Honesty, integrity and the future of El Morro

TONY DODERO

One of the first lessons I teach my introduction to newswriting

students at Orange Coast College is that plagiarism is the poison

apple of journalism. Take one taste of it and it could mean curtains

for your career.

There are lots of recent and past examples of plagiarists, and I

tell them about the worst offenders with the warning that if I find

them plagiarizing, I may not be able to end their career, but I can

give them a failing grade.

And that’s exactly what I’d like to do with the scads of e-mailers

and phone callers who hopped on a letter writing campaign regarding

the El Morro trailer park. I’d like to give them a big fat “F” when

it comes to honesty and integrity.

How do I know there is a letter-writing campaign?

Well, one tip off was the caller from Utah telling us that he or

she wanted to vote yes on our poll for El Morro, or in one case,

Switzerland.

Or, when we get multitudes of people who call in and say the same

exact thing, word for word, phrase by phrase about the same issue.

And this time, we even got this beauty of an e-mail from someone I

won’t name who resides in San Diego.

“I support Chuck DeVore’s proposals to save El Morro.”

That wouldn’t be so bad except the e-mail was followed by this

doozy of a plea:

“Hey! Everyone ... take a second to read this ... PLEASE E-MAIL

dailypilot@latimes.com AND VOICE YOUR SUPPORT TO SAVE ELMORRO!!!!!!

It’s so easy and SO important: Include name, hometown and phone

number (for verification only). Just say that you support Chuck

DeVore’s proposals to save El Morro!! The more people agreeing, the

better the chance for future El Morro parties!!!! Thank you so much.

Please forward to anyone that you think would be interested. For more

information about the proposals, please read the article below from

the Daily Pilot.”

As you can see, the real issue is future El Morro parties.

But what’s really galling to me is that as I warn my students to

not plagiarize and not take someone else’s idea and pass it off as

their own, full-grown adults haven’t learned the same lesson. They

are willing to lose all ethics in the quest for more El Morro

parties!

Let’s get back to the real issue at hand.

Most of our readers probably know the El Morro story fairly well

by now, but here’s the background in a nutshell.

For decades, mobile homes have been sitting on the beach at El

Morro as part of a development allowed at that time by the Irvine Co.

But some 30 years ago, the Irvine Co. sold the land the mobile

homes sat on to the state of California to be used as parkland by all

of us, not just the few mobile homeowners. The sale included a big

chunk of coastal lands and canyons that surround El Morro, which now

makes up Crystal Cove State Park.

Think about that. For 30 years, these mobile home tenants have

known that the land belonged to the state and the people of

California, not to them.

Then about 10 years ago, those very same mobile home residents

signed leases that called for them to leave the premises in 10 years.

That’s right, the big bad mean state parks department gave them 10

years to pack their bags and get their things in order. And in good

faith, some residents have left.

But of course, once the lease was up, many of them had not packed

their bags. Nope. In fact, they have become more entrenched than

ever, throwing out every red herring in the book as to why they need

to stay in their beachside mobile homes.

The state makes money from us, they say.

The campgrounds will endanger the local school, they say.

The state doesn’t have its act together, they say.

All hogwash.

Pure and simple, I have a hard time believing the residents of

this mobile home park care about any of those issues, except keeping

their ocean vistas and their parties -- all of which they get to

enjoy at the expense of every resident and taxpayer in this great

state.

And so the phony arguments and last minute charades continue.

Somehow, they were able to lasso freshmen Assemblyman Chuck DeVore

for the ride and get him to sponsor two bills that would allow them

to stay on our land for 30 more years.

DeVore, a fiscal conservative, sees the bills as a way to save the

state money. And to his credit, that’s probably his real motive in

all of this.

But the idea that the mobile home park folks and all their friends

from Utah to Switzerland have now followed in DeVore’s footsteps to

become the most fiscally conservative people on the planet is

laughable.

So all of you who have sent your letter-writing e-mails and phone

calls, save your energy and your dimes. Our Forum pages are reserved

for those with original thought, not those who take ideas from others

and pass them off as their own.

That’s what we call plagiarism.

*

Speaking of the Forum pages, I wanted to let the readers know that

with the many editing changes around here, I’ve decided to resume my

practice as editor of these opinion pages.

It seems like a good fit and will give the readers some

continuity, since I’m as close to a lifer at the Daily Pilot as

you’re going to see, and I bring with me some 15 years of

institutional knowledge of the Newport-Mesa community that many young

editors just don’t have.

So I’ll be looking forward to reading those original letters.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

TELL IT TO THE EDITOR

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He welcomes your comments on news

coverage, photography or other newspaper-related issues. If you have

a message or a letter to the editor, call his direct line at (714)

966-4608 or the Readers Hotline (714) 966-4664, send it by e-mail to

tony.dodero@latimes.com or dailypilot@latimes.com, or send it by mail

to 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.