LETTERS
Defending Bush
It has become fashionable among left-
wingers, from Al Gore to Gore Vidal, to claim that President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft are turning this country toward despotism.
This is puzzling. This is, after all, the administration that has replaced a regime that used tanks, gas and flame-throwers against women and children.
And that was just on Inauguration Day.
Howard J. Klein
Klein, O’Neill & Singh, LLP
Irvine
El Toro, Cont’d
The impact of the wildfires on
our region prove yet again the enormous value of reusing the air station at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station as an operational airfield. Its location is perfect for stationing firefighting resources (land and air), as well as providing backup runways for MCAS Miramar and Camp Pendleton.
Maybe it’s time for the voters to revisit the old, misguided Measure W that eliminated this opportunity?
Gary Simon
Huntington Beach
There are a myriad of reasons why El Toro should be used as a commercial airport. There are only two reasons why El Toro should not be used as a commercial airport:
& #149; So the spoiled rich people of South Orange County will not have to see airplanes flying over their communities.
& #149; So that certain developers in Orange County can put billions more dollars in their pockets.
El Toro Airport is needed and is safe, and much of the airport infrastructure in already in place. El Toro belongs to all of America, not just Irvine or Orange County.
Bill Turner
Costa Mesa
Manufacturing Jobs
According to a recent survey
by the Orange County Business Council, the percentage of manufacturing jobs in Orange County has decreased from more than 23% in the 1980s to around 15% today. During the same period, the percentage of service-based jobs has increased roughly by the same amount.
Furniture manufacturers are lobbying Congress for restraints against predatory trade practices by the Chinese, which are decimating the U.S. furniture industry.
Nearly all of the Democratic nominees for president are changing their positions on trade to the “fair trade” views of Richard Gephardt.
A similar reassessment by the “mainstream” in the GOP, the U.S. Chamber and other “pro business” interests, is long overdue. While the trend toward “globalization” cannot be reversed, prudent import quotas and other measures to prevent the exodus of manufacturing jobs should once again become a cornerstone of U.S. trade policy.
William M. Crosby
Barnes, Crosby, FitzGerald & Zeman LLP
Irvine
