Mailbag: Heroes worth honoring? Not necessarily

I read with interest the article about state Assemblyman Matt Harper’s grandstanding ploy to honor John Wayne (“Harper’s day for ‘Duke’ nixed,” May 5).

This is typical election-year theatrics. Harper (R-Huntington Beach) is running for reelection and is being challenged by a Republican, Katherine Daigle, and a Democrat, Karina Onofre. Both may be citing Harper’s lack of accomplishment in Sacramento as the reason for this ploy.

It brings to mind then-Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva’s failed attempt in 2004 at renaming Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley in honor of Ronald Reagan. Both of these ploys showed the tone-deaf insensitivity of the officeholders to the famous actors’ flaws and the push-back to this overt form of political grandstanding.

Doubtless, both Silva and Harper would see nothing wrong with these moves from their ideological perspective. But the public does. This is something that partisan politicians from behind the Orange Curtain must realize. Their heroes are not necessarily our heroes.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach