From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero
Joel Faris hasn’t slept well lately.
What’s gnawing at this Westside family man is a particularly painful
moment at a Human Relations Committee meeting. You know, that committee
that is supposed to promote harmony and diversity and tolerance.
It was at this meeting in which he believes several activists with
their own agenda unfairly cast him as a racist. The allegations came
because of comments he has made on the Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens Web
site, comments that were taken out of context, he says.
As someone who has seen many of the postings of this Web site over the
past year and a half or so, I agree with Faris that he’s getting a bum
rap.
You see, for more than a year now, the Daily Pilot has been able to
view the daily banter that goes on at the Concerned Citizens of Costa
Mesa Web site, a bulletin-board style, electronic town meeting of sorts.
One of my former editors told me she thought someone at the Web site
actually registered us in the beginning, because none of us ever remember
doing so. We’ve been knocked off from time to time and then put back on,
but through it all, it’s made for some interesting and lively reading, I
must admit.
The commentary, by a litany of people such as council candidates, city
activists and even the husband of a planning commissioner, is mostly
harmless, some of it clever and jovial and almost all meant to inspire
improvements in Costa Mesa, especially the Westside.
Some of the web postings, however, are mean-spirited, argumentative
and caustic. And some, yes, could even be labeled as racist or
homophobic. For what it’s worth, in my estimation, Faris’ comments
certainly wouldn’t fit that qualification.
“I think I’m the perfect representative,” Faris told me the other day
on the phone, as we spoke of the Human Relations Committee. He
acknowledges that he is a conservative in his devout religious beliefs,
but he also says he is “liberal in many ways.”
“I’m very easy going,” he said. “I feel comfortable in any situation.
I’ve sat down with gang members to talk with them. I’ve sat down with
people smoking crack.”
Actually, I read on the Web site where Faris used that crack-smoking
example to show he is willing to talk with anyone to try and understand
their predicaments. Still, he took heat on the Web site for not turning
the drug users in to police rather than getting praise for trying to make
a difference.
That’s kind of how the Web site is. One person puts up a harmless post
or even an opposite point of view and is attacked by some of the more
strident members.
So when staff writer Lolita Harper reported last week of the blow up
at the city’s Human Relations Committee meeting in which three committee
members -- Faris, Jan Davidson and Allan Mansoor, who are also
contributors to the Web site -- were criticized for some of their
postings and viewpoints, I wasn’t too surprised.
There were times when I thought the comments on the site got out of
hand also and I was surprised that those postings that had clear racist
tones weren’t disavowed by those who know better.
Still, the human relations meeting in which Faris, Mansoor and
Davidson were attacked did smell more like a political hit than a clarion
call for peace and cultural harmony in Costa Mesa.
The main beef seems to come from members of the local gay and lesbian
community, who have a beef with Mansoor and his postings, some of which
cite studies or stories by a conservative Christian organization with a
decidedly anti-gay bent.
While Faris has hinted at a council run -- his final announcement has
not come yet -- Mansoor has made it no secret that he will indeed run for
City Council in November. You can bet that this is just the beginning of
the campaign against him.
Davidson, a cantankerous Web site poster, was a campaign manager for
Chris Steel, the controversial candidate who won a surprise victory in
November of 2000 after nine unsuccessful campaigns against city charities
and illegal immigration.
Steel’s favorite slogan on his literature that year: “We cannot
continue to medicate, domesticate and educate” illegal immigrants. With
two seats open, Steel’s opponents are going to do everything they can to
make sure he doesn’t have a majority on the council dais who agree with
his agenda.
I don’t know either Mansoor or Davidson, or what they really stand
for. But I do have at least a casual acquaintance with Faris and feel a
little guilty that maybe the Daily Pilot got him into this situation.
You see, when Faris ran for Costa Mesa City Council in 2000, the
members of the Pilot’s editorial board were impressed by his honesty and
his caring nature. We wrote in our endorsement editorial that we would
like to see him get more involved in city politics.
That’s why he wound up on the Human Relations Committee, which he was
attracted to because it took on meatier topics than say the library board
or something like that.
He acknowledged that he felt at odds with several members of the
committee right from the start, but I guess he didn’t realize the meat he
was looking for would get tossed at his head.
I’ve only met Faris a few times, though we have spoken by phone and
have exchanged e-mail quite a bit. I admire him and find him to be a
personable and honest man, and I don’t believe for a minute that racism
plays any part in his thinking.
I know this may sound cliche, but it would seem a little strange for a
man who some are calling racist to adopt young Latino boys as his sons
and spend his working hours teaching children in a Santa Ana elementary
school that he said has a population much like Costa Mesa’s Whittier
Elementary School, which is probably made up of 90% Latino children.
To top it off, he volunteers his off time in the summer to the
Westside’s Pomona Learning Center, to help those mostly Latino children.
“When it’s all said and done, I still live here and want to get along
with any of my neighbors,” Faris said of the brouhaha that has left him
agonized.
Isn’t that what a Human Relations Committee member is supposed to do?
Not just get along with those that think or believe the same way, whether
that’s coming from the left or right of the political spectrum.
Ask Joel Faris and he’ll tell you he wouldn’t live anywhere but the
Westside of Costa Mesa.
Believe me, I know there are plenty out there who want to blame all of
Costa Mesa’s woes on those of Latino descent. There are lots of
homophobes out there. They often call our newsroom and leave messages
with hateful and despicable remarks.
Still, it is a big mistake to lump all Westside improvement members
into the same category because, like in the case of Faris, it’s an ally
who could end up being hurt.
* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you
have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages
either via e-mail to o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at (949)
574-4258.
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