I enjoy reading the Laguna Beach Independent, but two columns in the last edition stuck in my craw.
Emil Monda’s column showed little “Common Sense,” expressing more outrage rather than reasoned arguments. The column could be summarized as, “Republicans good. Democrats bad.” You can’t expect non-partisanship from Monda, who is the president of the Laguna Beach Republicans. Why is the Independent giving free column space to partisan politics?
Michael Ray’s defense of Peter Blake can be summarized as: “Some civic-minded citizens, some of whom also support Village Laguna’s goals, spoke against one of Peter’s development schemes so we should forgive Peter’s unreasoning hatred and vilification of that group because he has a personal financial grudge to bear. And besides, Peter once exaggerated “a wee bit” to get one of my (Ray’s) kids a job, so he’s a great guy.” Not in my moral universe, he isn’t.
Lee Otterholt, Laguna Beach
