Barry Saks

I promised to present besides news writing other forms of writing. One of my favorite phrases, which I repeat often enough, is a two new line poem I wrote:
          I know my fate
          my wife is always late.
I consider myself a lucky man. I have a wife, who I love dearly and who loves me.  However, when it comes to time, my wife and I are polar opposites. I am aware of the time, while my wife is oblivious to it.  Time passes without her being aware of it. If I have an appointment, I try to be on time. If she has an appointment, she will invariably be rushing to be somewhere.  We’re just different.  I celebrate the difference.

05 May 2013
Since late January of this year I’ve been writing for the LBReport.com except for two exceptions, my last story on the trades protest and the “People’s State of the City,” which was published by the Long Beach Post.

My first, and only, personal essay was pbulished in March 2012 by Palacio Long Beach.

5 May 2013
In my last story, I failed to include the “when” in the middle of the nutgraf. It was Wednesday, May 1.

02 May 2013

About 100 protesters, mostly from the trades at the Long Beach City College Pacific Coast Campus with some community supporters from Occupy Long Beach, marched from the PCC to City Hall downtown, about two and half miles.
One student marching was Valerie Boyd, 52, who is taking three welding classes this semester. Boyd went back to school in 2011 to learn a new trade after being laid off in 2009. Boyd said, “I don’t like the idea that they are closing down the trades because when the younger generation get out of high school, they’ll have no trade to go into.”
Another marcher, Panek Peov, 31, who is in the auto body program and has one more class to complete, said he was there to support his fellow students.
A third marcher, who has owned a small business in historic window preservation for five years, said she learned her trade at Fullerton College in the construction sciences, which had been previously cut.
One student carried a sign, with an enormous fist and the phrase, “Students Unite.” One chant was “Students united will never be divided.” Two other chants were “Save the trades” and “Recall the Board.”
One flyer being distributed said, “We destroyed LBCC and ruined students’ lives, next target city of Long Beach” and had images of LBCC Trustees Doug Otto and Roberto Uranga.
Another flyer, which claimed to be from “Students United to Reclaim Education,” in part said, “The current Board of Trustees … has betrayed the people’s trust. Instead of being ‘watchdogs,’ the board has become a ‘rubber stamp’ allowing the current administration to waste huge sums of taxpayer’s money …”