MAILBAG - Aug. 19, 2006

Mayor’s statements ignore logic, rule of law

Costa Mesa is better than that.

I am so disappointed in the misguided logic Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor has applied in his insensitive and demeaning comments about the drive-by shooting of Aug. 2. As a law enforcement officer and an elected official, he has taken an oath to uphold the laws of this country. One would think that if this is your chosen career, then you would apply the basic rules of law to your logical thought process. The most basic principal is that you must prove, without a reasonable doubt, that there is a connection between an illegal act and the perpetrator. Yet, Mansoor has somehow deliberated and convicted by decision that a drive-by shooting is the result of a job center, soup kitchens, and downscaled rental units.

What twisted logic not based in fact or legal premise could lead an individual to make wholesale, categorical and prejudicial statements?

Mansoor does not represent any of Costa Mesa’s defining values, such as diversity, whether it be in commerce or the freedom to choose to rent shelter or own your home; and a reasonable, balanced decision-making process.

Our city should be lifted up in a positive light. Instead Mansoor can only see dark despair and shame he attributes to a lower economic class of workers and caring compassionate people who serve our community well.

His brand of one-dimensional, homogeneous society does not promote community. Rather, it creates division, fear and resentment. Mansoor has had his 15 minutes of shame, now let’s get back to the business of doing the residents’ business and not promote his seemingly small-minded prejudicial agenda.

There are so many wonderful things that represent the essence of Costa Mesa, and divisive, demeaning comments about who we are as a community need to end.

I pledge to do my best to end this madness in November.

MARK KORANDO

Costa Mesa

Contaminated sand deserves our attention

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

This is in response to an editorial that appeared in the Daily Pilot on Aug. 4, 2006, regarding local beach closings and water quality.A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that in 2005, U.S. beaches experienced 20,397 days of closings and advisories, with 14,602 days (72%) attributed to “unknown sources” of pollution. Increasing evidence is pointing to contaminated beach sand as the likely culprit for unexplained beach closings.

According to studies cited in the Clean Beaches Council report, “State of the Beach: Bacteria and Sand,” bacteria survive in beach sand longer than they do in water. Beach waters become contaminated as they lap across shores rich with bacteria. The report cites a United States Geological Survey study showing that bacteria levels in sand averaged 5 to 10 times higher than adjacent swimming waters.

The thought of “unknown sources” of beach pollution should trouble us all.

Tackling the problem of contaminated sand will help us win the struggle for cleaner beaches.

WALTER MCLEOD

President

Clean Beaches Council