Mailbag - Dec. 2, 2000

Columnist’s Christian views appreciated

Just want to take a moment to give high kudos to Joseph Bell for his

articulate, recent “The Bell Curve” article on Christianity, etc.

I could hardly agree more. He chose excellent examples to quietly

demonstrate what we both view as Christian behavior. How ironic and sad

that the definition of Christian has come into such unfathomable

conflict.

JUDY HORNADAY

Mission Viejo

Ficus trees should be saved

Regarding the plan to chop down the trees in Balboa near the Pavilion.

They’ve already ruined Corona del Mar and now they’re planning to ruin

the Pavilion area as well. I don’t know why they insist on trying to be

trendy all the time and planting palm trees everywhere.

There’s nothing more beautiful than aged, mature trees and the ficus

trees down there are beautiful.

I miss the ones in Corona del Mar and I hope they think twice about

what they’re doing.

LENARD DAVIS

Newport Beach

Walk should go on without extra police

In regards to whether or not the Christmas Walk needs extra police

patrol, my wife and myself have been walking for almost 10 years and it’s

a family-oriented affair, we feel.

I don’t think we need any more police patrol on this. Last year I

didn’t observe any rowdiness or anything like that. There were probably

more people than usual but I feel we do not need any extra police

patrols.

LARRY SEAL

Laguna Niguel

New writer’s insights leaves this reader wanting

Byron de Arakal, the new Pilot columnist, has no way to go but up

after his inaugural effort of Wed. Nov. 15. Just what the

newspaper-reading public needs, another writer obsessed with hyperbole,

passing off cute, clever little meaningless one-liners in place of logic.

A super-close election, with hundreds of knowledgeable officials

spending day and night trying to unravel it, and we are asked to accept

the premise that this is a nation “divided” not unlike the division of

Civil War days and the slavery trauma.

There is a “schism” that calls for Lincolnesque statesmanship, he goes

on. “Ours is a nation so divided it can’t elect a president,” he insists.

De Arakal should visit a fifth-grade history class, and let these

10-year-olds educate him on all the heroic things this nation has done.

Must I go on?

OK, a couple more. Our next president, he asserts, be it Gore or Bush,

is compared to a couple of World Wrestling Federation goons who “will not

stop until one holds high the others head,” zzzzzzz. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn.

And then he finished by saying all that sickness also applies to local

politics.

GARY E. DRIES

Costa Mesa