Pink problem not about fashion but safety...

Pink problem not about fashion but safety

One of the hardest jobs that exists is being a school principal.

Every day decisions are made; interventions are done, many times at a

moment’s notice, with the ultimate goal of keeping the school safe.

That is exactly what the principal of Ensign Intermediate School was

doing when he made a decision to keep a few students out of a

picture. What ultimately has happened has the potential to put the

school at risk. Instead of support for the principal’s decision,

there is protest.

The unfortunate truth is if we want to keep our campuses safe,

certain freedoms must be compromised. A principal cannot discriminate

between a safe color pink from a bad color -- “gothic black.” Not so

long ago people all over the country accused the Columbine principal

of incompetence for allowing school shooters to wear trench coats to

school day after day, they called their gang the “trench coat mafia.”

So what do we do now? The pink incident has been blown out of

proportion as a means of entertainment and the real issue has been

lost. A principal made a decision based on safety concerns. The

community should support him and let him know he has their trust and

respect. The real tragedy would be if principals start second

guessing themselves and are not proactive in dealing with safety

issues on campus.

CYNDIE BORCOMAN

Newport Beach

Readying for revenge from South County residents

Letter writers Dan W. Emory and Michael A. Glueck (“Orange County

we have a problem,” Community Commentary, March 28) wrote “In the

future, the powers that be will most likely decide that the only

solution is to enlarge John Wayne Airport. We must be ready ahead of

time so as not to fail this time.”

Unfortunately, the battle will not be limited to just taking on

the Federal Aviation Authority and the airline industry, come 2016.

Mark my works, vengeful South County “NIMBYs,” hellbent on revenge,

will literally throw jet fuel on the fire and cheerlead for a

24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week JWA.

If El Toro is no longer hanging over their heads, they will have

nothing to lose at all. Forget trying to threaten to add another

reactor at San Onofre as a way to ward them off.

I am basing my observations on several years of reading the

residents’ letters and the message boards on anti-El Toro websites.

Now, I can very well understand someone in South County having a

problem with an airport that will service 38 million air passengers,

with flight paths going over residential areas. I sure wouldn’t like

it either, as I reside under the final approach for Long Beach

Airport.

Yet, a much better solution for El Toro would be for a southern

takeoff with a 30-degree bank and passing over the wide swath of the

Laguna Coast Wilderness corridor, which is free of homes and schools.

However, the most hard-core, fundamentalist NIMBYs even oppose a

layout that would never impact them in a million years. Why? Because

if El Toro becomes a reliever airport, then the pressure for future

JWA growth would cease. Well, that’s certainly no good to them.

Now if one thinks I make these charges based just on some idle

message board chatter, there are also some elected officials who

think JWA growth is fine and dandy as well. In fact, the El Toro

Reuse Planning Authority (consisting of 10 south county cities)

passed a position paper calling for greater utilization of JWA.

The most prominent pro JWA growth politician out there would be

“Great Park” visionary, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran. He was on an Irvine

City Council that in 1985, voted to sue to gut the existing

protections on JWA. The painful truth is, the die hard anti airport

people could care less about what kind of “Great Park” they will

have, if one at all. By blocking even the most non-intrusive aviation

uses at El Toro, they know they can have the satisfaction of payback

to the Newport-Mesa community come 2016. Never mind what will happen

to their anti El Toro allies, such as Tustin and Orange, as a result.

They will simply be written off as mere “collateral damage.”

Now should the day come when El Toro’s runways are removed, and

there’s not one peep afterward to blow JWA wide open as payback, then

I will personally eat a plate of hot steaming crow and crushed

runway.

REX RICKS

Huntington Beach

Arst cartoon was a real kick in the pants

I have worked as a political and editorial cartoonist and

illustrator for the past 25 years. We in this field have a unique

goal in our art in terms of what we consider success. The product

should combine humor and a personal editorial perspective. If we are

successful it will be done with skillful art all in one panel. It

will make some laugh and pique ire in others.

The Community Commentary by Richard Taylor on March 25 (“Cartoon a

disservice to paper’s credibility”) is evidence of what we consider a

smashing success. But it wasn’t until the next day, March 26, that I

realized that Bolton’s cartoon, “Pain in the Arst” was a home run.

That was the day I received a Greenlight mailer. In it, a lawsuit

is threatened, city employees are insulted and black helicopter

conspiracy theories are tossed about. The humorless leadership of

Greenlight just proved they truly are a pain in many parts of the

anatomy. When I see Phil Arst now, I envision the old Marx Brothers’

movie “Duck Soup,” where Groucho Marx, as leader of Freedonia, sings

his platform response to everything, “I’m against it.”

One more point regarding Steve Bolton’s cartoon -- I wish I would

have thought of it.

STEVE LEACH

Newport Beach