Orange County Commentary

There was an amazing sight at the truck mud races Jan. 13 at Anaheim Stadium. Although I was surprised, it wasn't amazing that we were asked to stand for the National Anthem. Nor was it amazing when this rowdy crowd waited in silence more than a minute before the music started. What was amazing was the behavior of crew members on the grass below once the sound came up. Conversations continued. People jogged across the field. Some hats weren't removed until ". . . twilight's last gleaming."

Re "Read the Fine Print, Then Vote 'No,'" (Orange County Commentary, Jan. 27): Shirley Conger writes that as a result of Measure W, the 4,700-acre park won't really be a park at all, but rather be razed and developed. Conger disingenuously quotes a section of Measure W that simply reiterates existing county law and is not part of changes proposed by the measure to imply that Measure W would also apply to all geographic areas of unincorporated portions of the county. In letters on the same page, William Kearns echoes Conger's viewpoint that if Measure W passes, El Toro will become "wall-to-wall housing."

Regarding the Dec. 31 ruling by the Supreme Court on the Sullivan vs. Sullivan case, most of the media seems to be collectively missing the main point of the decision. The cause that has been fought for all these years is whether a professional degree or advanced training can be considered community property. The Supreme Court has ruled "no." The reporters' version has been exploiting the sensationalism that Mark Sullivan may have to pay Janet Sullivan an undetermined amount of money.

In physics, we are taught that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In politics, for every action there are intended and unintended consequences. Last summer, Republican presidential contender Sen. Bob Dole publicly returned a $1,000 campaign contribution from the gay Republican Log Cabin Club. Later, Log Cabin Executive Director Rich Tafel disclosed that Dole's campaign staff had solicited the contribution months earlier.

Congratulations on your editorial (Feb. 3) concerning Dr. Stanley van den Noort, dean of the UC Irvine College of Medicine. Your conclusions are completely correct, and I would hope that the new chancellor, Jack W. Peltason, took the time to read your remarks. Van den Noort has been greatly admired and appreciated by all of the medical profession of Orange County, and he has been a patient advocate at all times. It will be impossible to replace the dean with someone who has such a great knowledge of his fellow man, anticipation of the future and conviction to fight for what he thinks is right.

Not only was the Orange County Board of Supervisors' move away from its longstanding policy of encouraging development of public local parks shortsighted, it also was tragic and ironic. The board is keenly aware of the shortage of park-development funds. But for the lack of initiative on the part of Supervisor Thomas Riley, the people of Orange County would now be enjoying 3,000 acres of open space maintained by the state. Specifically, the state was willing to accept the Aliso portion of the greenbelt and incorporate the canyon into the state park system by joining Aliso Canyon to Crystal Cove State Park via Laurel Canyon and the Irvine coastal open space lands.

A Times editorial on Feb. 3 identified housing and transportation as the major problems in Orange County but failed to correctly recognize the relationship between the two. The editorial proposes that county leaders get busy to provide "enough housing and transportation to keep a large and diversified pool of labor." Many residents would argue that the county's 2.1-million population constitutes an enormous work force in proportion to the county's physical dimensions, and that this is precisely the cause of the county's transportation woes--not to mention inadequate airport and jail facilities.

I have noted with interest the Orange County Board of Supervisors' decision to support the use of Ontario International Airport to relieve congestion at John Wayne Airport. It is clear that the northeast portion of Orange County falls within the Ontario market area. However, it is equally clear that the large remaining portion of Orange County certainly would find Ontario far less convenient than John Wayne. While I recognize that the supervisors have had difficulty dealing with the use of John Wayne Airport, it is also just as true that the various government officials have had an equally difficult time working out programs to maintain the future viability of Ontario.

Re "Read the Fine Print, Then Vote 'No,'" (Orange County Commentary, Jan. 27): Shirley Conger writes that as a result of Measure W, the 4,700-acre park won't really be a park at all, but rather be razed and developed. Conger disingenuously quotes a section of Measure W that simply reiterates existing county law and is not part of changes proposed by the measure to imply that Measure W would also apply to all geographic areas of unincorporated portions of the county. In letters on the same page, William Kearns echoes Conger's viewpoint that if Measure W passes, El Toro will become "wall-to-wall housing."

Orange County Superior Court Judge Leonard McBride made headlines last Tuesday, but he doesn't think he did anything any other judge wouldn't--or shouldn't--do. In what many court observers view as an unusual action, attorneys waived the penalty phase of a murder trial after McBride said he didn't think the convicted killer deserved the death sentence.

"We are unable institutionally to do what has to be done." That statement in March, 1992, by then-Sen. Warren Rudman (R--N.H.), in announcing his retirement, got my attention. He was referring to Congress' inability to address what he saw as the overriding issue: successive annual federal deficits of more than $300 billion, piling up a federal debt of more than $4 trillion--and now nearly $5 trillion.

Planning by ballot box is unwise. Advocacy groups distort evidence, overlook crucial effects and ignore alternatives. Measure A suffered all these defects. It narrowly passed last year and requires a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Planning is based on flawed economic assumptions and mistakenly focused upon an airport while neglecting options that could produce more jobs with fewer undesirable side effects.

During the week that Jews were reading the portion in the Torah that introduces the biblical patriarch Yitzhak, or Isaac, the Jewish people and the world bade farewell to the Yitzhak of our time, a patriarch of modern Israel. In March of 1992, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin was in the midst of the campaign to regain the leadership of the Jewish state. Amazingly, he accepted my invitation to address my congregation in Newport Beach and flew from Jerusalem for that event.

This week, people throughout Orange County are celebrating public education. It's American Education Week, a time each year when we reaffirm our democracy's commitment to affording every child--regardless of his or her special needs, gender, race, ethnicity, religion or wealth--equal opportunity to benefit from a free, public education.

As a longtime resident of Orange County and as a local elected official, I would be the last person to advocate or defend taxation or fee increases that would impact the pockets of my city's residents. But in life, there are always two sides to any story, and, of course, there is another side to this story that is of interest to cities across Orange County.

Irvine residents should take a special pride in UC Irvine scientist Sherwood Rowland's winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Not only is Rowland one of their own, but their city government played a seminal role in drawing global attention to the environmental hazards caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which he discovered 20 years ago. In 1989, long before saving the ozone layer became fashionable, Irvine became the first city in the world to adopt an ordinance restricting the release of CFCs into the atmosphere.

Under the pressures of a state legislative adjournment deadline, Orange County moved from rejection of Measure R to reluctant acceptance of a financially shaky bankruptcy plan that finds pots of gold in imported garbage, in diverted transportation funds and in the unpredictable outcome of one or more lawsuits. At the same time, like knights in search of the Holy Grail, we look for guaranteed salvation of a different sort in the restructuring of county government. Can it be that there is no simple solution to a problem that is at once more fundamental and more complex than we're ready to admit?

Orange County may look as if it's wealthy, talk as if it's wealthy and, at times, act as if it's wealthy. But take a closer look under the wrapping and you'll find a community replete with average people just trying to get by. Among them are Orange County's senior citizens striving to live out their "golden years" in a climate of high costs, reduced services and great uncertainty about the future--particularly in the wake of the recent bankruptcy.