Mailbag: Teachers, both current and retired, commend today’s educators

I have known and worked with over 500 teachers. I was blown away by them when I started teaching and am more in awe of them now. Teachers don’t just have one job. When they go to school every day, they have a multiple jobs: custodian, nurse, psychologist, mother, dad, performer, artist, mathematician, mechanic, technologist, counselor, librarian, secretary, shopper, clothing inspector, life coach and, oh yeah, teacher.

Sandy Asper
Newport Beach

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We know it will be years before others and your students realize the personal sacrifices you made to convert your classroom into a distance-learning adventure during COVID-19. On this Teacher’s Appreciation Week, we salute you.

Wendy Leece
Costa Mesa

The writer is a former Newport-Mesa school board member and a former City Council member.

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Thank you now more than ever for meeting the unprecedented challenge to teach during the coronavirus. In no time, you have transformed your job to teaching without your classroom of students and supplies and have switched over schooling to homes. You are our community’s miracle workers!

Laurie Smith
Costa Mesa

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Thank you to all the teachers who are working overtime to try and figure out how to best support their students via the internet. It is a huge challenge! An extra thank you to the special education teachers who have an additional challenge.

Marti O’Meara
Costa Mesa

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Every teacher that I had the privilege to teach with considered themselves a life-long learner, and they have all risen to the task of learning how to teach their students remotely. Their goal was and continues to be to instill the love of learning in all of their students. Teachers are the frontline, essential workers for every child enrolled in school!

Cynthia Blackwell
Costa Mesa

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Huntington Beach, consider public health

Growing up in Huntington Beach, we know neighbors take care of each other. The protest we saw last was not just the opposite: It was irresponsible, dangerous and unlawful.

From the on-the-ground video we watched, we saw every Astroturf and fringe group under the sun. These groups do not represent the residents of Huntington Beach, and apparently our elected leaders do not either.

As former lifeguards for the city, we know they put our public safety officers and essentials workers at risk and most likely cost us the rest of the summer.

We want to raise our families in a safe community where residents and leaders work together to solve problems. The City Council needs to get serious about protecting lives and the economic recovery of our city. Allowing this type of protest did neither.

Corey Miller, Adam Miller and Dan Kalmick
Huntington Beach

Kalmick is a candidate for City Council.

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Surf City faces a fork in the sand

First, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a weary nation in 1933, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And second, as the mythical figure Forrest Gump once quipped, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Which way will you go Huntington Beach?

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach

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Re: Former Costa Mesa mayors drink GOP-flavored Kool-Aid

Bill McCarty’s response to the open letter by the former Costa Mesa mayors was spot-on. When they say “this is a moment of truth for our local officials,” I agree.

This is the time to listen to the guidelines, parameters and course of action from the many scientists, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates and the myriad of knowledgeable persons.

Cognizant of the stain and anxiety in these difficult times, statistics show that the majority of Republicans, Democrats and others throughout the country understand and agree with the constraints.

Also, McCarty’s idea for the former mayors to help jump-start the issue with home tours of their homes is an excellent suggestion. If any of the them have more than one home, the nearest one in Orange County would be preferred.

Meanwhile, my advice to the former mayors: Be mindful that a day at the beach is not worth the lives that could be lost.

Carolyn Fitz-Gibbon
Newport Beach

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Hoag should sever ties with Providence Healthcare

I applaud Hoag’s decision to sever ties with the Providence St. Joseph Health system. Back in 2012, when the partnership was established, some feared the acquisition was an attempt by the Catholic Church to restrict patient access to abortion and birth control. Hoag provides healthcare for a diverse community. Good hospitals deliver the services its patients need and want, not what the hospital’s owners choose to provide.

Richard Alexander
Costa Mesa

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