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MS. SMITH GOES TO ANAHEIM
Okay, so Katherine Smith goes too far in saying kids should stand at military attention whenever an adult enters the room (Nick Schou's “The Way She Were,” Feb. 16). But she is right to say that kids need to be taught the value of respect and ought to call teachers “ma'am” or “sir.” She is also completely correct in her opposition to the drug war. As with her dad—who sounds like a great guy—she possesses an important value: respecting and showing good faith toward people. We who call ourselves progressive ought to applaud and work with Smith, not attack her from a hip, ironic, cultural, hedonist perspective. Considering school boards such as the one in the Orange Unified School District, the South Orange County Community College District, etc., it is high time progressives tried to build alliances with people such as Smith.
–Mitchell J. Freedman
via e-mail
THE PAPER THAT NUTS HATE,
PART I
Dear Sirs: I wish to express my abhorrence of your communist rag. Were I to wipe my backside with your paper, I would consider it an act too dignified. Is it any wonder that your paper is distributed for free and must be given away? Your left-wing, secular politics disgust me to the point of sickness. You are hate-filled and self-loathing and, as a result, you despise America, the capitalistic spirit and Christianity. Your publication is nothing more than a vituperative rant of mean-spiritedness directed against everything that is decent in the world. Your cartoons, your editorializing, your articles, and your ads that condone whoring and pimping all add up to a publication unworthy of perusal by any decent member of society. In conclusion, I'm grateful that your scumbag is finally out of the White House so that our new president can restore a sense of dignity and decency to an office heavily soiled by its former occupant.
–Anonymous
BUDGET DEBATE
In his response to my letter to the editor (Letters, Feb. 9), Anthony Pignataro states “the county's total budget for airport spending—not just PR, but lobbying and PR—is many millions more than Irvine will spend this year on all airport activities.” Here's what the record shows: from 1993 through April 2000, the county spent a total of $35 million on the El Toro Airport project. Of this amount, $1,173,174 went to PR and lobbying. Of the $35 million, $27 million came from John Wayne Airport revenue, $3 million from FAA grants and $5 million from tax dollars. From 1997 through April 2000, South County cities spent $22 million fighting the county's airport plans, with $10 million more budgeted for Fiscal Year (FY) 99/00—and all of its tax dollars. In FY99/00, the city of Irvine spent $8,287,890 tax dollars fighting the county; of this amount, $4,521,000 went to Ford & Mollrich for direct-mail advertising, TV and website. In FY99/00, ETRPA spent $6,250,000 tax dollars fighting the county; of this amount, $3,950,000 went to [PR firm] Waters and Faubel for mail, cable TV, etc. And you object to the county budgeting $1.5 million this year for lobbyists and say the county is spending “many millions more than Irvine”? Get serious. What kills me is the fact that my City Council is spending my tax dollars trying to kill a project that will benefit Irvine more than any other city in Orange County.
–Norm Ewers
Irvine
Anthony Pignataro responds: Ewers' letter allows me to correct an editing error in my original response: the line should have read, “the county's total budget for the airport—not just PR, but lobbying and planning.” Second, Norm is obviously not a Republican: That $5 million from the FAA? That was taxes. Ditto for the diversion to El Toro of $27 million in John Wayne “revenue.” But my point, which Norm seems to have missed, was that the South County cities—Irvine included—are spending millions to stop a noxious development. That's a legitimate function of city governments; attacking a city for defending its quality of life is like jailing a rape victim for kicking her assailant square in the nuts. Finally, Ewers' logic that Irvine will benefit most from El Toro is inexplicable: Lennox, Inglewood, Westchester and El Segundo are all quite close to LAX, and they've spent the past four decades fighting that airport's “benefits”: round-the-clock noise, traffic and air pollution. THE PAPER THAT NUTS LOVE TO HATE , PART II
To Whom It May Concern (especiall [sic] Matt COCKer) Your paper is a piece of shit. Oh wow, I used a vulgarity . . . why? I almost never do in my correspondance [sic]. Well I do this time because diversity loving vulgar asshole Matt Coker does. “Clusterfuck” (re: “A Clockwork Orange,” and “California Misadventures,” Feb. 16)?? What kind of degraded trash rag is the OC Weekly? Maybe you morons can give Elmer-dumb-shit Matt a lesson on Orange County and how third world scum bag racists have destroyed the city [sic], making it unlivable for everyone. I had a [sic] American of mexican [sic] decent [sic] tell me how much she hated OC now because the good white people, and their successful culture was gone and replaced by “those dam [sic] wetbacks,” as she put it. Blacks are also hurting. Now they are even lower on the todem [sic] pole. So piss off marxist pigs. OC Weekly is a lying propaganda rag.
–Anonymous
