COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Daigle acted wisely

Let me begin by saying I am not a supporter of Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle and have never run on the Corona del Mar High School track (or any other track). So this letter is not motivated by either of those possible biases.

I thought Steve Smith’s Saturday On the Town column (“Daigle missteps on the jogging track”) was ridiculous. Daigle has the same right of free speech that lets Smith spout foolishness regularly in the Pilot.

Smith seems to have confused Newport Beach with Nazi Germany or Russia under Stalin — yet forgotten that the Nuremberg trials established that questioning authority was not only permissible, but that failing to do so was morally (not to mention legally) reprehensible. The position that a school security guard is someone whose “word is not to be questioned” elevates school security guards to a position of authority somewhere above the president of the United States — whose word is questioned daily in the press, in Congress and by normal people in their homes and in public. We are not even talking here about trained law enforcement personnel, most of whom would agree that the creator has not endowed even their words with absolute impunity and would not object to a person respectfully questioning their instructions; we are talking about a school security guard.

I don’t know Daigle, but I would guess she would follow the direction of a police officer or firefighter without debate if the circumstances were such to warrant doing so and questioning the appropriateness later. As a father, I certainly reject the notion that my child must mindlessly follow instructions from a low-level functionary, which is not the same thing as “sounding off to the police during traffic stops.” Asking questions is not “defiance.” It is a demonstration of intelligence greater than that displayed by animals who follow the animal in front of them in a slaughter house.

When a school security guard attempts to prevent a resident of our city from using a public facility, I am delighted that a council member chose to question his right to do so. Even if the previously un-enforced rule is justified by recent events, Daigle was not only within her rights to question it, but — as an elected representative — was showing concern for the residents of our city that is both appropriate and commendable.

Smith, on the other hand, chose not only to criticize Daigle, but to comment on her former opponent in the election, Barbara Venezia — who not only had nothing to do with this incident but wasn’t the one “talking” in the incident he alluded to — and to gratuitously take a few swipes at Newport Beach Councilman Dick Nichols, who also was not involved in this incident.