At least Nichols is consistent

Is there anything more that can possibly be said about the Dick

Nichols foot-in-mouth disease?

Probably not. But I decided to add to the overkill anyway by

attending the Newport Beach City Council communal feeding on Tuesday

night, where Nichols was scheduled to be the main course. And he

didn’t show up. So I’m stuck for a column, like all the TV stations

and extended press that also showed up for the bloodletting and went

home empty. Serves us right.

Those of us who stayed heard about the Newport Beach Film Festival

from its executive director, who said slyly that he “didn’t expect

this much media coverage” for his presentation. And we applauded the

city’s code enforcement officer, Cass Spence, just returned from

military service in Iraq. And then we heard the members of the

council individually carve up Dick Nichols in absentia.

In fairness, Nichols had a solid medical reason for not being

there. Failure to face his accusers is not one of his shortcomings.

Some samples of the comments:

Councilman Don Webb said that Nichols “made offensive remarks in

the campaign often enough to show me he wasn’t aware of what he was

saying.”

Gary Proctor said: “I’m a firm believer in the 1st Amendment, but

this also requires accountability, especially in an elected official.

Apologies aren’t enough to excuse intolerance.”

Summed up John Heffernan: “What Nichols said was just plain racial

-- and just plain wrong.”

Then all six council members present urged the empty chair to

resign and left no doubt they would support a recall if he didn’t.

Later, amid a handful of public comments, local resident Lloyd

Ikerd said he had been prepared to start a recall movement ever since

Nichols opposed a new public school because it would attract too many

Mexicans. And two representatives of Latino organizations

complimented the council for its stand on Nichols and then challenged

the members to go the next step and support drivers’ licenses for

“the immigrants who cut your grass, care for your children -- and

like to enjoy public beaches with their families.”

So it went. Mayor Steve Bromberg promised a new confrontation in

two weeks, hopefully with the guest of honor present. Presumably, we

will all return.

Sitting through all this, drifting in and out, I studied the empty

chair and tried to construct the person who sits there. And it

occurred to me that the one predominant quality Nichols has projected

throughout all the lightning he’s attracted is his consistency.

His troglodyte view of the world about him is reflected in

virtually every position he has taken -- from his complaint about

left-wingers dominating the public library’s speakers’ podium, to the

alleged crooks infesting the planning commission, to the “Mexicans”

taking over his beach.

He sees the world in very clear blacks and whites.

This is his truth -- and the only truth, in his view.

That’s why he is bewildered at the reaction to his comments -- and

that’s why I don’t think he’ll resign.

In his reasoning processes, he’s simply telling the truth. And one

doesn’t back down from that place.

Which leads to this question: Are we demanding his head on a

platter because of the views he holds or because he expressed them?

Or to narrow the question a bit, because he expressed them with such

a total lack of sophistication or awareness of political realities

that he can no longer function usefully in a governing body? And, not

only that, is also making the city look bad in the process?

Most of the castigation heaped on Nichols is allegedly because of

his views. It would be foolish to suggest that those views aren’t

shared around these parts on the Internet and at bars and dinner

parties and while waiting on the first tee. Yes, and in the

backwaters of the Costa Mesa City Council, too.

For the most part, they aren’t expressed publicly. But Nichols was

elected by a majority of his constituents, and I find it hard to

believe that the views he has expressed as a councilman have come as

a complete surprise to his supporters. For widely different reasons,

Nichols had to be the most ill-prepared candidate for public office

since Bill Simon.

When Nichols suggested Newport Beach planning commissioners were

on the take, I passed it off in this space a few weeks ago as what

might have been a temporary seizure of stupidity. No more. He at

least had the good sense to apologize -- sort of -- for that gaffe.

This time, he’s defending an almost offhand lapse into racism that

tells us he not only didn’t learn anything from the planning

commission episode but these lapses are endemic to his mind set. It

is pretty clear now that Nichols will never see people setting up

shop on the grass above Corona del Mar beach. He will only see

“Mexicans.” Or “outsiders.”

Or the good guys, if they get there first. And that these truths

are buried much too deeply in his psyche to change.

If there is a lesson here, it must be the challenge to look into

our own psyches and see what lurks there.

Living in California’s Least Diverse City puts us at special risk.

If we are sticking labels on the world that define groups rather than

individuals, we need to profit from the public exorcism of Dick

Nichols.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.