LETTERS

A dolled-up corpse

I appreciate your continuing to cover the story of the Raymond Theatre. Unfortunately, Joe Piasecki (“Fin” Sept. 15) has obviously just recently checked in to this story and misses a few vital historical aspects. The actions of the Buchanans would be highly laudable under many circumstances — developers who are going to great lengths to preserve what historic fabric they can from a building that otherwise had no future.

However, what needs to be remembered is that the Buchanans inherited a theater that was almost entirely restored and then destroyed it through willful neglect.   

Demolition by neglect is a clever and tragic crime, and to see it rewarded in this fashion is infuriating.  

Over the 20 years that they've been trying to convert this building into offices, apartments, or anything they could extract money from, they've sold the seats at $1 a pop, sold the organ to a theater in Chicago and left louvers open on the roof to allow rain to enter and soak the stage. They’ve played a cat-and-mouse game with any parties interested in purchasing and reopening the theater as a concert venue, either by not returning calls or by continuously jacking up the price of the theater after each offer — all the while appealing to the City Council that they were left holding a white elephant that was in such seriously declining condition that its only future was adaptive reuse.   

Please don't forget that the City Council overturned the rulings of its own Planning, Historic Preservation and Design commissions to give the Buchanans the gift of permission to do what they wished with the building — the same council members who are now under investigation for accepting monies from the Buchanans under the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.  

The Buchanans are smiling in your pictures for a reason. In return for brushing up the façade, they're allowed to dissect and dismember a protected community asset and pocket millions of dollars in profits. By some estimates, the sudden bump from “historic property" to “mixed-use retail” has turned their white elephant into something triple its previous value. And we, the citizens of Pasadena, lose a cultural pearl.

So, yes, the facade of the Raymond will be restored to its original glory, just as a body is made to look as attractive as possible for the funeral.

MEL GURNEY
PASADENA

Your editorial (“Impeach Bush Now,” Sept. 15) ran in our local Ventura County Reporter.
Fabulous!

I have sent the following letter to every Democratic senator this week:

“John Conyers seems to be the only representative who still has a spine. I am appalled at what the Dems have let this greedy, lying, unethical administration get away with in the continual destruction and degradation of this country.

“It is reprehensible to me — despite all the lies from this administration (the war, air quality in New York after 9/11, the costs of the Medicare prescription bill, the ‘Clean Air’ and ‘Clean Water’ acts); all the degradation of our name and reputation worldwide; all the carnage they have wreaked in the Middle East; all the ineptitude (Katrina, the economy, Halliburton); and all the dismantling of our environmental protections and associated threats to our health — that no one else has called for impeachment proceedings.

“These greedy, power-hungry, nepotistic, morally bankrupt people will not change, and we can’t take three more years of this.

“Our environment, our security, our economy and our very lives hang in the balance. Please, for the love of this country and the safety of the world, start impeachment proceedings.

“What the hell are you people waiting for? Had it been Clinton, the other side would have impeached, tarred, feathered, drawn and quartered and then tied him to the tracks long before now.

“Mr. Conyers has my utmost respect. The rest of you will drive Dems to the Green Party. I have never seen such total incompetence.”

I have just had it. It was such a pleasure to see your editorial. Keep it up. Thank you.

LINDA LIVINGSTON
VIA EMAIL

From day one, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made the wrong choices for the people of California. He stormed into Sacramento, broom in hand, claiming he was going to sweep special interests out of politics and clean up the capital, and even had the gall to state that he had enough of his “own money” and wouldn't need to take campaign contributions like other politicians.  

But it's really the people of California who have been taken. With his snake-oil salesman approach and his bag of Hollywood stunts and gimmicks, Schwarzenegger has really pulled a fast one — not just on the people who voted for him, but on all Californians who relied on this governor to stick to his word, especially on education.

Rather than actually govern and work with the Legislature, as countless governors before him have, he embarked on a year-round campaign for his own personal and special interest agenda.

And now, with his calling of this $80 million special election, he will force our counties, cities and communities to cut back on services that we all rely on, like police, firefighters and teachers.  

So much for being the people’s governor.

JACKIE BOUCHER
NORTH HOLLYWOOD

It's time to evict the United Nations from New York City!

The United States has just given the UN a $1.2 billion, 30-year loan to renovate the United Nations building in New York.

Have we gone crazy?

Donald Trump offered to do it for about half this amount. But even at that price, I say it's not worth it. After all, it's you, me and your neighbors who are being asked to finance it.

I have a better idea.

There is no need to renovate the UN. Let's just politely ask this corrupt, wasteful international organization, full of fat-cat diplomats, to leave New York City and the United States.

In fact, for reasons of national security, we should not allow these UN diplomats to enter the United States at all. They all have diplomatic immunity and thus are above US law. Not only is this infuriating to New Yorkers, who watch as the diplomats park their cars illegally almost wherever they choose, it shields criminal conduct.

There was a recent report of a Kuwaiti UN diplomat who allegedly forced his Indian maid to work as a slave in a Manhattan apartment for four years. Some human rights activists believe that many foreign diplomats for the UN take advantage of their privileges to violate labor laws in the US.

Let's have a little foresight. Given diplomatic immunity, what is to stop a terrorist group from involving these UN diplomats in its terrorist activities? Let's clamp down on this potentially explosive problem by not allowing these UN diplomats in the US.

In theory, the United Nations is a great idea. But it has never been effective as a peace-keeping body, and today it has become a hotbed of anti-Americanism. It has also failed to take a lead in the fight against international terrorism.
The recent oil-for-food scandal, in which UN officials helped Saddam Hussein divert UN money intended for humanitarian purposes and use it to prop up his own murderous regime, is only the tip of the iceberg as far as mismanagement and corruption is concerned.

It was American largesse that helped set up the UN at its current headquarters in New York City, thanks to an $8.5 million donation from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. But American generosity has its limits, and we cannot any longer look the other way as this bloated, incompetent organization eats up resources and refuses to look in the mirror and take steps to reform itself.

In the meantime and in the future, if the United States doles out any money to the UN, it should do so with the following stipulation: The UN must post daily all its finances to the Internet for fiscal honesty and accountability. See www.postthefinances.com.

The UN already has other offices operating in Geneva, The Hague and Vienna. It's time for these diplomats to go to Europe for their free parking and fancy restaurants. Maybe the UN should even consider moving its headquarters to Ghana, since Kofi Annan is a Ghanian national, or maybe to an island somewhere. If the French could manage to send the great Napoleon into exile on the island of Elba, we can surely find a suitable island for the UN.

A reformed, slimmed-down United Nations based in Europe or elsewhere should then concentrate on its real humanitarian mission: fighting the scourges of famine, hunger and diseases like malaria, hepatitis and AIDS, especially for the world's children.

It's also time to investigate alternatives to the UN, such as the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), which aims to build an effective worldwide community of democratic nations that respect human rights and the rule of law. What a contrast that is to the UN, where any government, even those led by murdering tyrants, can have a "right" to a seat at the General Assembly!

As long as the UN remains an organization that gives a voice to dictators and to regimes that back terrorism, let's throw our weight behind the CCD and tell the UN to take a hike.

At the very least, President Bush should instruct John Bolton, our new UN Ambassador, to tell the UN that it must reform, or else.

STEVE MOZENA
CARSON

I want to thank you for the most informative, well-written article I have ever read.

“Confessions of an Ex-Commie” by Lionel Rolfe (Sept. 1) gave me a superb picture of the 20th century. Thank you so much for publishing it.

JACQUI HEILAND
SOUTH PASADENA