Dissident Views on How the Other Half Lives in Newport
It’s always flattering to be mentioned in another publication, regardless of the reason. “As long as they spell your name right, sweetheart,” my agent says. All right, I don’t have an agent, but that’s the way they talk.
I’ve been in the proverbial doghouse with many Newport Beach residents since a column a few weeks ago, written in the wake of the various local scandals that hit the city in 1992. (By the way, if you’re ever going to be in the doghouse, Newport is as good as it gets: suede chew toys, Evian water in the dish, framed pictures of show-business dogs on the shelves).
Anyway, the column quoted a 35-year Newport Beach resident who believes the city’s materialistic bent directly led to its civic corruption. “It’s a city of liars,” he said. “We’re falsifiers of reality. We falsify the truth, which is how money is made. . . . We thrive on the lie, we thrive on that which is false. That’s how we accumulate most of the money in Newport Beach.”
My ever-sharp antennae told me that column might not get big laughs at the Balboa Bay Club, but I turned the man loose because he was extremely articulate, had given the subject much thought and seemed to score close enough to the bull’s-eye to deserve the microphone.
I did have pangs, however, about the tarring of the entire city. In that spirit, I turn the mike over today to some counterpunchers, leading off with David Carmichael, chairman of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce and who was kind enough to mention me in his February column.
Entitled “Will the Real Newport Beach . . . Please Stand Up,” Carmichael writes that “articles that over-generalize like this stir me up. Based on the misdeeds of only a handful, the author calls into question the moral fiber and values of our entire population. I’d like to sit down with Mr. Parsons and his unnamed source and point out some of the positives they neglected in their zeal to dish out bad news.”
Carmichael cites a new library under construction, helped by private donations that include more than 300 families who gave $1,000 or more. “All this for a place to keep books and other media that record our civilization,” Carmichael writes. “This sounds like a citizenry with its values straight to me, not the sick, idle rich.”
Carmichael goes on to say: “I do not believe our community’s heroes are a collection of fast-buck artists. I think Mr. Parsons and his ilk should quit looking through the wrong end of the binoculars and get acquainted with some of the real people here. . . . Mr. Parsons and friend can look for them in churches and temples on the weekends. They are doing the best thing they can for their kids--whether they are in preschool or college. They are operating businesses serving visitors and residents. Some are enjoying retirement. Others are holding down jobs here or a commute away. Many are found taking a walk on the beach or a stroll around Balboa Island. They are people of substance--monetary and otherwise.”
Carmichael concluded: “The point here is the whole city doesn’t deserve a bad rap for the misdeeds of a few criminals. Yes, the guilty should be punished and problems dealt with and corrected. Our elected officials are doing that. However, it’s journalistic myopia to espouse the view that the entire population of over 68,000 people in Newport Beach is in a state of moral decay.”
Carmichael’s commentary echoed the thoughts of many Newport Beach letter-writers, including longtime resident Joanne Reynolds, who decorated a hard-hitting rebuttal with this flowery opening line: “Beware the glittering generality, for it doth lead a foolish journalist astray and seduce him so that he loseth his credibility.”
Phil Tozer wrote: “We do have a lot of conspicuous consumption, and a lot of the mercenary, self-serving people that he (the subject of the first column) describes. However, in no way are they typical of the hard-working, honest, community-oriented vast majority of people who make up Newport Beach.”
Mr. Tozer concluded by saying: “Please go find your philosopher friend, buy him a couple of martinis and tell him to lighten up a bit. You might also tell him he has been hanging out with the wrong crowd.”
Cease-fire declared.
No community likes to be stereotyped, and it was interesting to read the impassioned letters from the Newport Beach citizens who felt their town had been unfairly portrayed.
It reminded me a lot of the mail from Santa Ana residents whenever someone stereotypes their town.
