Mailbag: Newport Shores supports veterans but not the project

I just got home (Nov. 24) from a more than four-hour City Hall meeting, waiting for my turn to speak about the proposed “affordable housing” project behind Cappy’s Cafe, and I am beside myself (“Some Newport Beach residents angry over 12-unit, affordable-housing project,” Nov. 28).

Resident after resident stood up and expressed their concerns about the lack of notice, egregious spending for only 12 units (only seven for veterans) and the general, shady feel of the entire thing. And following the resultant mass walkout was speech after speech from the City Council about “our duty to our veterans” and how callous Newport Shores residents apparently are.

Were they even listening? Did they not hear a word we said?

During our time to speak a number of veterans (one from Newport Shores) walked up and made very emotional speeches of their services, what branch they served in, where they served, how many in their family served, the sacrifices they made, etc., and how we owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans — completely blurring the reason Newport Shores residents were there in the first place. What they didn’t apparently understand is that no one was contesting any of this whatsoever.

What they were contesting was the fact that the residents were trying to accomplish two things; More time to look this project over and better spending of funds to possibly quadruple the amount of available housing units for veterans who qualify. Honestly, if I was a veteran at this meeting I would be absolutely mortified that my service was being exploited for financial gain and city agenda.

In addition, are you really telling us that you prefer seven veteran housing units near the beach rather than 50 or more in a more suitable location for the same costs?

Somehow they just couldn’t see this, and the resultant opportunities that the council members took to make their own speeches about our debt to our military completely overshadowed their total mismanagement of city funds and ignorance to the wellbeing of Newport Shores residents.

City Council, let us be clear, no one was there in opposition to veterans. Period. And for you to spin that meeting into some sort of hate mob trying to stop the care and treatment of veterans in need is disgusting, bordering on horrific.

It is now clear to me that your agenda was already in place, and your decision was made before the meeting even began. Only by embracing the total exploitation our veterans could you sleep tonight. Shame on you, and shame on anyone that fell for it.

Chris Parker

Newport Beach

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Allowing immigrants into the U.S. poses threat

Liana Aghajanian presents compelling arguments for continuing to provide political asylum for refugees, but in supporting the admission of 10,000 Syrians she fails to mention any of the many reasons the majority of Americans oppose such a policy (“Commentary: Move to reject refugees betrays U.S. history,” Dec. 3)

U.S. intelligence officials have admitted it is impossible to vet the Syrians who want to migrate to America.

We might not even know what country they are from. The Eureopean Union recorded 213,000 arrivals from April through June and found that only 20% of the refugees were fleeing the Syrian civil war.

Vetting becomes crucial, due to a letter from the National Counterterrorism Center, which has identified “individuals with ties to terrorist groups in Syria attempting to gain entry to the U.S. through the U.S. refugee program ...”

Even when investigated, some Middle Eastern refugees become dangerous. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) obtained a list of 12 vetted refugees who he claims joined jihad plots against the U.S. soon after entering our country.

Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband, killed 14 innocent people in San Bernardino, had been vetted, which shows the system is flawed.

Then there is the enormous cost of sponsoring the refugees. Our government is notorious for its waste of money. The Center for Immigration Studies has reported that we could help 12 refugees in safe havens in the Middle East, for every refugee brought to the United States. We could help 120,000, instead of 10,000, with the same amount of money. That’s a no-brainer, except for people in the administration.

Do we really want to take the chance of importing thousands of people, among whom may be trained terrorists, who only want to enter our country to replicate the San Bernardino massacre?

Allowing these refugees in with no way of investigating them would be irresponsible and foolhardy.

Bill Cool

Corona del Mar

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What is it with all this violence?

When I was young (granted, that was awhile ago) people were friendly and helpful to each other (really).

If my mom heard that some people down the street were having a hard time, she would go visit them, and chat a little, and then slip them enough money to go buy groceries.

And no one locked their doors at night. No one. There was no need.

Well, safe to say, it’s not safe anymore. What happened?

Here is something violent that happened when I was young: Bambi’s mother got shot. It was horrifying. Kids were leaving the movie theater in trauma. It helped that our mothers tried to explain that it was just a movie, a cartoon, in fact: “Snow White.” They assured us that no one would actually shoot a mother.

That was a while ago, wasn’t it?

Think of how different that is from what goes on now. Imagine saying to someone today, “I just saw a really exciting movie, although it’s a little tough to handle. This cartoon deer gets shot by a cartoon hunter ...’’

The violence in society seems to come out of the blue. But it doesn’t. It gets built up in society, layer by layer, year by year, higher and higher. Any particular dramatic incident is just the tip of a much larger cultural iceberg. Which is a little scary.

But here is perhaps a reassuring thought: The average citizen does have some control over all this. If the average citizen refuses to support violent comics, novels, songs and music, movies, computer games, television and toys, that will start to melt the iceberg.

Steve Davidson

Newport Beach

The writer is a clinical psychologist.