Letters

—Peter A. Ferrara
Paris, France

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Running on Empty.” I didn’t know you guys had a site, and after reading this unveiled liberal and clearly destructive whining, I can say with sincerity that I’m glad I was unaware of you. And, I must say, I will never visit again.

—Jaime Gallegos
Rowland Heights

DEAR EDITOR:

Thanks for Ben Ehrenreich’s article on George W. Bush. Yes, we hear it every day, on every talk show, how much of a bore is Gore. However, the prospect of a yahoo like George W. becoming our president should be terrifying to persons of any intelligence. The potential impact on our judiciary system alone is cause for great alarm. At least the Democrats have a more humane social agenda. Of course, many of us take issue with the global/corporate agenda of both parties.

—Lydia Szamraj
Los Angeles

Another Bush

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Bush’s ‘Little Brown One’” [July 21–27]. So now you have to earn your ethnicity? And all this time I thought that your ethnic background was just something you inherited. But I guess I was all wrong. It’s a badge you must earn, and George P. Bush hasn’t earned it. He didn’t run for the cover of a multicultural, ethnocentric security blanket when he went to college. He hung out and had fun and played pool with . . . those other people. He didn’t sit around whining about his ethnic lot in life, and discussing club dues and elections, and planning Ethnic Food Day at the cafeteria. Loner! Traitor!

—Cullen McGraw
Los Angeles

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

DEAR EDITOR:

“Imagining Times Shills” [OffBeat, July 21–27] chastises L.A. Times book reviewer Jonathan â Kirsch for failing to prominently identify Los Angeles Times Books as the publisher of Imagining Los Angeles. And no wonder — I had to search all the way to the review’s first sentence to find that fact. According to your article, this makes me a “discriminating reader.” (Ordinary readers, who presumably can’t read a whole sentence, may also have seen “THE LOS ANGELES TIMES” on the cover photo accompanying the July 12 review.)

There may be a conflict of interest when reviewers criticize works that are marketed by their employers, but the practice is very commonplace. The L.A. Weekly does it when it sells advertisements for films it reviews.

—Michael Ackerman
San Marino

VAN DE KAMP’S

DEAR EDITOR:

Regarding the article “Turning Up the Heat” by Hope Urban [July 28–August 3]: The issue raised by Mr. John Brunold about the conditions in the currently closed Van de Kamp’s bakery goes to a much bigger issue of worker safety in the movie/video/show-business industry in general. I have heard many stories from friends in that industry of disregard for worker safety, to say nothing of media accounts of the more spectacular instances of accidents on shoots. The industry’s more unscrupulous and desperate elements take advantage of the eagerness of people to work in it and the pressure to “get the shot” at all costs. The general worker-safety issue needs to be addressed, and tearing down historic buildings will have no effect on making safety a bigger priority for some employers.

Mr. Brunold, I am truly sorry you suffered an illness, but tearing down historic buildings will only hurt our city. Enforcing the laws and codes is what is needed. I urge you and everyone else in our city to turn up the heat on the officials, employers, unions and owners responsible for such misdeeds and really help solve these problems. Some of us are working hard at it, and we sure could use some help.

—Miki Jackson
Member, Coalition To Save Van de Kamp’s and the Northeast Los Angeles Community Plan Advisory Committee
Los Angeles

Pearl Jam

DEAR EDITOR:

Thanks for Miles Marshall Lewis’ good article and review of Pearl Jam’s new album [“Midnight Sun,” July 28–August 3]. Glad to see some in the media talking positively about this important band and the work they have done.

—Mike Crawford
Boston, Massachusetts

Potter Web Site

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: your OffBeat item “Hogwarts’ Webmistress” [July 28–August 3]. Thanks so much for the kind write-up. [Harry Potter Web-site creator] Kate Cheney loved it. I thought it was extremely vivid and lively, and captured the whole interview. Kate was especially pleased with “willow-thin 13-year-old with braces on her teeth.”

—Judy Lewis
Philadelphia

Send letters to the editor to: L.A. Weekly, P.O. Box 4315, L.A., CA 90078. Or fax us at (323) 465-3220. Or e-mail us at letters@laweekly.com. Letters, which must be typewritten and include a daytime telephone number for verification, may be edited for purposes of space or clarity.

Tree Topping

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: Sara Catania’s “It’s Not Easy Being Green” [July 28–August 3]. Bravo! I applaud your much-needed exposé of “tree topping.” This information needs to be in the minds of all urban dwellers if we are to see the end of this form of tree mutilation. I am an arborist myself, and find that a great deal of my time involves talking people out of this destructive and unsightly “pruning practice.”