MAILBAG:

The wetlands plan for Fairview Park is a classic example of how big government is out of control and should not be given any more of our tax dollars.

We are going to spend $4 million on a sewage treatment plant to treat the water from the Greenville-Banning Channel and create a pond. I don’t know if anyone has noticed that the county put in a dam in the channel to prevent its toxic goo from reaching the beaches. They then spent millions of dollars for a diversion pipe to pump this goo to the county sanitation facility. It does not work well, and it has left neighbors with a stagnant pond that stretches for about a mile and gets real ripe about this time of year.

Of course if anyone would review the master plan for Fairview Park, they will notice that a pond has never been included. It was never included because it came up when the city was spending millions of dollars fixing the TeWinkle Park pond. The ducks ensure that the water at TeWinkle sort of looks like the water in the Greenville-Banning Channel. It was also concluded that if we wanted a pond, there is already one just south of Victoria and we could ask the county to take down the barbed-wire fence. Not to mention the soil in this area has been tested and could never support a natural pond.

The master plan for Fairview calls for a passive use. In 1985, the city bought Fairview Park to prevent it from being over-developed by the county. The problem is that politicians can only make a name for themselves if they spend money.

Hence, only a watchful eye has prevented a golf course, sports complex, parking lots, more parking lots and my favorite, the Huscroft house. Hopefully someone at the federal level will deny us the funds for this mess.

JAMES JONES

Costa Mesa

Republicans have lost sense of responsibility

I am a registered Independent.

So, I tuned in to the RNC convention.

I am afraid it is form over substance again. Yes, the same tired slogans and symbols have emerged along with the process of snidery and personal destruction.

The Republicans, with eight years of majority rule, have taken no responsibility for their misguided and arrogant policies. What happened to the party of personal responsibility? No, instead they wheel out Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and the hockey mom to wreak their snide comments and forget to mention how their party has and will again take away our personal liberties, personal choices and personal welfare.

The McCain ticket will continue the political path left so well-marked by George Bush: arrogance followed by incompetence leading to impotence.

This election is going to prove that the electorate is flat-out tired of Rovian tactics: demeaning your opponent and the mean spirited rhetoric that follows. The country as a whole is hurting. The threat of global warming, the war in the Middle East and the economy reeling.

We do not need to feel worse by the blather at the RNC convention. Let’s feel good once again about being an American and vote these Republicans out of office once and for all. Their last eight years do not deserve another four. Now is the time to put some smart people in the White House.

Denny Osborne

Irvine