HEY WESTSIDE, HOW DO YOU LIKE BEING CALLED A LATINO BARRIO?
The Return to Reason Daily Pilot is carrying a puff piece on Humberto Caspa today written by Alan Blank. LINK
Say, did we mention that Blank is part of a family of Return to Reasoners and that Return to Reason has many members who want a job center and who don't want ICE to arrest criminals, and...well, you get the picture. But, I digress.
Blank tells us that Caspa is an adjunct political science professor at UCI. "Adjunct," in the college context, usually means part time. As far as we can tell from UCI's Website, the only thing that Caspa teaches is a one hour course on Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6 pm listed as "Pol Sci 129D Orange County Community Politics." LINK
According to the course description, Caspa gives special emphasis to Costa Mesa. For some reason, UCI hasn't bothered to put Caspa's name in the faculty directory. LINK
Readers, who may recall that Caspa wrote a boring and short lived column in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot a couple of years ago, may be scratching their heads and wondering why UCI or anyone else would think Caspa knows anything about Costa Mesa politics, and why the Return to Reason Daily Pilot bothered wasting space on Blank's puff piece.
Well, as far as the Return to Reason Daily Pilot's motivation goes, it seems that Caspa has written a book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio," (we kid you not, that's the title) and he's been sending out advance copies to people he evidently considers to be pals at the local newspapers in a transparent effort to promote and gin up interest and sales.
Apparently, Caspa's Latino Barrio is the Westside, or maybe he means the whole city of Costa Mesa is the Latino Barrio because he apparently also writes about Paularino Park. Then again, maybe he doesn't know that Paularino Park isn't on the Westside.
A PHONE CALL FROM THE OC REGISTER
We received a phone call and an email from illegal alien friendly Yvette Cabrera at the Register yesterday and she wanted us to comment on Caspa's book. In as much as we haven't seen the book and won't bother buying or reading it--since, as far as we're concerned, this guy has nothing interesting to say and just pushes an agenda--we told her we couldn't comment on something we hadn't even seen.
But, she persisted. So, we asked her to email over whatever parts of the book she wanted our comments on.
Here, in slightly edited form for clarity, but otherwise in its entirety, is the exchange:
From: Yvette Cabrera, local news columnist
The Orange County Register
To: M. H. Millard
Subject: "Terror in the Latino Barrio"/questions for OC Register column
Yvette Cabrera: Dear Mr. Millard, as you requested, I'm submitting the following excerpts
from the book "Terror in the Latino Barrio" so that you can respond for
the column I'm writing for Thursday's newspaper.
I REPLY: As I said on the phone, I haven't seen the book, so I can't really comment
on it. I am aware of the individual who wrote it though. He wrote a sophomoric column in the Daily Pilot for a short period of time.
YC: In his book, Humberto Caspa writes in a section dealing with Paularino Park that you filed an official complaint with the city manager and requested that signs be posted prohibiting team sports like soccer.
I REPLY: Actually, this was a neighborhood initiative. Paularino Park is one of the smallest parks in the City and has no sports fields. "Park" is too big a word to describe it. The major feature of this bowling alley shaped park is a large central tot lot with sand, swings, slides, etc.
Sports with a lot of running and kicking or throwing balls directly impacted the tot lot and people were afraid to use the park. In addition, many soccer balls were being kicked into the middle
of busy Paularino Ave. and some hit cars. We're lucky that distracted drivers didn't run over some kid.
There were neighborhood meetings with the city, and the people who live in the area asked that the park be made passive so they could use it again without fearing their toddlers would be hurt by running players or balls. [And, if Caspa lived in the area he might have been aware of the community nature of the complaints about the park. However, that apparently wouldn't fit in with his preconceived and incorrect ideas.]
YC, QUOTING CASPA: "Since most users of Paularino Park were ethnic minorities, and because Millard is known for having deep-seated prejudices against anyone who is not White, he asked for a mandatory prohibition that would have virtually denied access to the
park for Latinos and U.S. Latinos."
I REPLY: I don't have any deep seated prejudices against anyone who is not White.
This is absurd. [By the way, most users of Paularino Park were not ethnic minorities.]
Most of my national essays [And, apparently that's what Caspa is reading but not understanding.] deal with the big questions of existence, but not in the dry language of the academy. I try to ask and offer some possible answers to questions such as: Why are we here? Is there a purpose in life? What happens when we die? Why is there such a variety of life? Are we evolving? Are we going to be extinct? I usually present these things a little at a time; sometimes with fiction and sometimes by mixing fiction and non-fiction. I often look for answers to questions about humans by discussing things that may lead to basic principles of life and existence. One example of this was one of my columns on the Haas Avocado.
Again, making Paularino Park safe was a neighborhood initiative. It wasn't just from me at all.
At a neighborhood meeting, the vote of residents was something like all were for a passive park except one individual. Then, the residents asked the City to make the park passive so it could be used for its intended purposes.
The author is leaping to a false conclusion apparently based on his own prejudices and biases. False causality is the term used in logic for what he's doing. Rooster crows and the sun comes up; ergo, the rooster made the sun come up.
YC: Could you discuss your motivation for submitting your complaint and whether the above statement is true?
I REPLY: I don't have much of a memory of all the specifics of the complaint.
When was it sent? [But, I remember that it was to complain about unsafe conditions.]
YC: The book delineates specifics in your complaint, such as "human waste,
broken beer bottles and a strong urine smell" that you found in the park.
I REPLY: Hmmm. Yes, there used to be a covered slide in the park. At least one
kid went down the slide and slid through human feces. And, the sand almost
always reeked of urine.
YC: Could you let me know what evidence you found that these problems were due
to the soccer players?
I REPLY: There is no restroom in this park. The neighborhood had the city remove
it after a rape in or behind the restroom, I believe, and there were frequent reports of drugs, etc.
Some of the soccer players would often arrive in cars to play soccer. This means they didn't have nearby homes with restrooms.
After a couple of hours of play and drinking whatever beverages they had, some needed to
urinate. They could be seen going into the bushes that used to be along the wall.
The feces incident was after a soccer game. When the soccer players were in the park, most other people left. So, one can infer that if they were the only ones there and after they left there were feces in the slide, that there was a good probability that one of them was responsible.
Apart from the feces and urine, there is just no room in that tiny park for mutually exclusive uses such as playing soccer and using the tot lot. Playing intensive running games such as soccer or football in that park would be almost as absurd as playing such games in the middle of the local dog park.
YC: The book also points out that a report submitted by the police department concluded that park rangers found no evidence that the park was being misused nor was it a breeding ground for criminal activity - could you respond to this?
I REPLY: The police report was wrong. The police didn't even inspect the park until several weeks after the feces incident, if I remember correctly.
YC: The book says that you espouse racism and includes this excerpt from your writings in the New Nation News: "U.S. citizen ants are moving out of the state and illegal alien cockroaches from Mexico and points south are moving in. Indeed, the outward migration of citizen ants and the inward migration of illegal alien cockroaches both appear to be speeding up. Los Angeles
now looks more Mexican than many parts of Mexico. The anthill is no longer prosperous. Anthill California has become Cockroach Central." Can you explain what you mean by "cockroach central" and elaborate on what you mean by the "anthill is no longer prosperous."
I REPLY: Metaphors, based on similar metaphors common in Mexican songs and
literature--especially see Mexican author Elena Poniatowski's writings.
Define "racism," and I'll let you know. Does it mean hatred? I don't espouse that. I
espouse the importance of genes, evolution, etc. and I oppose genocide in all its forms.
YC: The book cites other work you've published in the American Patrol ( LINK), including a statement that you wrote that Costa Mesa, particularly the Westside "will never be truly improved until and unless the demographics are improved. Period."
I REPLY: There is too little disposable income generated on the Westside that stays
on the Westside. Demographic reports clearly show this. With so little income, it is difficult to attract a major supermarket which most of the people on the Westside seem to want.
Part of the reason for the lack of disposable income is that there aren't many executive homes to attract and keep an upwardly mobile population. So, we lose them to South County. This problem is exacerbated by the more than 60 acres of view Westside Bluffs that are chock full of
industrial buildings that are mostly owned by people who don't live in Costa Mesa. These industrialists are fighting any changes that would bring in homes with ocean views. With such homes, the Westside would attract a major supermarket and stores that would help the folks who live there. Without such homes, the area remains an industrial area.
Costa Mesa is "designed" backwards. We have our polluting industrial buildings on the best land in the city and the homes are mostly downwind. This impacts the Westside more than any other part of the city. I've reported on cancers in little kids and similar things in the area.
In addition, to serve the industrial Bluffs, a number of slab sided barracks style apartments were built in overly concentrated masses. Over the years, these have become the breeding grounds for crime and gangs. I've suggested that the city should meet its low income housing needs by building modern state of the art low income housing spread throughout the city and thinning
out the older deteriorating apartments.
You might want to visit my blog which is mostly about Costa Mesa and my
opinions relating to the city: http://cmpress.blogspot.com/
Any other questions, let me know. Email works best for me.
M. H. Millard
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
