Council decision not as tough as it seems

HUMBERTO CASPA

Tonight our Costa Mesa political leaders have a last chance to hear

the Job Center issue.

Given the political implications, and because the issue carries

unpalatable ingredients, which could put Costa Mesa in the national

spotlight, the City Council will have a tough time deciding which way

to go.

However, settling on what road to take shouldn’t be as difficult

as it appears. Our representatives must decide whether they want to

embrace our democratic institutions, freedom and a pluralistic

community, or surrender to the backward ideals of those who want to

close the center because it’s used largely by minority groups.

From the outset, opponents of the Job Center have tacitly tried to

convince the community that the center’s continued existence is bad

for Costa Mesa. They spent enormous resources, time and energy

diverting the real issues surrounding the Job Center.

In numerous letters to the Daily Pilot and other local newspapers,

those opponents mocked supporters of the Job Center as improvement

obstructionists, government zealots and anti-open market.

This is a clever way of doing politics, but the Costa Mesa

community is neither naive nor foolish enough to follow these

opponents’ ill-conceived criticism without looking into their inner

circles and getting to know their agenda, goals and projects within

the community.

In order to understand the essence of these individuals, one must

not rely on what they write in the local newspapers or just listen to

what they say at the council meetings.

One of the proponents of closing the job center is M. H. Millard,

a local city hall activist.

What concerns me is that Millard doesn’t just write letters to the

editor here in the Daily Pilot. He is a featured writer on a website

known as New Nation News, an online white supremacist site that

starts its front page with the quote: “For a white minority in a

colored world.”

To say the least, the ideas of the individuals who write for

websites like these often coincide with views championed by former

presidential candidate and Ku Klux Klan member David Duke and other

radical iconoclasts promoting hate and racial intolerance.

Millard himself, in his writings, espouses a so-called

social-Darwinist evolutionary theory, which sustains social

stratification based on genetic differences.

No ethnic integration fits within this social structure, not only

socially but also biologically.

In our country, particularly in a pluralistic city as that of

Costa Mesa, where many ethnic groups comprise the larger community,

this idea of excluding other ethnicities or blaming them for all the

city’s problems is completely out of touch with reality. Yet, some

are keen to embrace it, eager to build it, and our city might have

become a place to start this intolerant undertaking.

Consequently, not only the closure of the Job Center should be

questioned by the community, but also a portion of the city-approved

plans by the Westside Revitalization Oversight Committee, a group of

citizens who made recommendations for the improvement of Westside

Costa Mesa.

.

The saddest part of this issue is that the credibility of those

Westside residents, whose concerns about the Job Center are genuine

and legitimate, has already been diminished. Unfortunately, I worry

that those with extremist views -- and Millard was a member of that

committee -- may have hijacked their agenda and used it for their own

selfish interest.

However, we must not fall into desperation.

In deep troubles, there is always a place to get up. Councilwoman

Katrina Foley has come up with an elaborate and comprehensive plan to

make the Job Center into a better facility. It would not only help

the people looking for jobs but also residents living in the nearby

areas.

I feel that the rest of the members of the council ought to

embrace Foley’s ideas. Our city needs a respite; we need to heal as a

community.

Although we may not agree with those who have extreme ideas, we

should be open to listen to their voices carefully because we are a

free society.

However, we must never let these individuals determine the road we

take as a community. Their plans are simply not welcomed in a

civilized and progressive society like Costa Mesa.

* HUMBERTO CASPA is a Costa Mesa resident and bilingual writer. He

can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].