Leece’s voice will be missed on...

Leece’s voice will be missed

on the Newport-Mesa board

I agree with the Nov. 10 editorial, “Keep the education

discussion,” regarding the unfortunate loss of Wendy Leece from the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees.

No doubt about it -- Wendy brought an interesting perspective to

otherwise boring discussions. Her brave, lone voice of opposition on

specific issues was rarely seriously considered by fellow board

members, but thanks to the Daily Pilot, at least the public was

allowed to hear it.

Did she like to be different? No. She had principles that were

more important to her than being popular.

She first gained my attention as the only trustee who said fellow

Board Member Jim Ferryman should resign due to his arrest on drunk

driving charges. As a mother of teens under the district’s zero

tolerance, I experienced difficulty in explaining the double standard

and leniency of Leece’s fellow members, whose compassion was only

extended when problems touched one of their own.

Paying more attention after that, I discovered Leece was a social

and fiscal conservative who believed strongly in local control and

whose goal was to return our public education system to the strong

moral and educational standards our schools once enjoyed. Willing to

expose problems within the system and daring to disagree with liberal

teachers who thought nothing of introducing sexually provocative

books and revised historical reading materials to their young

students, Leece discovered some powerful enemies.

Whether you agreed with Leece or not, everyone should be concerned

that opponents believed her dangerous enough to get rid of her. Even

though her lone conservative vote obviously could not change much in

our school district, the Daily Pilot allowed her viewpoints to reach

us, and that alone was intolerable to some in the system. So they

found a viable candidate, Tom Egan, and promoted him and his campaign

against Leece.

Those who opposed her believe she has finally been silenced, but I

share the editorial’s expressed hope that Leece will continue to

attend school board meetings, keep informed and express her

conservative opinions. Only then will a philosophy untainted by the

existing public school monopoly have a hope of being brought to our

attention.

PATTY JOHNSON

Newport Beach

Agran’s vision of ripped up

El Toro runways is flawed

I see Irvine politician “landslide” Larry Agran is still worried

about the El Toro airport. He disbelieves the airport threat is

completely gone, and if he has his way, he will personally be

involved in ripping up the miles of El Toro runways with a

jackhammer.

This is all very interesting, and it coincides with contributions

to his campaign by housing developers who see him as a

middle-of-the-road politician, hence a major player.

As I believe in the planned El Toro international airport, I can

not disagree with Agran more strongly than to read of his disdain and

contempt for the miles of functional concrete runways at El Toro just

waiting to be used. What possible visionary could he be, if he would

want to tear up valuable airport infrastructure while pushing to tear

up neighborhoods for a noisy center-line rail project? My advice to

Irvine citizens is to lobby council members who see value in the

planned airport and promise to open it over the objections of Agran

and his sponsors.

There is another angle to the natural calm valley airport site

that is El Toro. It has fuel-saving crossed runways pointing to where

airplanes need to go, and it has long, low, straight approaches. This

is why the Navy built the airport where it is, and no amount of

jackhammers can remove these facts of reality. I believe it is time

to turn on the lights and start the flights at El Toro.

DONALD NYRE

Newport Beach

Memories of Hidi’s still

warm reader’s heart

I just finished and really enjoyed reading Gay Wassall-Kelly’s

column on Hidi’s. I hope that at another time, more of Hidi’s history

can be revealed. As a third-generation resident of the harbor area,

sadly the difference between then and now is immense.

I still look back with great pride at seeing my dad’s City Council

poster in 1974 in her cafe window. Those were truly some of the

“Golden Years.”

STEVE BARRETT

Newport Beach