READERS RESPOND

AT ISSUE: Some readers, including school board member Wendy Leece,

share their thoughts on Saturday’s Daily Pilot editorial, “Snub of Leece

raises questions.”

Your editorial accusing the Newport-Mesa school board of arrogance by

not selecting Wendy Leece as the board president completely misses the

laser tag. What message are we sending the rest of the world and our

children by having a spokesperson of the board casting doubt on

evolution?

I have no problem with anyone holding a personal belief in the

creation theory, but I do question the wisdom of taking the words in the

Bible totally literally. If the Bible was handwritten by the creator

himself, few would question its literal authenticity. Since its passages

were written and translated by humans over many generations, it is not

totally unreasonable for even the believers to reinterpret its meanings

with new perspective. Otherwise one must hold to the belief that biblical

figures such as Abraham could live to be hundreds of years old.

Although I am far from being a biblical scholar, I can certainly see

that even very basic molecular biology leads us to Earth elements such as

carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. Why can’t we just accept that

these elements and recipe were initially provided by the creator and

thereby allow evolution to cook up the still evolving casserole? A board

member merely reflects the view of a small group of residents, but a

board president represents the whole district. That’s the difference.

JOHN T. CHIU

Newport Beach

As a member of the Westside community, my wife and I fully support

Wendy Leece in her stance as the “minority leader” on the school board.

In fact, here is a reproduction of the letter I forwarded to her

following her snubbing:

Dear Mrs. Leece,

I wanted to write to thank you for your courageous service to the

children of our school district. I read today of your being “passed over”

for a leadership position (Daily Pilot). Don’t let that bother you; you

are in a wonderful position to continue to stand in the gap on our

behalf. Don’t weaken your stance on creationism; it’s truly amazing that

educated leaders continue to stand by the failed theories surrounding

evolutionistic thinking. Stay true to your convictions that morality and

absolutes do exist and are in need of being passed on to each new

generation. Not one opportunity can be wasted to get the message out that

the state legislation and government is working tirelessly to bring about

radical change in our society, and only public officials who actually

fight back with character and conscience will turn the tide back.

Thanks to the Daily Pilot for bringing this story of political

injustice to the fore of the discussion in the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach

area. May it spark a fire in all who read it!

JEFF R. GEOGHAN

Costa Mesa

Your article (“Leece again overlooked for leadership post,” Saturday)

caught my attention. Our recent election fiasco gave evidence that people

in authority have a difficult time separating their ideology from factual

information when rendering decisions that affect those they serve. That

is why I think our community needs to take a closer look at what the

Newport-Mesa school board versus Wendy Leece is all about.

Previous Daily Pilot letters on this issue made it clear the board’s

antagonism with Leece has nothing to do with her intelligence,

personality or dedication to researching issues. It is her conservative

ideas and ideology that annoys or even frightens these moderates and

liberals. That is not a surprise because our public school system has

noticeably changed its philosophical approach to education over the past

40 years. Wendy Leece is fighting to stop that continuing trend, which

includes more federal control, experimental programs, and psychological

education that intrudes on family rights.

Those of us who consider ourselves conservatives and thus embrace the

values, ideology and school system experienced in our youth should be

alarmed. Our present school board is so afraid of what we believe to be

correct they won’t even allow Wendy Leece a position of leadership, let

alone seriously consider her (our) viewpoints. We should keep this in

mind for the next school board election.

BARBARA WHITACRE

Costa Mesa

The Newport-Mesa school board’s decision to snub Wendy Leece strikes

at the heart of what is wrong with our present school system. It has

failed our children and families because its leadership is determined to

follow a proven course of disaster. The few that understand the problems

and could offer wise solutions, like Wendy Leece, are ignored and even

ridiculed. Maybe most telling of all is that our society continues to

elect the same old people year in and year out, even though they are not

successful in achieving the desired goals. The problems will continue

unless the public takes more of an interest and closer look into our

educational system and supports candidates, such as Wendy Leece, who are

not members of the status quo.

DANA OLSON

Costa Mesa