Study just dumping money into Santa...

Study just dumping money into Santa Ana River

Re: Costa Mesa’s decision to not pursue a study of the

long-proposed 19th Street bridge.

No! The City Council made the right decision. It would be fiscally

irresponsible to spend $150,000 for additional study of a 19th Street

bridge that the majority of Costa Mesa residents are clearly not in

favor of. We need to concentrate on improving the infrastructure of

the city in ways that will establish Costa Mesa as a desirable

destination point and not on ways that will make it simply a

cut-through city.

CINDY BRENNEMAN

Costa Mesa

Leece, surprisingly, remains out of office

With apologies to Chevy Chase and the “Saturday Night Live” gang

of a generation ago, I’m sorry to report that Spain’s Generalissimo

Francisco Franco is still dead.

And Wendy Leece still hasn’t been reelected to the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District Board of Trustees. And the odds that she will

don’t appear to me to be very promising at all.

I suggest you run one final, very, very large photo of Leece,

maybe a full page this time, accompanied by several more letters, and

then try to put this whole issue behind us once and for all.

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

Encounter with students leaves bad taste

Jean Nicholson made some excellent points in her contribution to

the Mailbag section of the Daily Pilot on Jan. 8 (“One-sided teaching

will harm students”). I, too, was concerned when I read Joe

Robinson’s letter attempting to defend the teacher’s union earlier

this month.

Nicholson’s summation regarding one-sided teaching is spot-on. It

can, and does, result in children who become confused by the messages

delivered by an educational system intent on placing a liberal spin

on religion’s impact on history. Indeed, some of those children rebel

and engage in behavior described by Nicholson as “immorality,

violence and blatant disobedience to all authority.” Yesterday, I

witnessed just such a display.

While having lunch at a popular local fast food outlet frequented

by students from Newport Harbor High School on their lunch break, ill

fortune found me seated adjacent to a group of five students who

displayed all of the above-mentioned traits. Because of my proximity

to their table, I could not avoid overhearing the discourse between

them. In fact, I doubt if anyone seated within 20 feet this group

missed much of what they said, such was the volume of their

conversation.

Conversation may actually be too generous a term for what

transpired. As time passed, this boorish group became even louder,

more belligerent and obnoxious -- disturbing all the patrons in the

room. With glee, they hatched a plot to harass the manager of the

store, who was reluctant to provide free refills to a group sharing

only one purchased beverage. Their eagerness to disregard even the

most basic courtesies and to disrupt an otherwise tranquil setting by

their behavior left me shaking my head in disbelief.

Finally, they went to the counter and confronted the manager, who

had maintained his composure much too long. Fed up with their

behavior, he asked them to leave and not return. As they departed,

leaving a table full of debris in their wake, I found myself

wondering what it must be like for the staff at Newport Harbor High

School as they try to educate these young women, and what kind of

wives and mothers they will become.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa