Mailbag - March 21, 2002

The political cartoon by Steve Bolton in the Independent on March 14,

did not reflect my opinion and many of the people who wrote in the

Mailbag regarding Chief Lowenberg’s retirement. Perhaps Bolton should

move to East LA or some other crime-ridden area where the chief of police

is not so strict. That is what the cartoon is saying to me. At one time,

Huntington Beach was the safest city in the U.S., under Lowenberg’s term.

DOLLY SLATER

Huntington Beach Cartoonist Steve Bolton left out a few “nono’s” on

his Lowenberg roast. No Gangs. No Drunks No Fires and No Murders.

BILL BORDEN

Huntington Beach

Lowenberg did this city proud

I had the pleasure to work for four Huntington Beach police chiefs

during my 29 year career at the Huntington Beach Police Department. Ron

Lowenberg’s years of service to the people and City of Huntington Beach

have been extremely positive, for the most part, for all involved. Like

any chief, Lowenberg was only as good as the people who worked under his

command.

While I enjoyed working with him as one of the managers of the

department I would also say that he would not have been nearly as

effective without the cooperation and dedication of the men and women

doing the daily tasks to make the citizens of the community safe.

Lowenberg had the foresight and the ability to realize that without

the working “folks” he would not get the job done. Lowenberg has

excellent people skills and he used them to make our city the best place

in Orange County to live. He should be commended for taking a very

difficult position and making the best of it.

Our community owes him and every other police department employee our

thanks for their commitment to Huntington Beach.

CURTIS J. COPE

Retired Lieutenant

Huntington Beach Police Department

Parents need to teach children tolerance

All attacks on people are cause for concern. It is interesting that

the Huntington Beach mayor and the City Council think that the schools

and community leaders are failing to teach tolerance. When has moral

behavior become the exclusive responsibility of the schools?

Missing in the article was any reference to the parents who have the

responsibility of raising their children to respect others. There were

probably some signs of this type of behavior before this incident

occurred.

Mayor Debbie Cook, who rebuffs requests for moral guidance at City

Council meetings, now wants the government to teach those things she

rejects.

However, she is not the first self-serving politician to promote the

idea that schools should raise children and be responsible for their

behavior.

By doing so, she encourages parents to abdicate responsibility for

their children’s moral education and ultimately, their behavior.

CHARLES OSTERLUND

Huntington Beach

In regards to the 99 Cents store hate crime, I’m curious as to why it

becomes the responsibility of the schools to raise our children? Why

aren’t the parents of those children responsible for their behavior and

their attitudes? I don’t believe the school is responsible for the

children’s morals and behavior. They are responsible for their education.

I believe we need to check the homes of those children and find out

what is going on in these homes that they are being raised this way and

behaving this way. I don’t think the principal of a school or the

superintendent is responsible. We as parents need to take responsibility

for our children.

MARY OSTROWSKI

Huntington Beach

When parents fail, we look to school and church

Preventing hate crimes by juveniles begins at home where children are

controlled by the parents. How parents respond to a child’s ideas, as

well as the simple fact that parents decide where and when a child can

go, reinforces learning values. Parents are the key to teaching tolerance

but when they fail, the next choice is to ask schools and churches to

help.

Do you know if your neighbor’s children have anyone except their

parents in their lives teaching them their values? Children see you. Are

you a good role model? You live right there. Do you say hello to them

when they see you? Do you know their names?

Parenting classes are the first step. What about giving out parenting

class information at a child’s six-week checkup? We cannot chose the

temperament a child receives but we can learn to deal with what is there.

Not all of us have a family and friendship network in place,

especially in an upscale community where both parents work. We need all

the help we can get to cope with those short attention spans, and even to

learn how to praise our kids, not just discipline them. They must get

recognition for positive actions.

We have many volunteers in our city and many positive ways tolerance

is already being taught, but learning where tolerance starts and is

reinforced at home and must be continuously reinforced.

The Children’s Needs Task Force is trying to establish a Family

Resource Center at the library, alas “you can take a horse to water but

you cannot make him drink.” Volunteer in your city and teach values

through example. Volunteerism also saves taxpayer money for positive

programs.

The Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force and the Interfaith

Council provide ongoing events that support multicultural understanding

but if the parent will not take the child there, the only frontier left

is in the school. The last step is to go to the courts and ask them to

mandate that juveniles and their parents go to parenting and behavior

modification classes as part of their sentencing. We need parenting

classes for the families of juvenile offenders.

KAREN JACKLE

Huntington Beach

Disrespect needs to stop

Your article in today’s Independent [March 14] asks “What should be

done to halt hate crimes in Huntington Beach?” The No. 1 priority must be

to promote respect for others as human beings, no matter what their

language, culture or ethnicity might be.

In your article about the most recent attack, you mentioned the case

that triggered the formation of the Huntington Beach Human Relations Task

Force, the attack on George Mondragon, an American Indian. In the same

issue, there’s a report on a Little League team called the Indians.

Come on now, this has been an unacceptable practice for years. Would

the team use as a mascot a man with a turban and beard, as an Asian

Indian? What kind of reaction would that produce in your Task Force?

American Indians find this kind of use (abuse) of their identity

offensive, just as Asian Indians would.

I read an article sent to me via e-mail about a school with mostly

American Indians, Latinos and whites. In a turnabout on this type of

mockery, they named their team “the Fighting Whites.” Their motto,

printed on their shirts, is “Every thang’s going to be all white.” (AP,

Greeley, Colorado, March 11).

Get with it, Huntington Beach Task Force.

LINDA LIGHT

Huntington Beach

Intervention and change are the answer

As a founding and current member of the Huntington Beach Human

Relations Task Force it is my opinion that, for the most part, local

schools have special programs that address diversity and are doing a fine

job given the resources available. Our Task Force has active

representatives from almost all the city high schools and some of the

middle schools in the city. Many students have taken advantage of field

trips to the Museum of Tolerance.

The Task Force has held communitywide celebrations of diversity every

year of our existence. The Orange County Human Relations Commission has

helped organize youth events and special days dedicated to the message of

tolerance for diversity and yet we still have youth committing violence

on persons of color. It is shameful, but unfortunately we cannot

legislate against ignorance or prejudice.

The excuses presented in the news from the parents of the perpetrators

of the latest hate crime incident were pathetic. Shouldn’t a child with a

shaved head or a shirt with a swastika tell them something is horribly

wrong no matter what the victim allegedly said or did? Perhaps the

sickness attributed to these adolescents is home-grown. Children are the

low hanging fruit. We, for the most part know where and how to find them.

It is the intolerant adult that is real problem. I do not believe

children are born intolerant and hateful. They are taught.

What we can do as a community is be vigilant to the early signs of

hate. Parents must take responsibility for who their children associate

with and what their children read or access via the Internet. Parents

must be responsible to speak up when they see their children with

swastikas or skinhead style dress or talk. Immediate intervention is the

only way we can prevent our children from acting out hatred and

intolerance learned.Parents must be held accountable for hate crimes done

by their children and should be prosecuted as well. Both children and

their parents should be directed by the courts to participate in

tolerance programs together.

I would like to see diversity incorporated into the standard

curriculum of Huntington Beach schools. Teacher intervention should be

supported to include student, parent and teacher conferences as a tool.

Teachers should receive increased training and bonus pay for efforts to

increase their effectiveness in early intervention.

The community challenge is to develop programs that will help families

rehabilitate and heal. Everyone has the capacity to learn and change. It

is going to take some tough love to halt hate crimes in Huntington Beach.

JEFF LEBOW

Huntington Beach

A letter to Aris Gadduang

I am writing on behalf of the City of Huntington Beach Human Relations

Task Force to express to you our outrage at the terrible attack

perpetrated upon you.

Hate crimes are not acceptable or tolerated in our city. We decry all

bigoted and vicious actions. Please know that this attack does not

represent the thinking of the majority of the residents of Huntington

Beach. Most of us take great pride in our community and enjoy it’s

cultural diversity, which enriches the quality of life for all of us.

Many of us devote much of our time and effort to celebrate that diversity

and to encourage the support of human dignity for all people.

Through the work of our human relations task force, we have made

progress in Huntington Beach. This shameful event is a wake up call that

our work is far from done. We will continue efforts to make Huntington

Beach a community in which people live together in peace, understanding

and mutual respect.

FRED R. PROVENCHER

Huntington Beach

chairman, City of Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force

Swept away by those numbers

Re: Somebody’s cleaning up on these sweeping jobs [March 14]

I enjoyed your article.

Thanks for the enlightenment about the sweeper drivers and prevailing

wages. Another disgusting situation for the Surf City taxpayer. Who’s

looking after us?

MARLEM MASON

Huntington Beach

Paying double what another qualified contractor would cost for street

sweeping or any other contract service is unconscionable.

Thanks for revealing this inappropriate use of the citizens’s tax

dollars.

The reason we are a charter city is to make and enforce laws that

benefit the citizens of the city. Let’s hope the City Council will pass

an ordinance that awards contracts to the lowest qualified bidder without

a prevailing wage clause attached to it.

ED KERINS

Huntington Beach

Good riddance to you Lowenberg

I would like to thank Huntington Beach Police Chief Ron Lowenberg for

his decision to retire later this year. As a member of the infamous

$100,000 club, he will retire with a pension of well into the $100,000

arena. Not a bad deal for someone who did not do his job.

As I understand it, even the militant police union did not like him.

This in part explains their blue flu protests, public demonstrations and

unprofessional behavior at City Council meetings.

And of course, we have the famous Fourth of July ineptitude of police

beating innocent citizens with batons, including breaking the jaw and

knocking out the teeth of a 17-year-old girl.

I hope that they use better judgment when choosing Lowenberg’s

replacement.

To date, the city has exercised very poor judgment. It is high time

for some intelligence at City Hall.

JAMES H. BRIDGES

Huntington Beach