Sept. 11, 2025 1:01 PM PT

When I arrived in Laguna Beach as a Ukrainian fleeing war, the city publicly welcomed me. At the Stand with Ukraine fundraising events, the mayor and council members stood beside me in photographs that remain online forever as proof of their official solidarity.

But behind those public gestures, my experience has been very different. As a Ukrainian single mother with temporary protected status (TPS), I have been redirected again and again to agencies outside Laguna Beach.

No in-city crisis housing or safety services exist for families like mine. Instead of protection, I have faced neglect. In a time when dictatorship is rising in this country and people are voicing concern at rallies about democracy’s fragility, I urge Laguna Beach to match its words with action.

Every city must take responsibility for the people it publicly hosts. Redirecting families in crisis is not democracy, it is abandonment. Expecting TPS holders and asylum seekers to work without ensuring their most basic needs — housing, safety and protection from discrimination — is a form of modern slavery. Laguna Beach cannot celebrate solidarity in photographs while leaving the first Ukrainian single mother it hosted without support.

I call on the city to establish local access points for emergency housing and crisis services, and to coordinate with the Orange County Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs to ensure that help is available where people actually live. Public commitments must be matched with concrete protections.

Nadiia Hardy
Laguna Beach

Kluwe lawsuit frivoulous

Earlier this year, “[Chris] Kluwe was arrested at the Feb. 18 Huntington Beach City Council meeting after engaging in an act of peaceful civil disobedience.”

What is “peaceful” about invading someone’s private space and requiring the intervention of law enforcement officers? What if it had been a Huntington Beach Union High School District Board meeting? And why was Kluwe coaching high school students?

After the incident, he posted a very “unpeaceful” message on social media, which he wisely pulled down. But once something is up, it’s too late. Someone copied it and local historian Chris Epting and others passed it along.

A wise person once told me “Don’t write things when angry.” Kluwe did. Leadership at Edison High School did what needed to be done.

Still angry, Kluwe, fired as football coach, sued Huntington Beach Union High School District. To show his inability to control his wrathful behavior, he included Epting in the lawsuit. Kluwe’s legal counsel appears to be working pro bono.

Epting has retained legal counsel and is expending personal funds. His friends are also assisting by contributing to a GoFundMe account.

Here’s the take from Bill Becker, chief counsel for Freedom X, a Los Angeles-based non-profit public interest law firm protecting conservatives’ constitutional rights:

“Our motions ask the court to throw out this meritless lawsuit at the outset. The First Amendment protects the right to speak openly about public figures, and California’s anti-SLAPP law was designed to stop exactly this kind of attempt to punish criticism through litigation. These filings make clear that Mr. Kluwe’s case is not about protecting his reputation — it’s about silencing his critics. The law does not allow that.

“Kluwe claims to be a champion of free speech, but when the public reacts to his reckless bullying, he runs to court to silence them. His allies may hail him as a hero, but his lawsuit punctures that myth. He’s no hero — he’s a coward.”

Let’s hope the judicial system drops the suit against Epting and Kluwe reimburses him and the residents of the school district for his frivolous and immature actions.

John Moorlach
Costa Mesa