My Opinion

Ari Noonan’s Editor’s Essay last Friday (“Peeking Behind the Obama Curtain to Inspect His Clever Strategy on Race”) on Barack Obama was excellent and, of course, courageous. You know what I mean?

However, his keen insight into the Manchurian Candidate of Manchurian Candidates is not that insightful, but rather voicing what everyone in the world, including me, already knows...but do as you do and say it.

In two days, the torch bearing the Olympic flame will light the cauldron high atop Beijing National Stadium signaling the opening of the first Olympic Games in China. It’s a historic moment for sport, China and the world.

I have been involved actively in the Veterans community for the last 34 years, 04/04/74 to the present.

And I have done and seen first hand what the Veterans are going through, let alone their families.

Thoughts on the eve of Saturday’s 12 noon community meeting at West L.A. College, called by the County Regional Planning Commission to hear testimony on drilling plans by Plains, Exploration & Production Co. in the Baldwin Hills oil field:

Do you know where the terrorists all over the world, including right here in Culver City, obtain their funding?

[Editor’s Note: The widely admired teacher Joey Lutz, 25 years old, who graduated in 2000 from Culver City High School, drowned last weekend while on holiday in Panama. Mr. Lutz’s parents, Stuart and Freda Lutz, reside in Culver City. Funeral services are yet to be finalized at Hillside Memorial Park. In this essay, a former student recalls their golden days at summer camp.]

Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the candy man, Willy Wonka, and his quest to find an heir will come to life this week at the Vets Auditorium as Culver City’s Musical Theatre Summer Day Camp (ages 7-16) presents a dee-Lightful stage adaptation of “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,” with songs from the classic family film “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.”

The Los Angeles City Council this morning approved Councilmember Bernard C. Parks’ motion asking the Environmental Affairs Dept., Bureau of Engineering, Planning Dept. and Chief Legislative Analyst to review the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District Draft Environmental Impact Report.

Later this month, the Planning Dept. at City Hall plans to present the City Council with a prototype for Neighborhood Design Guidelines that can be used by the Planning Commission and others to preserve Culver City’s “small town charm” as neighborhoods update and change.

Two weeks from tonight, at 7 o’clock on Tuesday, July 29, at Livingreen, 10000 Culver Blvd., jsut west of Duquesne, the Gateway Neighborhood Assn.’s Development Study Group will explore this very issue:

On Friday, July 4, each resident of Culver City souoght a suitable way to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day.

The members of the Culver City Bahai community welcomed the chance to take part in both planned and unplanned events. At the same time, the Culver City Bahais could not help but reflect on how much their freedom contrasted with the depravation of freedom suffered by seven Bahais in Iran.

[Editor’s Note: The Back to School Night story that originally appeared in this space contained incorrect data.]

The National Endowment for the Arts recently released the report, "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence" (Nov. 2007).