Common sense is the real endangered species

Chuck Cassity

So somebody from the County forgot to “mow” the bottom of the Santa

Ana River channel between the Adams Bridge and Gisler Avenue and now

there are trees growing in the river bottom higher than the bridge

itself. A veritable forest has shot up while nobody was looking,

least of all the County, whose job it is to make sure this doesn’t

happen.

So why don’t the nice county folks just go in there and remove

this unwanted and unnecessary foliage before the rains come? Well,

truth be known, they can’t, because some scarce little bird that

shouldn’t be living there, because there shouldn’t be anywhere to

live there, is living there. And, we can’t just shoo this squatting

bird (maybe it’s an industrialist kind of bird) because it’s rare.

This, folks, is a perfect example of the Law of Unintended

Consequences. Somebody forgot to do their job, a bird takes up

residence as a consequence, and now we’ve got troubles right here in

“River City.”

Remember rain folks? That’s the stuff we haven’t seen any of for

about 90 days. But when it starts to rain the kind of rain it

sometimes rains, the Santa Ana Forest could impede the forward

progress of 30 miles of rushing Santa Ana River water and flood Costa

Mesa and Huntington Beach. Isn’t this, I ask rhetorically, a bigger

problem than forcibly extricating a bird that shouldn’t be there?

Lolita Harper waxed poetic about the intellect of Fairview Park’s

burrowing owl in Wednesday’s Daily Pilot. We are severely limited in

how we can best enjoy the park because this owl has it in its talons.

Between the owl and the little bird in the river, we’re in a fix. I

submit, however, that the owl and the bird aren’t smart. I submit

that we’re dumb because we won’t do what we know we should do because

some group will lead with their lawyers and stop progress dead in its

tracks.

I think that the welfare of people should be considered before

others of God’s creatures. The recent battle between the Bark Park

and the Skate Park, however, is solid proof that a whole bunch of

nice people disagree with me vehemently.

* CHUCK CASSITY is a Costa Mesa resident and business owner.