Opinion Commentary 4
TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2011
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
What’s the Point?
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David Pisarra
PUBLISHER Ross Furukawa
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ross@smdp.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
It’s a personnel matter Editor:
I’d like to thank the head of the library. I had just heard the director of the Chess Program would not be running the program (“Library drops popular Bloch from chess program,” April 28, page 1). I couldn’t imagine how this could be possible, as the program was perfect. I read the statement of the head of the library and was incensed. I drove down the 405, still angry about what I’d read, thinking about the library head’s answer. My reverie was interrupted by the flashing lights of a CHP cruiser; I glanced at the speedometer. “Oh no, I am doing 95 with a cop behind me, just great.” His siren kept wailing, even after I signaled to the side. Then, something clicked in me and I floored it. He caught up to me in less than 20 seconds. I swerved through traffic, trying to get away from the incessant siren. I dashed down an off-ramp, careening around traffic. I clipped a few, but, what the heck; just collateral damage. I saw kids in the back of a van I’d sideswiped, obviously upset, but healthy enough to cry and scream at me as I sped away. I smelled gasoline, I knew I’d need to switch rides. At a stop, I pulled up behind some old guy in a sedan. I opened his door, tossed him to the curb and sped off. It was exhilarating to have that much power. Pulling onto my street, the swoosh and roar of helicopters interrupted my thrill. There was a road block and sharpshooters on my roof. It was over. I thought about taking off. I was gripped with the same anger I’d experienced when reading about the chess program; filled with the same resentment about the director’s answer. I followed the officers’’ commands. After Miranda, the CHP investigator said to me: “What were you thinking? You sped, you evaded an officer of the law. You menaced other peoples’ lives and property! You hit four cars with kids and fled the scene. You carjacked a senior citizen war hero and abandoned a burning vehicle. Tell me, what’s going on here?” “I can’t,” I said. “Why not,” the cop asked. “It’s a personnel matter.” Wow! Faster than you can say “Jackie Robinson,” choppers split, cars skedaddled and I was left alone in my driveway; until a tow truck showed up with my car, completely repaired with a brand new paint job. I was off the hook, although still angry about chess. I owe the head of the library a “thank you” for using his line, to avoid responsibility for the mayhem I’d caused. I’ve used it several times since. It seems to work best in situations involving municipal management, councils or newspapers. I urge all to appropriate this one-size-fits all excuse, as often as they can. It might catch on. Think of it: Judge: “Charlie Manson, why did you order all those murders?” Charlie: “Sorry, I can’t talk about it, it’s a personnel matter.” Or ... Teacher: “Billy, why isn’t your homework in on time? “Sorry teach, I can’t talk about it, its a personnel matter.” Who knew?
Dr. Manzour Panesh Santa Monica
Dying the slow death WELL, MY CAMPAIGN TO END THE POO
bags seems to have gained enough traction, what with the California Supreme Court upholding Manhattan Beach’s ban on singleuse plastic bags, that I can now move on to other topics. Thanks to the great efforts of men like Kevin McKeown and the rest of the City Council that supported the plastic bag ban, and the Styrofoam ban, we are making progress on helping to clean the planet, or at least our little section of it. And the fight continues. This time the fight is for something greater than gaining the right to vote or eliminating racism. This battle is for hearts and minds, but also for stockholders and pocketbooks. It is for awareness and for concern of the planet. It is a battle literally for our world. Our enemy now is ourselves. We must change. We must see the dangers and the damage that we have done to our planet. It comes in the form of being wasteful of our natural resources, of our dogged determination to have convenience and be “germ-free” in a world that is filled with germs, some good, some bad. In a world where plastic coffee stirrers are used once, then thrown out in the trash to sit in a landfill for a millennium or two, how can we expect there to be anything left for those children that people are so devoted to? Paranoid overprotective mothers use disposable diapers, disposable bottles and raise their children in a plastic encased bubble to protect them from the facts of life, but at the cost of the health of the planet those children are supposed to inherit. I go to the café at the bowling alley and several other restaurants around town that use the single-use creamers; those little plastic cups with metalized paper on the top which creates a safety seal and every time I have to ask myself, where in the planet is this piece of plastic going to end up? I’d like to suggest that the next thing that gets eliminated from our stream of commerce is the plastic stirrer and the single-use coffee creamer. They are both avoidable with great ease. I’d like to see us return to the days of porcelain cups and little metal pitchers that dispense cream. If Starbucks on the Third Street Promenade and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Main Street and Flying
Saucers on Pico Boulevard can all arrange for a thermos of non-fat, half-and-half and soy milk, I see no reason why the restaurants can’t also make alternate arrangements. I know this sounds like a bit of the crazy has infected me, but seriously, we have to think beyond today. The common enemy we need to stop the wars and the political bickering is here. It’s the fight for the planet. It’s taken years to grow from the soapbox of the weird-hair crowd. From Main Street to Wall Street, the message is finally being heard. Decades of work have gone into making “Going Green” an overnight success, and just in time.
I’D LIKE TO SUGGEST THAT THE NEXT THING THAT GETS ELIMINATED FROM OUR STREAM OF COMMERCE IS THE PLASTIC STIRRER AND THE SINGLE-USE COFFEE CREAMER.
Kevin Herrera editor@smdp.com
MANAGING EDITOR Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
STAFF WRITER Ashley Archibald ashley@smdp.com
CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Morgan Genser news@smdp.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bill Bauer, David Pisarra, Meredith Carroll, Jack Neworth, Lloyd Garver, Taylor Van Arsdale, Dane Robert Swanson, Farzad Mashhood, Merv Hecht, Cynthia Citron, Tom Viscount Amanda Cushman, and Phyllis Chavez
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Fabian Lewkowicz
NEWS INTERNS Serli Polatoglu, Colin Newton news@smdp.com
PHOTOGRAPHY INTERN Ray Solano news@smdp.com
Stephanie Salvatore news@smdp.com
VICE PRESIDENT–BUSINESS OPERATIONS Rob Schwenker
The campaigns are working because I’ve been thinking about things like going vegetarian, or at least pescatarian. The PETA displays on the promenade on Friday nights are having an impact on me. The Sea Shepherd campaign that alerts us to the lies the Japanese and Norwegians tell of their “scientific study” of whales has made me aware of the issue and that they are the last two countries who have “commercial” whaling. Changing hearts and minds takes time and concerted effort. The win in the Supreme Court of an issue that a local council member championed for years reminds me that the wheels of justice grind agonizingly slow, but they do grind. DAVID PISARRA is a family law attorney focusing on father’s rights and men’s Issues in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He can be reached at dpisarra@pisarra.com or (310) 664-9969.
schwenker@smdp.com
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