Mailbag: Remember the Board of Supervisors’ cavalier approach to keeping you healthy on Election Day

I am outraged that the Orange County Board of Supervisors did not strongly back the edict to require masks at all times in public. In Newport Beach people are walking around without masks, as if there were not a pandemic raging out there. And they are selfishly spreading their germs around, oblivious to the health and safety of others.

What does it take for them to realize how dangerous their actions are? Last week, we had 1,179 new cases in Orange County, a weekly record in the course of the pandemic.

For months I and other residents had rallied to get our local leaders to require masks in public as other counties, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, have done since April.

Granted, Orange County does not have the population of L.A., but it is seeing recent dramatic rises in hospitalization (30%), as well as the highest number of new cases yet recorded.

In this mostly conservative county, there are surprising underpinnings of defiance against authority, as well as expressions of “superiority,” of feeling like just because others are doing it, doesn’t mean we have to, even if those others come from the scientific and medical field.

Is it because few people in the county have been able to put “a face” on the illness? Or have they just not equated how much less intrusive a mask is compared to a ventilator?

I, for one, will not be doing business with any establishment that does not require masks, and I urge you to do the same for your own protection.

And when you vote in November, remember that the current Board of Supervisors is compromising your health and possibly your life by the dangerous decision that they have just made.

Lynn Lorenz
Newport Beach

*

On June 14, Orange County reported its highest one-day number of new cases of the novel coronavirus since the epidemic began. Yet, the Board of Supervisors is loosening requirements on masks and allowed the chief health officer who recommended stricter use to be pushed out.

Who do you think I should trust with my life? The Board of Supervisors? Perhaps not.

Dean Laws
Corona del Mar

Laguna protested George Floyd’s death

On June 6, Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen and I took a knee with 17 friends in front of City Hall. It was our way of demonstrating support for people protesting the death of George Floyd at Main Beach and around the world.

Not surprisingly, we took photos with our iPhones. I doubt Steve Jobs envisioned the iPhone ever would capture the image of a man begging for his life, but it has.

I think the reason people all over the world are protesting systemic racism and social injustice now is the fact we watched a helpless Floyd, under the knee of a local police officer, appear to suffocate right before our eyes.

The iPhone captured Mr. Floyd’s last words and breath in real time. It was as gruesome a death as any public lynching ever was in our nation’s history.

Now, it’s up to everyone to make sure that gruesome video never disappears. Long live the memory of Floyd, both here in Laguna Beach and around the world. Given the public outrage over his death, I am confident his passing will not have been in vain.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.