BOB POLKOW -- Community Commentary

The Independent on Dec. 9 ran two articles under Community Commentaries

concerning the property owned by the Ocean View School District (“Mixture

of government, business not a good recipe” and “What the district isn’t

saying about Wal-Mart deal”). Both articles deserve reading and

evaluation, as it is obvious they were coined by very learned

individuals.

Bruce Crawford, a Fountain Valley resident, compares the school

district’s decision on their property disposition to the cause of the

high employment rate in France. I must confess I have not kept abreast of

the employment rate in France, so I must take his word and his

comparison. It is difficult, though, to see the analogy of the actions of

the Ocean View School District to the financial status of a major foreign

country.

However, Crawford still earns my respect, and I certainly agree when he

states “the only workable and just solution is for the Ocean View School

District to sell the land to the highest bidder. Then let the new owner

decide how to best utilize its property.” But [there is] one small added

item to consider. Why should the school district sell the property so

somebody else can do exactly what they desire to do? All they want to do

is what Crawford believes is a just solution, how to best utilize their

property. I am at a loss for [a reason to] criticize the school district

for wanting to do exactly what [is] classified as a just solution. What

did I miss in this analysis?

The second article submitted was by Marvin Josephson and also deserves

close scrutiny, but I must warn readers who may at times feel dizzy to be

seated first.

Josephson’s article reminds me of a time when I was present during a

presentation being given to a three-star general in a prestigious branch

of the Air Force. The subject was the disposition of billions of dollars

our Congress had allocated to a project the general was charged with. The

presentation consisted of a series of bar charts, and every color of the

rainbow -- plus some colors I did not recognize -- had been added. As the

presenter went from chart to chart, I was totally confused and glanced at

the general for his reaction. As I was watching his face, it first turned

white, then red, and before he bellowed for a halt, his face was a deep

purple.

There is an axiom in the arena of preparing staff studies in large

industries that goes, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” The

presenter in this instance had underestimated the intelligence of his

audience. He was told to scrap his presentation material, and the general

turned to the presenter’s supervisor in the audience and instructed him

to find somebody who knew how to make a presentation containing no more

than three colors and who knew how to make an understandable

presentation.

Why do I relate this episode and tie it to Josephson’s article?

I am going to comply with the last sentence in Josephson’s article that

reads, “You do the math,” and suggest other readers do the same without a

myopic bias but with a projected view that takes into consideration the

long-term pros and cons.

* BOB POLKOW is a Huntington Beach resident.