Irvine’s Ordinance on Human Rights

Thank you for covering Irvine’s human rights ordinance in last Sunday’s Orange County section.

There will be, no doubt, some reactionary nitwits who will attempt to justify the dim-witted positions of Congressmen Robert Dornan and William Dannemeyer, who oppose the ordinance because it grants equal rights to gays. That whole fellowship can claim the right to stand alongside other great gay-bashers in history like Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering.

Irvine City Council member Ed Dornan (no relation) had it right when he accused Dornan and Dannemeyer of a “skinhead mentality.” Thank goodness there is at least one elected leader in Orange County who has the courage to confront the beast head on.

In these trying times it comes as no comfort to admit that Orange County has more than its fair share of racists, “homophobes” and skinheads in neckties. But if we don’t summon our own courage and support the rights of others, we might very well find ourselves echoing the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller:

“In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

ERIC HOLTZ

Irvine