Montessori teacher deserves the attention Our...

Montessori teacher deserves the attention

Our family was so pleased to see the front-page article honoring

the 25-year teaching career of DeLores Sanfelice at Montessori Harbor

Mesa School in Costa Mesa (“Quarter-century down,� Sept. 2). Thank

you for giving this gifted teacher from a private educational

institution the attention.

Miss DeLores taught our oldest, Sarah, during a portion of her

grade school years. We still talk about the wonderful commitment and

connection Miss DeLores had with our daughter and her other pupils.

Miss DeLores has been a gift to hundreds of young people and their

parents. We want to wish her a well-deserved and fulfilling

retirement.

THE JOHN M. W.

MOORLACH FAMILY

Costa Mesa

Lesbians should have gone a different way

The Costa Mesa “Dyke March� matched the weather -- both were

drizzly disappointments. I went to find out how lesbians thought such

an event would “empower� them (“Group hopes rally empowers lesbians,�

Aug. 16). I left more confused than ever.

Maybe a better tactic for homosexuals might be to rely on people

judging them on their individual gifts and merits. I think most of us

prefer that to an “in your face� group approach. Getting to know,

appreciate and then respect an individual homosexual does more to

promote the homosexual cause than a group of “dykes� demanding it.

DONNA STEWERT

Costa Mesa

Artist should have simply backed down

I’d like to comment on the Costa Mesa artist versus Diedrich

Coffee House article (“Complaint filed against Costa Mesa Police,�

Sept. 6). With so many opinions of what went on, it’s difficult to

figure out what really took place.

However, I feel that things would not have escalated if the

artist, Dougherty, would have used some common sense and simply

walked away by saying that there is some miscommunication here

between myself and Martin Diedrich that needs to be sorted out.

He should have realized that if the manager of the shop had no

knowledge of his “agreement� with Martin, then he should have backed

off. Period, end of incident. But he continued to push his

“agreement,� police were called, ending in a mess.

E. MARCYAN

Orange

Candidate receives unfair comparisons

In his letter about election choices (Mailbag, “Election choices

are easy, now just make them,� Sept. 5), Billy Folsom compares video

store employee and no-planning Planning Commission member Bill

Perkins to Colin Powell and Dana Rohrabacher.

Good grief.

When Perkins ran for the Costa Mesa City Council last time, he

came in a deserved dead last in a field of 11 candidates. His

campaign consisted, as far as I could tell, of Perkins looking

confused and telling people that he liked baseball and that “There is

no ‘I’ in team.�

During his time on the Planning Commission, Perkins distinguished

himself by saying, on one occasion, that he didn’t know how to vote

on something, so he would vote the way fellow Planning Commissioner

Bruce Garlich voted.

Good grief.

Also, while on the Planning Commission, Perkins has taken

donations of $249 from IKEA and $249 from the Segerstrom Co. as well

as donations from others who have appeared before the commission.

Why such an odd dollar amount of $249? I haven’t asked Perkins

about this, but the answer may lie in provisions of Government Code

Section 84308 that say, in simplest terms, that an official, such as

Perkins, must recuse himself and/or do certain other things if he is,

or is about to, or has heard a matter from an applicant who has given

him $250 or more. Perhaps we should praise Perkins for his honesty.

After all, Perkins didn’t take $250. He only took $249.

With the above as a little background, I found it interesting that

a letter writer would compare Perkins to the likes of Powell and

Rohrabacher. Then I realized the letter writer was named Folsom.

I wonder. Could this be the same Billy Folsom who is Bill Perkins’

campaign manager? Perhaps the Pilot knows since the newspaper ran a

full-page spread on a Billy Folsom recently (Q & A, “A freedom-loving

resident,� Aug. 4).

MARTIN MILLARD

Costa Mesa

Editor’s note: Yes it is the same Billy Folsom and we should have

pointed that out.