Rafael Desquitado

News tonight: The La Jolla children's pool may be dredged up and "returned to the people."

I cannot describe how insane that line sounds, nor can I believe how absurdly selfish people can be.

OK, first off, to say that a small piece of La Jolla beach has for several years been a refuge for seals and their pups can now be destroyed and "returned to the people" is crazy. I put this phrase in quotes because I cannot seriously believe the lack of consideration for animals that have already been displaced from their natural habitat, who are forced to compete in an ever shrinking ecosystem, and have found a nice spot to raise their babies away from natural predators, all while bringing in tourists who just like to watch nature be, well, nature.

Here's a little history behind the pool itself. The pool was built from the donations from Ellen Browning Scripps sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. That same Ellen Browning Scripps also gave us, among other things, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and the Zoological Garden and Research Laboratory in Balboa Park ( aka the freakin' ZOO!!!!).

"A state appellate court yesterday upheld a judge's 2005 order requiring the city to restore water quality to Children's Pool beach in La Jolla by dredging the bacteria-laden sand and shooing away a colony of harbor seals" (Terry Rodgers, Sept 8 2007).

I guess tonights news just sets this absurd plan closer to fruition.
Does no one take into consideration that 80% of San Diegans support seal protection at the pool, and has become quite the tourist destination for visitors, who in turn eat at the restaurants, buy at the souvenir shops, and eventually tell their friends to visit San Diego? I guess not, since upholding old crusty laws that do not change with the times or citizen opinion seems to me the only thing that works in the land of the free.

If Ms. Scripps was alive today, I would think she would chastise such abhorrent ignorance and allow the seals to stay, and direct the kids to the ten other beaches that dot the coastline of San Diego county.



Please visit these sites if you are NOT a selfish, miserable, narrow-minded ass, and help those who are realize that the world does not end when they click the OFF button on their TV remotes.

http://www.aprl.org/
http://www.lajollaseals.com/
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/
http://adbusters.org/home/
http://www.grassrootsonline.org/