MAILBAG:

When President John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, it was said that in the massive building designed to plan for the ultimate journey, Kennedy insisted there be at least one room for scientists who didn’t believe flying to the moon was possible.

Kennedy knew the value of dissent, argument and discussion. This point of view is clearly lost by many in all levels of government these days.

I am a simple man. I don’t know any politicians. I certainly don’t know Erwin Chemerinsky or Michael Drake. But if what has been reported about this sordid mess is half true, there are many influential folks in our community who don’t share this particular belief of JFK.

I don’t care who the next dean of the UCI Law School is. It could be Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly or Jon Stewart for all I care. The criteria should be, will he (or she) be a good administrator, able to recruit good teachers, and will they develop a good curriculum that will produce good lawyers?

But it should not be Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich declaring whether someone’s political persuasion is offensive or not.

Personally, I find it offensive that these “powerful” people don’t believe we can think for ourselves. What are people afraid of?

Is it that some liberal thinker will move into Orange County and poison the air we breath by voicing opinions different from our more traditional conservative ones?

People I know are fully capable of listening to both sides of an argument and making up their own minds.

We don’t need the help of the anonymous deep thinkers at, say for example, the Lincoln Club deciding what we can and can’t hear.

The attempt to unseat Chemerinsky because he might be a (Lord forbid) liberal is the basest form of censorship. I resent it and I think anyone with a brain would resent it.

What’s next on the agenda? Should only the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard and the Register be allowed for sale in Orange County?

No, we need to be exposed to different points of view. Then we are better able to make up our own minds.

Is it easier listening to some sound-bite formulated for us by some politically correct guru? Yes, of course.

It’s always easier to have someone else do our thinking for us. But it’s wrong.

I wouldn’t be too hard on Michael Drake, either. Did he handle this badly? No doubt. Did he finally make the right decision? I think so.

At least he had the courage to do what was undoubtedly very difficult. He swallowed his pride and did the right thing.

At the end of the day he realized there was value in dissent, argument and discussion.

MIKE DUNN

Costa Mesa