Community Commentary -- H. Ross Miller

By unanimous vote, the board of directors of the 5,700-member Friends

of Oasis Senior Center has requested that I respond to the insulting

remarks about the city’s senior citizens that Measure T co-chairman and

former major Clarence Turner made in the Daily Pilot on Nov. 10,

following the overwhelming victory of Measure S.

According to the Pilot, after admitting Measure S proponents were at a

“clear advantage” in the growth struggle, because most of them are

retired and didn’t have to work, Turner said, “Those people (senior

citizens) tend to think in terms of we-don’t-want-any-more-development

and are only concerned about themselves.”

Turner should hang his head in shame. Does he have any respect for the

elderly? It is true that there was heavy elderly involvement in the

Measure S campaign, and it is also clear that senior citizens are the

largest voting block in the city, which carried Measure S to victory.

More than 1,000 Measure S petition signatures were gathered at Oasis

Senior Center in the early stages of the Measure S campaign. There are

20,000 senior citizens in Newport Beach.

Most of us have been here for many years and have very long memories.

We have watched the changes in the city, the bay and residential areas

closely and observed the actions of the Planning Commission, City

Council, three city managers and the city staff.

Most of us are registered voters, and most of us vote and we have long

memories.

As for Turner’s assertion that seniors are concerned only “about

themselves,” it is fact that our elderly in this city are the backbone of

volunteer activity and efforts throughout Newport.

Now that their working days are over, they serve the community -- for

example, in schools, hospitals, and libraries. You see them everywhere --

as tutors and assistants at all public elementary schools, at Hoag,

convalescent hospitals, Taste of Newport, Sherman Gardens, the Shalimar

Learning Center, Continuation High School, the Environmental Nature

Center, Meals on Wheels, polling precincts, boards of directors of

charitable and community service organizations.

They even make historical presentations about World War II to school

students and also do fund-raising for charitable causes. We think

Turner’s comments about seniors lie more in his concern for the “bottom

line” of developer and business interests rather than our quality of life

here.

Turner in his capacity as Measure T co-chairman and former mayor

clearly owes an apology to the senior citizen community of Newport.

Hopefully when his working career is over, he will come to see things

they way we do.

* H. ROSS MILLER is a resident of Newport Beach and the Advocacy

Chairman of the Friends of the Oasis Senior Center.