Environment, schools need financial support Re:...

Environment, schools need financial support

Re: “Schools deserve upgrades before beach deserves sand,”

(Mailbag, Dec. 26).

Yes. Our young people of today and those to come need new and

upgraded educational facilities. It’s ridiculous that our schools

rank so poorly when we (California) are the fifth largest economy in

the world.

But why on Earth do you want to improve schools at the expense of

the environment? Do you want well-educated children to have to live

in an environmental wasteland? First, it’s the beaches, and then it’s

the wetlands and then the forests. This short-sighted

one-or-the-other thinking is unnecessary.

We must demand both. We should not be held hostage by energy

indiscretions that were artificial to begin with. So, Gov. Gray

Davis, hear this: We want improved education and continued

environmental awareness. How do we do this? How about an additional

state gasoline tax? I suspect that most of us with children (or

nieces or nephews) would agree that some form of taxation is better

than major cuts in education and other services.

J.B. LITVAK

Costa Mesa

Take a look at Ellis’ relationship to council

Re: Newport Beach City Councilmen and their relationship with Dave

Ellis.

Far more interesting than the nonsense regarding phone calls would

be an investigation into the hiring of Ellis to help run the

campaigns of five of the current councilmen. This would be especially

interesting in light of the windfall Ellis received from the Newport

Beach taxpayers under the guise of subsidizing the Airport Working

Group. I believe his “take” was $450,000. Let’s see some canceled

personal checks from the aforementioned councilmen to Ellis for his

services. After all, it was these very same councilmen who voted the

money to Ellis, if only indirectly.

Some canceled checks, please gentlemen.

RICHARD SPEHN

Corona del Mar

One-sided teaching

will harm students

Joe Robinson, a history teacher at Newport Harbor High School,

wrote a letter to the Daily Pilot that alarmed me (“Union obviously

not that powerful,” Mailbag, Jan. 1). In his zeal to defend the

teachers’ union, he unintentionally enforced what some have claimed:

that public schools have begun to look too much like liberal

laboratories that discredit the religion taught in many of our homes.

Robinson’s letter passionately and in great length gave examples

of what he teaches his students regarding men in past centuries who

perpetrated horror in the name of Christianity. Based on his letter,

I doubt that he balanced that grim information with facts I was

taught in the classroom 40 years ago: that such atrocities were

perpetrated by a few power-hungry opportunists who would have used

any “cause” or “excuse” to accomplish their self-seeking goals and

satisfy their warped minds, and that certainly did not represent

Christ and his teachings. Sadly, the isolated examples do allow

anti-Christian fodder that can poison fertile minds.

Fortunately, my generation had the advantage of a thorough

education and was also taught about the enormous number of Christians

who became great leaders, such as our country’s forefathers, whose

unselfish accomplishments have proven beneficial throughout the

centuries.

When teachers promote a one-sided, extremely negative slant on

Christianity, it causes confusion with some teenagers, resulting in a

rebellious attitude against the church, its teachers and even

parents. Unfortunately, the end result of that rebellion can be

immorality, violence and blatant disobedience to all authority, which

ultimately can destroy lives as easily as any Crusader ever did.

JEAN NICHOLSON

Newport Beach

Trash pick-up a loud problem on Balboa

As I write this letter, I am reflecting on the many, many times I

have called, written and talked to members of our Newport Beach city

government and workers at City Hall.

My concern is the huge garbage trucks (some the length of our

house) that are coming onto Balboa Island to pick up commercial

trash.

I realize this trash pick-up is a necessary thing, and I don’t

fault the trash collectors. I am, however, puzzled as to why it has

to be done by such enormous machines.

As the trucks are picking up trash bins (there are sometimes three

or four trucks a day picking up four to five bins each), there are

people walking by, which is a safety issue. They are very close to

the houses, block traffic, make horrific noise, shake foundations of

houses, leave dirt and filth behind and just do not belong in a

small, residential area.

It seems that using our municipal trash trucks and paying the city

for the extra pick-up would add to the Newport Beach treasury and

benefit our Balboa Island community, as well.

Hopefully, someone on our City Council will review the problem.

JUDY JONES

Balboa Island