Letters to the Editor

Muchas Gracias

I don’t have words big enough to express how deeply your article moved me and my family. [July 11: “A Shrimp Cocktail, A Family’s Dream and the ICE Assault on Our Community” by Stephen Downing.]

You didn’t just write about our food truck, you told our story with heart, truth and compassion. You saw us and you reminded others what we’re fighting for.

Your words gave voice to what so many of us feel but don’t always know how to say. You captured the joy, the struggle, the silence we’ve been living through, and you turned it into a call for community and solidarity.

Thank you for showing up, not just to eat, but to listen. Thank you for continuing to come back. And thank you for helping others understand that this isn’t just about business, it’s about people, families and the right to dream safely and loudly.

From all of us at Mariscos El Garage, gracias de todo corazón. With deep appreciation,

Elsa Barragán & Family

Destructive Policies

Google, Amazon and Moderna were founded by immigrants or their children ... as were nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies. Many researchers and economists fear that funding cuts and immigration policy changes could keep the world’s brightest minds from coming to America.

Trump’s deportation policy should focus only on deporting those who have criminal backgrounds. The others who came here illegally but are living their lives within the rule of law, working, paying taxes and contributing to America’s future should be allowed to stay and put on the path to permanent residency. This definitely includes the dreamers. We need them! The American population is getting older and we need new entrepreneurs.

Sanford Kahn
Business Author/Speaker

25th Anniversary

Congratulations to you for your 25 years of leading the Beachcomber and making it a useful and enjoyable news and info outlet in Long Beach.

Even though we currently live in New Hampshire, my wife grew up in Long Beach. We only actually discovered the Beachcomber approximately five years ago while visiting there. We noticed that there was then a lack of local newspapers and local news, and I suggested that we look at the Beachcomber.

My wife at first thought that it would not be very helpful, since she thought of the Beachcomber as only a shopper paper. But once we started reading it, we were very surprised by the useful information and many of the interesting articles and submissions we found there.

I know from your occasional political comments that you may be a bit more conservative than I am or that some of your staff might be. That is why I particularly applaud your willingness to publish letters and submissions from people with different political experiences. That is what makes life interesting.

Thank you again, and may the Beachcomber live long and prosper,

Peter Somssich

A Grim LB Fairytale

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful village nestled by the sparkling sea. The good townspeople loved their very special town with its shade-giving and air-sweetening trees, lovely beach with unique vistas and many, many people wanted to live there.

Then one day it came to be that the naive noblemen who governed the charming town declared that there would be change. The naive noblemen had heard of some greedy dragons from far-away places who offered sacks of gold, and this lured them into believing that these dragons could build buildings that would be good for the charming town.

Now the good townspeople had been paying tariffs to the naive noblemen, and they said that they wanted it to remain a charming village with many beautiful parks near the sparkling sea instead. But their voices were too small, and the lure of the greedy dragons’ promises of gold and fame and fortune were too great for the naive noblemen to hear the cries of the people; and the noblemen were very, very determined to carry out the dragons’ plan.

And then one dark and dreary day the good townspeople woke to find their charming cottages shadowed by tall and ugly buildings. The greedy dragons, who cared nothing about the town or the people in it, had left their ugliness and retreated to their caves under cities far away, leaving the once-charming town, good townspeople and naive noblemen with a village in which no one wanted to live.

Gone were the lovely shade-giving and air-sweetening trees, replaced by tall formless buildings. The beautiful sparkling sea was forever obscured by endless rows of buildings with massive parking towers. The clean, quiet air was fouled with pollutants and noise from industry, smog-spewing ships in the dirty grey port, and endless lines of traffic clogging the once-charming streets.

The naive noblemen were very sad, for the ugly buildings stood empty since no one wanted to come to such an ugly place. The promises of the greedy dragons were only empty promises: there were no bags of gold for the very sad town, and instead the greedy dragons had left with not only their bags of gold, but also the gold belonging to the good townspeople!

No one came to the town ever again to bask in its beauty, for the town was forever changed.

The people were very, very sad. The people cried. But it was too late.

Epilogue: I moved to Long Beach in 1979, where I discovered a charming seaside city. I left for Oregon in 1983 and returned to Long Beach in 2000 to find a very changed city. The greedy dragons are back!

Merry Colvin