Assessing Views of Taxes, Quality Education and Protest

Modern public schools frequently are criticized for failing to teach values and proper codes of conduct. Parents and schools in the “good old days,” we’re told, effectively taught the “three Rs”--reading, ‘riting, and respect.

The adult, largely senior-citizen crowd that turned out at the July 25 public hearing to voice their objections to the proposed property tax assessment for schools in the Huntington Beach, Ocean View and Westminster districts (“1,000 Residents Protest Proposed Fee for School Repairs,” July 26) seems to belie this characterization of “the older generation” as having learned their “lessons.”

Their embarrassing behavior as they jeered and taunted those who attempted to speak in favor of the tax exposed a segment of the adult population that failed miserably to learn the fundamental lessons of good citizenship, let alone the rudiments of courteous conduct.

We settle our disagreements in a democracy at the ballot box rather than by intimidating our opponents into silence. Apparently, many of the people at the July 25 meeting were absent when the teacher taught the “third R” for “respect.”

LORRAINE GAYER, Huntington Beach