MAILBAG - March 30, 2006

Don’t buy the arguments about immigration

So now students are walking out of school in protest of what they think are unfair laws being proposed (“Students walk out,” Tuesday)? I gather they prefer lawlessness. After all, their parents’ first act of patriotism was breaking our immigration laws to come here, falsely acquiring a Social Security card and driving without a drivers license or insurance, unless the drivers license was also purchased on a street corner or back alley.

Or are they protesting the free medical care, food stamps, welfare, aid programs and education they receive? They claim they pay taxes. Maybe. However, a stolen or fraudulent Social Security card must be used as these are only issued to citizens. In California alone, the estimated cost of illegal immigration is $10 billion. If taxes are paid, what about the refund? Yes, the refund that is based on income and dependents ? more money paid out than received. Do you believe Mexico is a poor country? False: Mexico is in the top 10 wealthiest nations, they just don’t provide for their poor citizens.

The point is, as a nation we provide plenty and get little in return ? no loyalty, no gratitude, just greed, give me more, more, more. Enough already. If they think this is such a horrible place for wanting to uphold current and future laws, they have the option to leave and go back to their countries of origin. Of course that won’t happen. The free handouts aren’t available there. Only in America.

DON MARSHALL

Costa Mesa

Pool argument confused fact with opinion

In rebuttal to Barbara Venezia’s letter to the editor Friday, “Back and forth in pool debate”:

Yes, I applaud the Daily Pilot too; kiss, kiss, hug, hug.

It seems Barbara Venezia is confusing opinion with fact.

She says it’s a “fact” that there is not enough room for a 50-meter pool. What she means is there is not enough room for a 50-meter pool and her beloved tables and chairs. There is a perfectly exquisite wildlife preserve across the street from the YMCA location for families to have picnics and the “family outdoor experience.” Why on earth would anyone think people will pay a membership fee to picnic at the Y? My family and all of the families I know have family outdoor experiences by going hiking or camping or spending a day at the beach.

The parking situation is begging for a parking structure. For swim meets, the fact is that there is a whole parking lot for the adjacent office complex that is completely empty on weekends. There could be some kind of deal struck, I imagine.

The fact is a 50-meter pool would not “destroy” anything. With a movable bulkhead, the pool could be separated into two sections so that small children and the elderly would not be turned away during swim-team practices. Having a 50-meter pool is no reason to abandon a lovely planned water facility. I am stupefied that Venezia has the nerve to say that a 50-meter pool is a “very narrow single-use concept.” A larger pool will actually enhance the multiuse concept; we will be able to increase the number of programs so more people will get more use from the pool. The bulkhead I mentioned earlier would, in effect, create two pools.

The “proven fact” that the pool draws customers is certainly not questioned. But to say the same size, overcrowded pool that the members constantly complain about will draw more customers is simply ludicrous. If it draws more customers, it will draw more overcrowding. I find it hard to believe that the swim team does not create revenues; I know I give the YMCA an extra $800 a year for my daughter to be part of the team. Do the math.

The $2 million pledged by the Newport Beach City Council seems reason enough to build the larger, more flexible pool. It’s not often that you get an offer like that.

At the town hall-style meeting that I attended, along with many other YMCA members, the talk was that the “family feel” was important. But the benefits of a 50-meter pool was also an important aspect discussed at that meeting, with the consensus being that the large pool would be a positive addition to the facility to ease the current overcrowding. I don’t know exactly who the people preparing the studies that Venezia refers to were working for, but it certainly was not the constituency at that meeting. Quite frankly, I am worried about the honesty of these studies.

If a new pool is going to be built, let’s build one that can meet the needs of the community while we have the chance. Building a small pool shows a lack of vision and more importantly a lack of concern with the current demands on the existing pool. If the designers wanted to find the space for a 50-meter pool with spectator area, it could be done. All we need is an innovative use of space instead of the same tired old pedantic designs.

JEFF DONATI

Costa Mesa

Editorial put Marinapark in its proper place

I can already hear the first charges of “mean-spirited thinking, elitist attitude” and the usual sappy rhetoric in response to your excellent editorial, “At Marinapark, time for residents to go” (March 19).

Kudos for a steely-eyed, straightforward assessment of what is a matter of practical government at work, not an emotional morass awash with plaintive claims of wrongdoing by uppity city administrators at the expense of the so-called elderly poor and downtrodden disadvantaged (who have resided for years in paradise at rock-bottom prices). Stay the course and give us more of the same ? courage.

JANE LOWRY

Newport Beach

dpt.30-mailbag-BPhotoInfoV41PERMF20060330iwtbtjknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Araceli Ramos of Buena Park addresses a crowd of high school students, parents and activists outside Costa Mesa City Hall during a rally against federal immigration reform proposals on Tuesday. Some Estancia High School students left school early on Monday as well to take part in protests.