Mailbag - March 4, 2001

David Lansing’s cute little letter chastising Wendy Leece [“School

board trustee Wendy Leece’s comments are just precious,” Feb. 25] is

what’s hard to stomach! What possessed the Daily Pilot editors to edify

it by naming it “Letter of the Week,” compared with, say, Rick Rainey’s

thoughtful, intelligent and challenging comments regarding Joe Bell’s

column?

GENE BEAVIN

Costa Mesa

‘The Look’ needs a dose of reality

The spring fashions that you had in “The Look” are absolutely

ridiculous. I don’t know when the Daily Pilot is going to get real. Real

people don’t wear $400 shoes and $1,000 shirts. I don’t know what kind of

a message you’re sending to the kids in Newport Beach that this is the

norm.

If I want to read Town and Country magazine, I’ll buy Town and Country

magazine, but I want the news not to know what some la-di-da people are

wearing.

SANDRA BASMACIYAN

Corona del Mar

Time to make a stronger stand against bigotry

Bill Turpit made a lot of good points in his essay “Who Belongs in

Costa Mesa?” Community Forum, Feb.4.

But he was also far too polite.

From Orville Amburgey’s attempts to ban day laborers to Chris Steel’s

recent efforts to usurp the power of the federal government and

investigate the citizenship status of volunteer commission members, Costa

Mesa has had a long history of bizarre anti-Latino policies.

Combine that with City Hall’s extraordinarily poor record promoting

Latinos to management positions, despite the fact that they make up

nearly a third of the city’s population, and it seems there is a pattern

of officially sanctioned and supported discrimination.

Turpit’s essay was well-meaning, but if he ever hopes to put an end to

the entrenched, institutionalized bigotry of Costa Mesa’s power elite,

he, like the city’s Latino community, is going to have to be a little

more assertive.

CINDY LUCAS

Costa Mesa

Keep The Worm out of the news pages already

Grow up. Your adolescent pandering to anything relating to Dennis

Rodman insults the intelligence and demeans the interests of the adults

in this community.

The free advertising provided to our least-deserving citizen should be

beneath the dignity of our local paper.

DICK TAYLOR

West Newport Beach

Absolutes are never a good thing

As one who has lived some 70 odd years, I am adamant about fewer and

fewer things. I have learned not to say “never” or “always,” for the only

thing constant in this life is change. Zero tolerance was a mistake from

the beginning and should be dropped.

BETTS HARLEY

Costa Mesa

Deregulation pitchmen are sure quiet now

Does anyone else remember when electric deregulation was being touted

as [being] so great for the consumer?

We would be able to choose any competitive power supplier, possibly

even one on the East Coast, instead of Edison.

So who are all these companies? I’d like a list.

GAYLE COURTNEY

Newport Beach