MAILBAG - March 20, 2001

I just read the article “Ice rink’s still up in the air,” (March 13)

by Jennifer Kho.

I am appalled. Just when I think our city has some really nice

community-spirited business relationships -- like Mesa Verde Partners,

which is a Segerstrom-held company and always has been a good business

partner -- I see someone like Gene Moriarty quoted as saying, “It would

be nice if people would leave us alone and let us decide,” when he’s

referring to the potential uses for the ice rink at the Mesa Verde

Center.

I hope Moriarty is embarrassed and ashamed at seeing that

narrow-minded, non-community-spirited quote in the paper. I realize that

he could do what he wants with the facility, but to pretty much dismiss,

in public, the opinions and thoughts and suggestions of the community

doesn’t bode well for what’s going to happen at the center.

CONNIE DUDDRIDGE

Costa Mesa

School board erred by allowing book

Steve Smith’s review (“School board trustee Leece is not always alone

in her views,” March 3) of a previous board action dealing with school

textbooks is most illuminating since it shows that the board decision to

disapprove is a proper and acceptable course of action.

After reading Smith’s critique of the book “Love and Shadows,” I’m

convinced, more than ever, that the board erred in its 5-2 decision to

allow a text with so obviously lurid a plot to pass board muster.

The fact that a number of parents appeared in opposition to the books

in question seemed to have no effect on those members who came to the

meeting with their minds already made up. Their testimony did not sway

these members nor, for that matter, did their testimony make any

headlines.

The books acceptability issue had been making the rounds for a number

of weeks before the board reached a decision. During this time, most

criticism had been leveled at a single member who had voiced her

objections to the books. As for the other members of the board, they

chose to go into a kind of hibernation or, as one scholar had opined in

previous study of boards, “They chose to retire to the wings until the

hubbub had subsided.” While one board member made an argument, the others

remained silent.

During the board meeting, the board president asked the question, “Why

these two books?” A good question that should have been answered by the

teachers who chose the books in the first place.

LEFTERIS LAVRAKAS

Costa Mesa

Electric bills can only get better

The consternation Joe Bell expressed in his March 8 column over his

electric bills is something we can all relate to. But help is on the way,

Bell. Despair not!

Every dark cloud has its silver lining. Take comfort in the sure and

certain knowledge that the invisible hand of the private sector will make

it all come right.

DICK LEWIS

Balboa Peninsula