Reagan contacts still vivid

JOSEPH N. BELL

Reagan memorabilia time. My contacts with him were brief, but still

vivid. They comprised bookends -- one at the beginning of his

political life, the other at the end.

I covered his first run for governor of California for the

Christian Science Monitor and watched him grow day-by-day in

confidence and skill in this new role, for which he had been

carefully prepped by the campaign management team of Stuart Spencer

and Bill Roberts. But this time he was playing for keeps in a hit

that was going to run for 16 years.

My two most lasting pictures of that first campaign were, first,

the cards he carried like a security blanket and from which he spoke,

shuffling them to meet the concerns of the audience he was

addressing. And, second, his connection with his audience, which was

total from the beginning. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reagan’s

acting career was on the wane when he entered politics. So the

rapport between Reagan and his audience was always much deeper than

stargazing.

Shortly after Reagan left office, I met up with him again, when he

spoke to the members of the Orange County Business Council in Newport

Beach. I scanned an advance copy of his speech and found it full of

cliches and banalities. On top of that, he read it, word for word,

from the podium. Not a single ad lib. And yet, I was totally engaged

-- if not by the political essence of his message -- by the clear

sincerity of his delivery. Reagan was one public figure whose

nickname -- the Great Communicator -- actually fit.

He had two consistent personal qualities that both carried him

through some rocky places in his presidency and made him almost a

reverential figure after leaving office. He clearly and absolutely

believed what he said and didn’t check it out with polls first. And

he was a decent, unpretentious human being, who was easy to like.

Current and future candidates for the offices Reagan held might well

ponder those qualities.

*

One of the wistful perks of my eight years of writing this column

for the Pilot is watching young journalists come and go. The Pilot is

a way station for talented young people, and their departures for

greener pastures after several years is a high compliment to the

Pilot editors who hired them. It says that they chose well.

I’m always torn -- as I was when I saw my best students graduate

from UC Irvine -- between regret to see them leave and pleasure to

watch them grow. But I’m afraid, at the moment, the balance is tipped

toward regret over the two most recent defections from the Pilot

staff.

June Casagrande is a sound, highly professional reporter who did

her homework and covered her beat with fairness, clarity and

efficiency. When I needed research help or information, she was

always there. June will continue her weekly Pilot grammar lessons in

her new life as a free-lance writer, a risky decision that can be

wonderfully satisfying. I raised a family on a free-lance income, so

I know what those risks are. But I also learned early on that the

freedom is worth the gamble, and I wish her well.

As for Lolita Harper, I was as shocked as editor Tony Dodero when

I heard about her resignation letter. Young reporters don’t often get

an opportunity to write a column on a daily newspaper; it is usually

payback to old pros like me. So Lolita’s emergence as a columnist --

she hit the ground running and never slowed down -- was both

surprising and delightful. She had guts and perseverance and a total

lack of fear to go along with her writing skills -- qualities that

showed up in her reporting as well as her columns for the Pilot, as

I’m sure they will in her new post.

But the quality in Lolita I most admired and greatly envied was

her boundless energy. I like to think I once had that same level of

energy in the pursuit of a story, so I admit tapping into it

vicariously in Lolita. Since I won’t be able to do that any more, I

clearly have selfish reasons for wanting her to stay. But Lolita has

places to go, and while we send her off with great expectations, I

can’t help feeling a small tinge of sympathy for the bad guys she

goes after in her new job.

*

Much has been written about the ongoing trial of the three young

men accused of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl in a Corona del Mar

home -- too much, according to some Pilot letter writers. But several

points are distressing enough to me to risk repeating.

First is the advantage available only to the rich to employ the

finest legal talent, with resources to pursue every loophole and

possible avenue of diversion or dubious relevance on behalf of their

clients. There must be thousands of inner city black kids now in

prison on lesser charges and flimsier evidence whose court-appointed

attorneys were incompetent or dozed through their trials. Equal

justice in this country is a concept that carries a price tag.

The argument being made by defense attorneys that the outrages

perpetrated on the young victim were consensual and therefore not

illegal is deeply disturbing to me. If she actually consented to

these violations of her body -- which strikes me as incredible --

does that exonerate the behavior of the defendants, who abused her

and photographed the sport for the amusement of their friends?

I know it is pure wishful thinking that somehow the sociopathic

arrogance of these defendants -- especially Greg Haidl -- might

somehow be introduced in evidence. Haidl’s jousts with the law when

he was free on bail and awaiting trial speak to a high degree of

contempt for the society in which he lives and the law enforcement

work of his father. If the defense prevails in this trial, there is

no reason to expect that these qualities in the defendants will ever

be dealt with in the families that have allowed them to take root and

flourish.

The case, finally, will be decided on whether or not the defense

attorneys -- despite the graphic evidence of the videotape -- are

able to create a reasonable doubt of guilt in any of the jurors.

That’s the way it has to be in a society governed by law. We can only

continue to strive to see that the laws are applied equally.

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

appears Thursdays.