Mailbag: Invoking God has nothing to do with God?

Re. “Irvine votes to display ‘In God We Trust’” (July 19):

The absurd justifications by members of the Irvine City Council that prominently displaying the phrase “In God We Trust” is not about God, will unify all people in attendance (such as at a ballpark) and does not have a religious overtone are patently absurd and insult the intelligence of anyone with a sense of logic.

What should be agreed upon is that this move is a shameless and cynical pandering to a particular uninformed and easily manipulated voting base that believes that Christianity is under attack and needs to be defended by the self-proclaimed righteous among us, and can be counted on to vote for these council members when needed.

Jan Rainbird

Irvine

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What about valuing human life?

What a sad, sad story about the guys cutting down the tree and killing the baby birds (“2 construction workers charged with animal cruelty, destroying bird nests in Balboa tree-removal case,” July 17).

Sad for many different reasons. What if there were eggs in the nest instead of chicks? Would the guys still be facing a year to a year and a half in jail? To me the sadness in this story hit me like a ton of bricks. We now value baby birds more than baby humans. Yikes!

Patrick M. Briley

Newport Beach

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Pause before offering defense of Peotter

Several comments in the Daily Pilot have claimed that Councilman Scott Peotter has been intimidated, and his 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech have been trampled. Nothing is further from the truth.

Peotter, like the rest of us, is free to say whatever he wants, to whomever he wants, whenever he wants — that’s his 1st Amendment right.

What he should not do is use the city seal to suggest that his personal opinions, about things having nothing to do with city business, are those of the City Council or of the city of Newport Beach. The lesson here is to think before taking a strong but misguided stand.

What are the facts? Not what you have heard from someone who doesn’t pay attention to the facts either.

That applies to all of us — Peotter and the people defending him and formulating angry but unfounded opinions.

Robert R. Young

Corona del Mar