As the year ends

Cleaning out the must-do clipping file in order to start the new year afresh:

First, a letter on the Pilot’s Forum page last month from former Newport Beach Mayor John Heffernan with a headline “A challenge for Greenlight.” It is a classic example of how Heffernan comported himself as mayor: respectful, clear and well reasoned. It avoided the repetition, overwriting, and self-justification so common to similar pieces from local politicians -- especially the current crop in Costa Mesa.

And it made me realize how under-appreciated John Heffernan has been throughout his years of service on the Newport Beach City Council.

I wrote about him here on his first run for the council five years ago because he was that unique candidate who financed his own campaign. He won because he split the vote of two other candidates. And he took his council seat as a distinct outsider, partly as a result of his support from Greenlight -- to which he made no commitment and doesn’t endorse now -- and partly because he wasn’t a member of the good old boys club and therefore wasn’t expected to win.

He endured the role of outsider with class, contributing from his post at the far end of the dais with questions and perceptions based on information and not emotion that for several years were received politely, at best.

He almost resigned once, then thought better of it and stayed on his even course. He won full partnership with his fellow council members slowly -- ridiculously slowly -- that culminated in a brief run as mayor, which he handled admirably.

He should have continued as mayor, but his associates chose otherwise. Now back in his role as councilman, he merits applause, not just for sticking it out but for providing a thoughtful and even-handed model of public service.

*

The obituary in the Los Angeles Times last week of Eugene McCarthy held special significance -- particularly to my generation -- in these days of growing public antagonism to the open-ended U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Our similar involvement in Vietnam was at about the same stage we find ourselves today in Iraq when McCarthy became a striking public figure almost 40 years ago. McCarthy was a well respected but little-known senator from Minnesota when he made his strong objections to our continued presence in Vietnam nationally known by announcing his candidacy for president.

Almost overnight, he became the focus of a growing anti-war movement, whose proponents, looking for a leader, poured into New Hampshire to support McCarthy in the Democratic primary against the incumbent president, Lyndon Johnson. McCarthy lost, but his strong showing persuaded Johnson to withdraw and brought Robert Kennedy into the race. Kennedy’s assassination, in turn, brought in Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Many millions of us strongly preferred McCarthy to Humphrey, who had to support his president’s position on Vietnam.

And that’s when McCarthy broke our hearts. He didn’t soften his views about Vietnam, but he had no stomach for the political fight required to carry this issue to the country. Only tough leadership could wrest the nomination, and McCarthy flaked out.

So while the anti-war protesters tore up the convention site in Chicago, Humphrey was nominated, lost to Nixon, and the Vietnam War went on. And on. Along with many more thousands of casualties.

Those of us who opposed our invasion of Iraq and want us out of the civil war that now seems inevitable -- according to polls, a majority -- are looking for a McCarthy to rally around.

Although Congressman John Murtha -- who has more wartime military service than the combined inner circle of the Bush administration -- has spoken out with passion, no public figure has followed his lead to bring our troops home.

The Democrats who could step up lack the stomach. Just like Gene McCarthy -- as we were reminded last week -- did four decades ago.

*

I fondly hope -- and seriously doubt -- that the issue of teaching intelligent design as an alternate to Darwinian evolution in Newport-Mesa public school science classes has finally been put to rest.

In his 139-page ruling against a Pennsylvania school board’s attempt to take this step, federal Judge John E. Jones III -- a churchgoing conservative appointed to the bench by President Bush -- didn’t mess around. After a six-week trial in which the “intelligent designers” summoned the varsity team to make their case, Jones would have none of it.

He called intelligent design “an interesting theological argument, but ... not science,” and said its proponents were clearly trying to insert “a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism and not a scientific theory” into the classroom.

His ruling should be required reading for every school board -- and every other public body -- asked to violate the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

*

Finally, a Christmas icon I shared for many years with millions of Midwesterners will soon be no more, and those of us who knew and loved it will grieve, wherever we are.

After 150 years, the flagship store of Marshall Field and Company -- swallowed by the ubiquitous tentacles of corporate merger -- is spending its last Christmas as the centerpiece of Chicago’s Loop. It will still be there next year, we are told, but under a different name.

That doesn’t fool us. Endings are endings.

And so those of us who made an annual pilgrimage to admire Marshall Field’s Christmas windows and have lunch in the dowager Walnut Room will echo a local citizen, quoted in my clipping, who said: “They’re erasing my past, piece by piece.”

Oh well, we have Texas and USC coming up. And baseball spring training will start in less than eight weeks.

So happy New Year anyway.

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

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