, and propel disruptive and often untruthful culture wars?

Please, Orange County, don’t return to the days of covert racism, free-floating hatred and antisemitism. Don’t cancel initiatives aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion simply because it’s the new cancellation target of despots and autocrats and even some presidential candidates. Please don’t turn off the beacon that has been focused on Orange County — the shining County on the Hill. Let’s live and let live, and continue on the course that we’ve set for our county over the last 40 years.

Michael Schneider
Laguna Beach

How to privatize a library

While I hope I am wrong, I have a feeling the Huntington Beach City Councils’ library resolution N0 2023-41 is just an excuse so they can privatize our beautiful library.

Step 1. Vilify the library and claim its librarians are infesting the children with pornography and obscenities. Create outrage among your base.
Step 2. Claim in order to protect children, you must demand all materials you deem to be offensive be removed and placed in a restricted area. State loudly this is not a book ban.
Step 3. Make your children’s book restriction criteria as broad and vague as possible. Use terms like “any children’s book with sexual content.” Force librarians to determine what that means. Should public outcry occur, blame library staff.
Step 4. Form a 21-person committee to oversee the ordering of all children’s materials. These volunteers are sure to become overwhelmed having to read through every single book before it can be purchased. It will also be expensive for the city to purchase preview copies for the committee members.
Step 5. Tell the public after considerable consideration you have decided the best way to save money and keep children safe is to hire a company to privatize the library. This company will now order only materials you and your colleagues find to be morally acceptable and reflect your point of view.

That my friends, is how a mayor and her fellow council members can take over the Huntington Beach Public Library and Cultural Center and turn it into a privatized library, one that will reflect the viewpoint of only some of the residents, while being paid for by all of the residents.

Barbara Richardson
Huntington Beach