Mailbag: Local trails need more rangers

First off, as a member of the Glendale community, I want to thank the brave souls in the Glendale police and fire departments for rescuing a fellow neighbor of our great city (“Wounded man rescued from Brand Park,” June 17).

Sometimes, we tend to forget the dangers of working as a firefighter and police officer, and overlook the privileges of living in a safe community knowing that we are protected at all times. Throughout the years, Glendale has become increasingly popular with its high-quality restaurants, nightlife attractions, beautiful recreation areas, safe environment, great school district and the Americana at Brand.

Hence, Brand Park has also become a popular recreation area for families, but especially for hikers. It presents a difficult but well-worthwhile hike for an incredible view of numerous cities. Although, it has a few safety issues that concern many fellow hikers, including myself.

As an experienced hiker and adrenaline junkie, I can honestly say that Brand Park has the least amount of safety regulations, including a lack of enforcement. I believe that Brand Park needs to have more hiking rangers to assist and inform others of the dangers of the trail, which include the requirement of certain basic survival materials like water, a first-aid kit, proper shoes, etc.

Ultimately, this will help prevent future situations, and accidents, such as this one.

Daniel Yesayan

Glendale

Board president’s speech inappropriate

I wonder if your reporter actually asked the 2010 Crescenta Valley High School graduate pictured (“Crescenta Valley High School: ‘The experience and the memories,’” June 19) what he meant by his gesture. Maybe it was a peace sign.

That was certainly my feeling in response to Glendale Unified’s Board of Education President Greg Krikorian’s rather incoherent, definitely ill-informed, words as he took the podium at commencement to help present the diplomas. That and a white flag of surrender — he managed to hold forth for longer than either of those actually listed on the program as speakers.

Injecting partisan politics into an occasion to celebrate our graduates, Krikorian began by referring to our country’s president without including the title that President Obama earned by his election to our highest office, by a comfortable margin I might add.

This exclusion revealed both the speaker’s politics and disrespectful manners.

Rambling on, he blamed President Obama for U.S. budget deficits. It seems Krikorian’s connection to education hasn’t inspired him yet to conduct much research on the U.S. budget. Mainstream economists agree that the deep tax cuts for the rich in effect during almost the entire eight years of the previous administration are the primary cause of the current deficit. That and our deep economic downturn, brought on by unfettered capitalism enabled by both political parties.

Oh, and also the deficit-financed wars, again with bipartisan support from Congress and the White House. Krikorian may find it helpful to know that non-fringe economists agree the deficit isn’t nearly as worrisome as persistent high unemployment, and that the government must spend domestically to put people back to work.

Finally, he spoke of local individuals who lost their lives in the Iraq war — who are worthy of all honor, of course — but it does them none to repeat the canard that they were sacrificed for “our freedoms,” as Krikorian did.

The instigators of the war in the previous administration made many claims to justify the invasion, all of them proven wrong, and none more so than that Iraq posed any threat at all to us or to our way of life.

It is unfortunate that Krikorian’s remarks created such a negative presence in representing the school board at our commencement.

Roberta Medford

Montrose