As I write this, I’ve just returned from the annual meeting and dinner of the Airport Working Group, where the featured speaker was Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach. In my column last week, I urged local citizens to attend the meeting, which was public, and suggested that Moorlach — who has consistently supported our efforts to check the expansion of John Wayne airport — would give us “marching orders” to that end.
Well, that isn’t exactly what happened. In a speech that touched down periodically on airport issues amid funny and often insightful insider stories, Moorlach seemed to feel singled out unnecessarily for pressure, once asking: “Why are we whipping up issues when there aren’t any?” He then took this question directly to me and my column last Thursday, saying “What is Joe Bell thinking of?”
I’m grateful to him for the five minutes of fame this provided me and am happy — even if it is redundant — to supply an answer. Joe Bell is thinking that he lucked out in finding the best place in the world to live and that he doesn’t want to be forced to leave it. He is thinking that any more expansion might well push the allowable limit of noise and pollution from John Wayne air traffic to an intolerable level for those of us beneath it. And he is thinking that a growing army of local citizens who also don’t want to be forced to leave this paradise or live here in an increasingly polluted environment are ready to supply the same energy that made it possible for the citizens of south county to kill an El Toro airport. We’re scared.
