Sadness with joyful understanding –
loss with blissful transformation
my dear friend Philomene Long
passed away night before last.
A sudden event – just a breath away,
but then it always does comes suddenly
however long it takes.
In loving memories time –
Namasté
Hammond
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Dear City Council Members:
For almost 20 years, I have attended meetings where residents have begged elected officials to do something about safety enhancements at Santa Monica Airport. It is not a matter of IF a catastrophic accident will occur…it is a matter of WHEN that catastrophic accident DOES occur.
Local residents to the airport do not want to see our elected officials in front of TV cameras saying how sorry they are WHEN the catastrophic accident happens. Local residents want their elected officials to do something NOW. Please act on airport safety enhancements NOW.
Our neighborhood should not have to live on a wing and a prayer.
Jane Dempsey
Santa Monica
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Of course it would be easier for the FAA to suggest the City of Santa Monica purchase homes at the end of the runway to ensure safety. However, it is not for the safety of the human beings living in those homes, it is for the safety of the aircraft crew. Remember, the FAA is driven by the aviation industry giants.
Residents of Santa Monica, DO’T MISS THE CRITITCAL POINT that was made by the FAA. “Santa Monica Airport is an important aviation reliever airport for Los Angeles International Airport.” Just the mere fact that jet operations have increased so significantly in such a short amount of time should make it abundantly clear where your airport is heading.
Take a hard lesson from those of us who live around Teterboro Airport in NJ (which, by the way, is an “important reliever airport” for Newark/Liberty International). The flights will only increase, the noise and pollution will only increase, and the quality of life will assuredly decrease. Your reliever airport will become more important as the aviation industry giants try to force corporate jet traffic out to the smaller airports, irrespective of the impact on your lives.
Teterboro Airport also does not have the required buffer zone at either end of its runways. It took an aircraft leaving the property and crossing six lanes of traffic to get EMAS barriers. That should never have happened as the residents surrounding the airport were appealing to ALL levels of government to assure us some level of safety since 2003.
FIGHT HARD and get the protection to which you are entitled.
Councilwoman Carol J. Skiba
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
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So Norm Lacy has decided to use the media to assist in his bullying tactics. As a parent of one of the students named in the article (“Samohi, Malibu Question Transfers To Crespi High”), I feel compelled to respond.
My son and I decided he should attend Crespi Carmelite High School because of its smaller class size, Gurian teaching style and Academic Game Plan. Last year, 100 percent of its graduates were accepted to colleges and universities. Also, the Crespi Class of 2007’s academic scholarships outnumbered its athletic scholarships more than 3 to 1. Like many Catholic high schools, Crespi Carmelite offers a holistic model of education that emphasizes the spiritual, intellectual, moral and social development of its students.
I must question Mr. Lacy’s ethics after learning he never forwarded my son’s paperwork to SAMO’s head football and basketball coaches for their review, as per the instructions on the CIF Southern Section website. Both coaches told me they would have signed the forms. Also, Lacy significantly delayed in returning the CIF paperwork to me. Coincidentally (?), the forms were returned to me 1-1/2 days after I emailed the SMMUSD superintendent querying about the holdup.
This is another example of Lacy’s sour grapes attitude, similar to when he was passed over for the head coaching job at Santa Monica High. Lacy’s revenge at that time was to continue teaching at SAMO, but serve as the head football coach at St. Monica’s High School, the cross-town rival.
That being said, leaving Santa Monica High School was a difficult choice. My son and I regard many of its students and their parents as close friends. The coaches who instructed my son were caring and encouraging toward him.
Perhaps Mr. Lacy would like to consider my son’s education as a priority instead of having a tantrum over a boy who has yet to play in a varsity game?
Katherine Mitchell
Santa Monica
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To Publisher Michael Rosenthal:
As a Native American producer and journalist and niece of American Indian Movement cofounder Dennis J. Banks, I beg to differ with your comment contained in this SMM Publisher’s Notebook: smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=6132
Basic research yields the fact that Russell Means is neither a “founder” of AIM – as you published – nor a cofounder of AIM. The movement, founded in Minneapolis, was co-founded by Dennis, Clyde Bellecourt, George Mitchell, Eddie Benton Benai, etc.
Russell Means, a Lakota, came along later, as he himself will attest to. He was on the show when I served as producer-director of “Native America Calling,” so I do know Russ. And while BIA boarding schools, the cause and divorce caused a great deal of multi-generational estrangement in our family, and I was not present when AIM was making so many headlines, I am absolutely certain that Russell Means was not part of the core that co-founded AIM in Minneapolis in 1968.
I did enjoy your comments – and your encouraging perspective – in this column, Mr. Rosenthal, and thank you for your time.
Best,
Wishelle Banks [Anishinabe, AKA Ojibwe/Chippewa]
Member, Leech Lake Reservation, Minnesota
