MAILBAG - Aug. 29, 2006

Mansoor isn’t one who’s evil in debateOne has to wonder how our once peace-loving and law-abiding society has sunk so low to encourage and allow illegal immigrant criminals to live within our midst under the pretext of “providing for one’s family” at the expense of citizens and legal residents? Since when are we obligated to provide a living for an entire other country?

There are laws in this country that provide for orderly immigration, not only to assist those from poorer countries, but to protect the well-being of our resources, citizens and legal residents who already reside here. How did an elected official, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, become the evil villain in enforcing the rule of law in an effort to keep the city safe and to maintain an honorable quality of life? He was elected to not only run the city, but to enforce law within the city. Imagine that: a politician doing what is expected from his constituents. When did that become evil?

I, for one, hope to see Mansoor re-elected. May he serve as an example to those who have not yet found the bravery to stand up for what is right, just and oh, so politically incorrect.

LAURA ESPINOZA

Chino Hills

KOCE and good schools go togetherRecently, Tom Johnson, the publisher of the Daily Pilot, wrote a column about the California State Supreme Court upholding the previous Orange County Appellate Court decision and thereby voiding the sale of KOCE to its own fundraising foundation.

Johnson failed miserably to recognize the importance of KOCE to the many stakeholders of both Orange and Los Angeles Counties. I applaud the courage and wisdom of the Orange Coast Community College Board of Trustees in supporting the public’s best interests. This is despite the heavy-handed tactics of the supposed Christians from Texas-based Daystar who have threatened them all with personal lawsuits. True Christians should be working for the greater good of mankind rather than exhorting millions for their own lavish lifestyles. (I am surprised that the Trinity Broadcasting Network is not contributing to KOCE’s legal battle since their own coffers seemingly would be threatened if Daystar becomes a competitor in this affluent Orange County market. Wake up, TBN!)

Johnson is correct that we do have another great PBS station, namely KCET, in this area. However, we all benefit by having as many choices as possible for educational television, especially with the predominance of reality shows that cater to the worst elements of human nature.

The main basis for my interest in keeping KOCE on the air is the enormous educational benefit for the children of Orange County of having a PBS station that works so closely with Orange County school districts. I retired this June after 39 years in elementary education. Thirty-five of those years were spent in the very small, but highly successful, district of Cypress. Much of the reason for our high academic achievement has been the strength of having a small district with easy access to everything needed to make students successful, and the realization that America’s future success depends on our students acquiring all the skills needed to compete in the growing global economy.

Research has shown that students do best when they are in smaller schools. That is the reason Bill Gates’ foundation has made such a deep financial commitment to making smaller high schools with much-needed personal interaction. Public education in Los Angeles fails primarily due to family poverty, but another contributing factor is the fact that the school district is far too large to make the most informed decisions for each individual school. That is also why we need KOCE — small and personal is much better than large and impersonal.

The education director from KOCE comes to all Orange County Department of Education meetings of the district technology leaders and offers complete access and support to every school in the county. Either Hall Davidson or Janet English, the former and current educational directors of KOCE, have presented staff development to every school in my district, and we have a teaching staff that uses video clips to enhance learning in every subject area. Davidson and English have also helped implement video editing into our elementary curriculum. Multimedia is critical to engage this current generation of plugged-in students.

In addition, KOCE has offered some incredible opportunities to our students. In one KOCE program a live video conference re-enacted Eratosthenes’ experiment in calculating the circumference of the earth when Orange County students and students in Ecuador measured shadows at noon and inputted that data into their calculations. In another live video conference, blind students composed music with students from five other continents. All students in Orange County were given the opportunity to participate in these incredible educational experiences.

In 1963, my alma mater, Clover Park High School in Lakewood, Wash., had a strong vocational education department with its own TV station. On that campus, students could study all aspects of television as well as learn how to repair automobiles and airplanes. Partly due to a shortage of foresight, most of those opportunities have disappeared for today’s youth. At a high school reunion, my brother discovered one Clover Park school board very foolishly sold the TV station for a quick influx of cash but later discovered it was a huge mistake. The district then struggled to raise the huge amounts of money needed to re-create that station.

The film industry is one of our most successful businesses in the Orange/Los Angeles County region. I have taught many Cypress students whose parents worked in the industry. When our local film industry outsources any of these jobs, we are all threatened economically. Instead of eliminating public television stations, it makes much more sense to create more such entities. The public needs to realize it is in everyone’s best interest to save KOCE from the Texas televangelists and their expensive lawyers!

SANDY PAUL

Irvine

KOCE provides needed local voice to countyUnhappily Pilot publisher Tom Johnson seems misinformed about the true educational value of KOCE to the kindergarten through 12th-grade students of Orange County. No other station in the area does programming for this segment of the population. These broadcasts are used by all the school districts in the county to enhance and supplement the education of our children. KCET, an overlapping station, has programs for the preschool-age children but not kindergarten through 12th.

No other station is going to be interested in taking on the huge investment of time, energy, money and expertise that KOCE has for the students of Orange County.

KOCE is not restricted to just REAL Orange for local coverage; there are many events in Orange County that would benefit the event and the community to have information aired on our own station. This is not a bedroom community for Los Angeles — the Times no longer supports Orange County with a section of the paper — the readership there is way down. KOCE has more viewers than the Times has subscriptions! Orange County viewers want and demand the county to be recognized as its own thriving area. Another station outside Orange County is not going to be interested, thus another vehicle for information without bias will be lost to the residents of the county.

Your obvious nonsupport and negativity toward KOCE as a PBS station (by the way that is the designation of the license) which is a Public Broadcast Station, is amazing to those of us in the county who know the true value of KOCE to Orange County.

I am sure there have been many answers to your first editorial on KOCE; however, there haven’t been many published. Show both sides of the issue!

HARRIET ROOP

Costa Mesa