She’s cooking with the right ingredients

Ron Davis

Councilwomen Debbie Cook apparently never gave much credence to Harry

Truman’s “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” But,

then again, who better to stand the kitchen heat than a cook. Heat’s

nothing to her -- she takes a couple weeks vacation in Death Valley

every August just to cool off.

Just when this yellow ribbon thing was beginning to cool down,

Cook probably cranked it up a notch at last week’s City Council

meeting.

The issue involved a gift to the city by a local church of a peace

pole. The pole is an 8-foot high, six-sided, wooden pole with the

phrase “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” inscribed in six different

languages.

The church was attempting to give the pole to the city with the

intention of having it displayed on city property, such as the

library.

At first blush the issue seems rather innocuous. But, rather than

accept the gift and place the pole, Cook suggested that our city

attorney first examine the issue.

Since it was Cook, once again, leading on a sensitive issue, I’m

relatively certain that some community tempers will flare and the

temperature will rise.

But we should remember that this inscribed pole isn’t a gift to

you or me individually, for placement on our front lawns; rather it

is a gift to our city government for placement on city public

property, which involves different legal consequences. Not only is it

a piece of wood, but a piece of wood with words. And, words are

considered speech, as in free speech.

While we all agree, including Cook, that the message contained on

the pole is a positive message, governmental entities, such as our

city, can’t place only those messages they like on public property

and refuse those they disagree with. Thus, what happens when a group

wants to present the city with their version of a wooden pole

containing a less than positive message for placement at the library?

Can the city legally reject the gift because the city objects to the

speech content, or once they’ve opened the door to the placement of

one message on public property, do they have to open the public

property to all messages? These are legitimate legal questions that

Cook had the guts to ask and need to be answered by the City Attorney

before our city accepts the gift and establishes a dangerous

precedent.

There are certainly some in our city who neither enjoy nor have

the patience or energy to try and understand Cook. But, then again,

many of those same people honestly believe warming a Lean Cuisine in

the microwave is actually cooking. They’ve never experienced the heat

of a real kitchen.

But, Cook has. And like every great cook whose ultimate goal is to

prepare the best dish possible, Cook recognizes that you can’t

prepare great meals unless you tolerate a little heat. But then, she

cheats just a little. She has fans and I’m one of them.

* RON DAVIS is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)

965-7174.