50 years later, the moon landing still inspires

From moon rocks to rock bottom? What a difference half a century makes. Fifty years ago this week, people all over the world watched as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Despite how people coast to coast felt about the Vietnam War back then, we came together as a nation to celebrate what only American ingenuity could produce at the time.

Today, as I watch the spectacle unfolding between President Trump and the four congresswomen of color, I am reminded how much work there still is yet to be done here at home. Ours is not a perfect union, but it is far better than most nations on earth.

Isn’t the search for a better life why Trump’s grandfather and the parents of the four lawmakers under attack came to this country? Asking these duly elected members of the House of Representatives to return to their country of origin not only is wrong-headed, it is un-American.

Neither Mr. Trump nor I will be here 50 years from now, but the four congresswomen in question very well could be. Too bad the president won’t be around in 2069 to celebrate what I’m sure will be their many American accomplishments.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach

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Let the free market solve housing crunch

I saw the paper’s article on the housing shortage (“Report calls on area cities to create more housing to ease county shortage,” July 16) and thought to write you. Huntington Beach Mayor Erik Peterson suggested in the piece to let the free market solve the demand for housing. I have seen him state this solution a couple times now, and it’s so rich with irony.

The free market is begging to build more housing in Huntington Beach. In fact, the city originally approved a couple thousand units along the Edinger and Beach Corridor plan, which were later rescinded. A number of projects that were in the works were stopped in their tracks because of this change.

Today, the free market is trying to work, but government regulation (in particular, the mayor’s/council’s regulation) is what is preventing it. The irony is Sacramento is trying to remove housing regulations (in most cities in the state) to allow the free market to work better.

There is no bigger regulation in our day-to-day lives than zoning. And it, along with the power California has given NIMBYs, are preventing the free market from working. Mayor Peterson should not cloak himself as a free market crusader when it’s his city’s regulation which is preventing the market from working.

Shawn McBride

Costa Mesa

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Critic unfair to letter writer

I don’t know if it is a conservative Newport Beach versus liberal Laguna Beach dynamic, but I found the letter from Juli Hayden (“What are you doing to help?”, July 14), criticizing the submission by Denny Freidenrich to be both gratuitous and insulting. Freidenrich merely proposed that local sports teams that have the resources and the media reach to help address the county’s homeless crisis to become involved.

The write-offs and goodwill generated would help offset any direct costs the teams incurred. Hayden snarkily asked what he had personally done to “tackle homelessness” or how he had personally led by example. That clearly wasn’t the point.

Friedenrich was offering a good idea that required no corresponding investment on his part or solving the wider problems of alcohol or drug addiction that contribute to homelessness. I would ask what Hayden had done on this front besides carping about well-intended notions.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

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