Re: Citing nudists at San Onofre

I have been writing letters to the powers that be on this issue for the last two years. My letters have never been acknowledged. However I wrote the following letter yesterday and post it here as a public statement.

I sent my letter to Roy Stearns, the spokesman for the Parks Department ([email protected]), to Ruth Coleman, the Director of the Parks Department ([email protected] or director@parks.ca.gov), to the governator, and to Kenneth Kramer ([email protected]). Wish I had an email for Rich Haydon, the superintendent at San Onofre.

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To Whom It May Concern:

The Parks Department’s unfortunate actions over the last two years regarding the clothing-optional beach at San Onofre State Beach must stop. The ticketing and the harassment of individuals who are peacefully using the clothing-optional beach at San Onofre—a beach that has been a tradition in Southern California for over thirty years—is a fundamentally wrong thing for state government to do. This fundamental misstep is wrong for reasons that are simultaneously ethical, political, and financial.

In previous letters to your offices, I have written about the negative ethical and financial repercussions of the state’s recent decision to attempt to end the clothing-optional tradition at San Onofre. All of my previous letters have been summarily ignored by the Parks Department. This is wrong in and of itself, and it speaks to what the Parks Department under your leadership has become. Consequently, I will today write to you only on the political ramifications of your actions.

You have a mandate to work with and for the people of this state. The state should have set aside some small portion of the state’s beaches for clothing optional use in the 1970s when this question arose as one that many in the population supported (like areas set aside for hunting, or motorcycle riding). The state should respect the even larger portion of the population that wants and uses such beaches today, many decades later (see for example http://www.naturisteducation.org/nef.ca.poll.2009/ ). Instead, we find ourselves with a Parks Department that would seek to close down the one and the last traditional clothing-optional beach near Los Angeles, the biggest city in the state.

The legal maneuvers and the current ticketing and harassment of the users of Trail 6 at San Onofre are state government at its worst. Random or arbitrary uses of power will not be supported by the people, and surely should not be tolerated from the individuals and institutions designated to serve them.

As a concerned citizen, I have been following the Parks Department’s actions over the last two years with increasing dismay. But I have also seen the determination of those users of San Onofre who are being adversely effected by the current actions of those in power. I have seen a growing sense of support in the public for the nude beach at San Onofre, and for nude beaches throughout the state. In addition, an intense wave of disapproval for your actions has spread across a wider public, within and beyond our state. What you are doing is thus not only wrong and unfair, it has become increasingly unpopular, politically speaking.

For example, I encourage you to read the public comments that follow the first news reports on the Parks Department’s decision last week to begin to ticket nude sunbathers at San Onofre:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/state-240551-beach-nudity.html

Your actions have been quite shameful and must end. I write to you today to let you know that I will be throwing myself into the struggle with those who will do everything in their capacity to make sure that these actions do come to an end, along with the tenure of those state officials who choose to use their elected or temporarily designated powers unfairly and repressively, as opposed to in the service of the public. I have written today to the major newspapers in Los Angeles and contacted friends and editors there to encourage them to begin to cover your actions regarding San Onofre more closely and aggressively. Your current policy regarding San Onofre will not stand and will become increasingly problematic for the Parks Department. I encourage you at this point to reverse your thinking on this matter, and begin to cooperate with the public that uses (and collectively owns!) the beach in question. As I have written many times previously, this public would gladly cooperate with you in all ways to preserve and safeguard this beach.