Laguna Beach tree removal plan ignites fierce protests over 'massacre' claims
To the editor: Last week, Laguna Beach's city government made an expert-guided decision to replace nine decaying trees with more than 30 new ones for reasons of public safety ("Laguna Beach residents lament loss of trees on Forest Avenue," April 24). That this plan involves felling trees shouldn't cause any reasonable person to condemn the city for deforesting Laguna Beach. Yet that is exactly what many in my community have done. Their protests have been unrestrained in rhetoric and vehement in intensity. Some have even dubbed the public safety measure a "massacre." Suffering from a limited moral imagination, these activists could instead be demonstrating against real massacres happening in Iran and other parts of the world where people lack the luxury to throw tantrums about things so trivial as the replanting of hazardous trees. The tedium of privilege seemingly necessitates that they invent local grievances to flavor their lives with the spice of political activism. They should take up golf instead. -Oliver Zinn, Laguna Beach
