A Voice Through the Heart

We Long Beach lovers enjoy the crash of surf, the cry of gulls, the laughter of children as they scoot across the sand. But lately our Long Beach shore is a rumble of diesel in a jumble of dozers.

Trucks pound our sand hauling tons of rock to rebuild our jetties. Boulders are piled. Swinging buckets of rock fly over the jetties keeping our gulls and terns and oystercatchers wary. The aroma of sun-exposed jetty mussels fill the air.

I wanted to capture some of this in words and photos. So I biked our boardwalk in search of our besieged oystercatchers and the people who love them. I was interested too in the thoughts of people whose lives are affected by all the heavy beach work.

But I came upon a man who spoke of a matter not of our shore’s challenges. He's a former Long Beach Police Officer and PBA president, former Long Beach Lifeguard, former Long Beach City Councilman, Former NY Assemblyman. He's been serving and protecting basically all of his life.

He's also a man whose voice was not his alone but a willing conduit for another who could not speak. A man whose voice has been stilled since birth.

Stilled yes, but oh so powerful through the heart of his dad:

http://tinyurl.com/Rickys-voice

Be well,
Leebythesea