Teacher exemplifies the Wooden pyramid Regarding the...

Teacher exemplifies

the Wooden pyramid

Regarding the Jan. 5 Daily Pilot story, “Wooden blocks inspire

students,” I wasn’t surprised to learn that it was third-grade

teacher Pat McLaughlin who brought former UCLA coach John Wooden’s

Pyramid of Success to Mariners Elementary School.

McLaughlin has always promoted Wooden’s key principles of hard

work, self control and team spirit in her classes. She taught my son

three years ago, and my daughter is currently in her third-grade

class. McLaughlin begins every school day by leading her class in a

patriotic song. She exhibits boundless energy and enthusiasm for

every subject she teaches, and she challenges every student to work

toward their personal best. She is a teacher who really makes a

difference, and one that my children will always remember.

POITA CERNIUS

Newport Beach

Reserve judgment for God

Regarding the Daily Pilot’s Tuesday story, “Parents clash over

students’ enrollment.” Eighteen parents are demanding that St. John

the Baptist School only accept children of parents who have signed a

document pledging to live by Catholic doctrine. The boys are

kindergarten age, their parents are practicing Catholics, but

apparently they don’t practice in accordance to these 18 parents. I

have an idea. Why don’t they let the good Lord sort this out and

thank goodness these kids have the opportunity of having loving

parents who want to expose them to a faith-based upbringing.

What happened to the lessons I learned while growing up in the

Catholic church, such as tolerance, acceptance and letting the man

above do the judging.

JULI KOCH

Newport Beach

St. John flap shows

bigotry ‘alive and well’

Kudos to St. John’s parent, John Stephens, who said, “ ... I just

think that most parents in the school, if not all of them, are

sinners in a lot of ways.”

I am appalled that members of a religious group that didn’t bother

to discover or react responsibly to having their children molested by

priests, have their shorts all puckered up over children whose

parents happen to be gay attending school with their children.

I know these children and their parents and know them to be

well-educated, longtime Costa Mesa residents who own a very nice home

and are involved in and concerned with their community. They are very

well-liked and respected by their neighbors and are better parents

than most I have been around recently. These children are better

behaved than most. They are quite normal in every way -- as are their

parents!

Some insane and ludicrous things have come up in this city, but

this is a clear demonstration that bigotry is alive and well and

thriving here in the City of the Arts! Will man’s inhumanity to man

ever end? Will we ever like or dislike people based on how they

behave and interact with others, or will it always be the color of

their skin, their nationality, their sexual preference or other

insignificant happenstances?

These are good people and good children, who already have their

tickets to heaven punched. Perhaps we should be praying for the 18

bigoted, self-righteous and intolerant parents at St. John’s who

think these kids don’t deserve the same things their kids deserve.

SHERRY SUTTON

Costa Mesa

Council members need

to stop the bickering

Concerning the Costa Mesa City Council meeting of Monday and the

election of a mayor and vice mayor, as a female resident of Costa

Mesa, I am disgusted by our two female council members. Such whining,

backbiting and hostility as we saw on Monday night are a great

disappointment to our fair city. Our current mayor and mayor pro-tem

are the only members of the City Council who were not newly elected

to the council. Must I remind our “ladies” of the council that there

is no “I” in team. Quit crabbing and start working together girls --

and grow up!

M. K. Grove

Costa Mesa

Cities should come together for tsunami victims

Because we live along the coast, it is possible -- although not

very likely -- a devastating tsunami could hit us, too, someday. That

said, I encourage the mayors of San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Newport

Beach and Huntington Beach to establish a special “beach cities

relief fund” for the victims of the recent tidal waves in Sri Lanka,

Thailand and other Asian nations. If former presidents Bush and

Clinton can head up a national effort, surely local elected officials

along the Orange County coastline can do their part, too.

DENNY FREIDENRICH

Laguna Beach