Mailbag: Time to ‘duck and cover’ in Newport Beach

Just let me say that I like a good, loud bang as much as the next guy. However, it seems ludicrous for Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to talk about rules, regulations, bans and “safe and sane” legal fireworks every year before the big day.

If you haven’t driven down Santa Ana Avenue on the Fourth after dark, you might think that sounds reasonable. It is like a war zone. Through the smoke screen you can see the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air. With small sticks of dynamite blasting and wayward bottle rockets shooting past your car, you’d be wise to keep your windows rolled up and your head down.

And then there’s Newport Beach. Please, give me a break. Maybe there’s a police presence in West Newport, where most of the action is, but in Newport Heights, Dover Shores and West Cliff, there were guys setting off long strings of firecrackers, bottle rockets and M80 explosives during the two days before the Fourth.

On the evening of the Fourth they added professional-appearing bombs that explode 80 feet above the houses. I’d rather see the officials who try to regulate the Fourth of July festivities just relax and stop proclaiming the “safe and sane” and “total ban” rhetoric. Just admit it’s “duck and cover, screw the limits and every man for himself,” and pass out survival guides.

Gerri Ferguson

Newport Beach

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Blood drive loses to fireworks

Some Costa Mesa merchants have misplaced priorities, preferring the sale of fireworks that cause injuries to the donation of blood that saves lives.

The American Red Cross scheduled donors to give blood Monday morning at the Starbucks on 17th Street near Orange Avenue. But those who showed up for the appointment were sadly turned away because merchants had decided that they had already made their donation of parking spaces to fireworks’ vendors.

How sad. Whoever made this decision needs to take some time out to think about life, what sustains it and what really matters.

Dennis Okholm

Costa Mesa

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Canada geese deaths preventable

Two Canada geese and four chicks had been frequently occupying the pool area of the Village Park Community Assn. in Irvine.

Inquiries about moving the geese and chicks to their natural habitat have been met with replies that they are a protected species and cannot be moved.

It recently came to the attention of my daughter and grandson, who were at the pool for his swim lessons, that the four chicks were found dead in the drain of the tot wading pool and had been removed by one of the parents present.

I believe this unfortunate incident could have been avoided had the geese family been taken to Mason Park, San Diego Creek or any other nearby natural habitat. I request an investigation into why common sense didn’t prevail.

Albert De Guglielmo

Irvine

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I support Hoag, reject Democrats

I have long been a Democrat and have enjoyed the party’s mailings and some of the speakers and even did some campaign work for our president.

In the past few months, I have come to the realization that I can no longer support a political party that embraces a platform that allows groups that support abortion rights, like the National Organization for Women, to confuse the issue with “comprehensive healthcare.”

The recent demonstrations at Hoag Hospital have convinced me that these women are absolutely wrong. To protest Hoag’s decision to discontinue elective abortions as denying comprehensive healthcare to women is a grave lie.

I even saw a sign denouncing my Catholic religion.

The abortion-rights groups are totally intolerant of any beliefs other then their own. So to that end, I will cease participation with Orange County Democrats and unsubscribe from the newsletter.

I have come to realize that the left is not right and will support a worthy candidate who is not from that party.

Denis Montenaro

Laguna Niguel