Letters to the Editor

Editor:

We are very fortunate in Leisure World to have two organizations that keep track of little “details” of life over the last 60 years. The first one is the Leisure World News (first published Jan. 1, 1962), now known as the Leisure World Weekly, and the second is the Leisure World Historical Society (founded in 1993).

I wanted to know when the Mini Farms started and how long they had been in existence, so where to turn? I started with the “little details” people at the Historical Society, who also have received the archived newspapers, plus many brochures, group notes and realia of the community since 1962.

I found that on April 3, 1975, the newspaper asked for a survey of potential gardeners in the community. So, 47 years ago, a group started a community garden located at Seal Beach Boulevard and Beverly Manor Road (now North Gate Road). It seems to have stayed there until 1988, when the GRF established the Mini Farms area with grading, water and beginning plots. In 1997, a club was formed with 107 plots. Then the trash bins, the walk offs, arrived in 1991, but that may be the recyclinggreen walk offs only.

I am sure others have details to add, and that is wonderful. But I now know that we have been digging in vegetable gardens for almost 50 years somewhere in Leisure World and growing food for ourselves and our neighbors.

Camille Thompson Mutual 8 Editor:

A large “Celebrating Black History Month” banner caught my eye on the front page of LW Weekly. For some months on TV, Black History Month ads have been shown, and I thought this was same kind of ad on the top of front page.

As I was reading through, I was attracted to Barbara Manuel’s story of how she witnessed history by attending the March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

This story was touching and real. I saw that Managing Editor Ruth Osborn worked on this article. I thank both Barbara and Ruth.

At the end of this long story, it said: “But we do not have freedom as a gift. It’s not given to us as a God-given right. It’s something that you must take, and you must fight for, and you must preserve this liberty.”

Yong Pyon Mutual 1 Editor:

Steve Edrich’s letter (Feb. 10) was brilliant and very accurate. The LW Weekly is an official GRF publication serving the shareholders of LWSB. As such, the editor’s response was tonedeaf and GRF-focused. Mr. Edrich’s words “incompetence, disrespectful, condescending and cavalier” describe the GRF in how the situation was handled.

I am newer to LW, so the GRF Kool-Aid hasn’t kicked in, and, as Mr. Edrich states, “It has started down a path that is a concern to me.” I agree.

Victoria Wood Mutual 8 Editor:

I wonder if the Republican Club news contributor (Feb. 17) recognized the irony therein? To preface a paen to Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights advances with a sentence of unqualified support of law enforcement is a direct contradiction. The story stated that the Republican Club believes the U.S. has made “great progress” toward equality and will continue to do so. How? By disenfranchising people of color? The story correctly states that attitudes will have to change, but it qualifies that statement by saying, “that takes time.” Evidently, that means more than the 58 years, approximately two generations, since 1964.

Then, to add to the irony, the story says the club speaker’s formula for election success is to emphasize what I see as the ongoing attack on public education as an “effective” (not a “real”) issue. I have relatives in a nearby public high school who have discussed this issue with classmates and very few, if any, have indicated that they are experiencing offense to their sensibilities while learning actual history, other than the usual discomfort of “too much reading” and “too hard exams,” of course.

If some parents actually believe their children feel guilt over actions of people they’ve never met or shared the same beliefs with, perhaps they could ask them, as we have of civil rights demonstrators for years, to just get over it!

Lee Hoyt Mutual 11