Mailbag: Orange County supervisor’s case for keeping John Wayne’s name on airport doesn’t fly

In her July 4 letter, Orange County Supervisor and congressional hopeful Michelle Steel says we should turn a blind eye to John Wayne’s self-avowed racism in favor of “viewing the totality” of one’s “actions and contributions.” This is exactly the toxic viewpoint that keeps racism and hatred simmering year after year. So racism is OK if you donate to charity? And demeaning, disrespectful behavior toward one minority group (Black people) is excused if you help another minority group (the Vietnamese)?

Orange County is full of great contributors, philanthropists and heroes from white, black, brown and, in fact, a rainbow of backgrounds. We have no shortage of talent and greatness in the O.C., and therefore, there is no reason to dishonor our airport with the name of a racist.

I’d advocate renaming it after Kobe Bryant, Will Ferrell or Gwen Stefani. None of these legends perpetuates hatred or discrimination, and they better represent the hearts and minds and spirit of contemporary O.C. citizenship.

I hope voters in the November elections look at the “totality” of Supervisor Steel’s contributions and realize there are other candidates who promote unity, economic inclusivity and participation rather than justify someone’s bigotry and hatred.

Roseanne Greenfield
Fountain Valley

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I just finished reading the Mailbag in the July 5 edition of TimesOC. The desire to change the airport’s name from the current one has ebbed and flowed since the name was changed to John Wayne Airport.

My sincere desire is that the airport’s name be returned to Eddie Martin Airport. I believe that was the name when we moved to Orange County in the summer of 1977. Eddie Martin was a key figure in the establishment of the airport nearly a hundred years ago. I cannot recall any controversy attached to Eddie Martin.

Steven Cate
Irvine

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In today’s mail, I received a slick one-pager allegedly from the County of Orange (although it had Supervisor and GOP candidate for Congress Michelle Steel’s name on it) touting the county’s mental health resource and COVID-19 testing locations in my area (Steel’s district). All well and good for us seniors. However, the photo had five seniors (race and gender balanced) side by side with no masks and certainly not from the same household.

While I appreciate the information the mailer contained, I found it ironic that a supervisor who advocated lax use of masks in public, who pushed hard for businesses to reopen without health safeguards, who helped get rid of our county health chief, Dr. Nichole Quick, for bucking Steel’s views on coronavirus protocols, and who fudged COVID-19 recovery data to be now so concerned with senior health (the greatest risk population for both COVID-19 and mental health issues). How disingenuous.

It is clear that Steel cares more about political posturing than preventive protections for her constituents.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

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