MAILBAG:

If there is anything that Newport Mesa Unified School District can take away from Flight 1549, it is that practice does really make perfect.

The heroic Captain Sullenberger had 40 years of practice, practice in gliders, practice in safety reliability methods, and thousands of hours of practice in a trainer.

The rest of the crew had hundreds of hours of training which allowed the controlled chaos which followed the water landing, and saved 155 lives. The police and fire boats appeared almost immediately, but so did the New York Ferries. When asked about his part in the event, Vincent Lombardi, captain of the ferry Thomas Jefferson, said they spent hours each week training for all kinds of emergencies, and so when they realized what had happened, the training just took over.

Even though the school district hired a company to train the schools in emergency procedures, and even though there are mandated fire and other emergency drills each month, more training is needed. Monthly 20-minute drills is not enough for children to slip immediately into emergency procedures. We will have an earthquake that is serious enough that on-site consistent and constant training will be needed in advance.

The district should take the clue from this miraculous event, and train and practice, train and practice, and train and practice.

SANDRA ASPER

Newport Beach

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Public needs better education on taxes

On or about Dec. 18 members of the California Legislature entered into a conspiracy to circumvent or evade the California Constitution for an unlawful purpose — to create an illegal tax system.

This is not unlike the effort to circumvent the U.S Constitution in 1937. This was the threat by FDR to pack the Supreme Court because the court had struck down federal programs like Social Security as unconstitutional. The purpose of both is and was to grow the welfare state even if it means evading or circumventing the law.

I followed CBS, NBC, KFI and KNX for five days. There was mention of budget problems and statements from union reps without mention of any legal issues with the budget passed by the Legislature. There were news clips of the governor but not when he referred to possible illegal taxes.

While channel surfing for news regarding a potential huge legal issue, KFI was talking about the Legislature and its plans for a new budget that would not require a two-thirds majority for a tax increase on their news break. I hung around for awhile because they continued to talk for five days. This was more than a simple division between Democrats and Republicans.

There is something seriously wrong when some loud mouth talk show host, that would be John of John and Ken, gives more and better news and interviews than all the other legitimate news outlets.

Is it bias in the media, partisanship, social engineering or plain incompetence? I do not know. What I do know is the public is the loser. We are less informed and more ignorant as a result. Lies of omission are still lies. Most citizens do not have accurate information regarding taxes and need thereof or that we may be $40 billion plus in the hole. That is a pretty deep hole that many do not know about or understand!

AUGUST LIGHTFOOT