LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Campaign Mailers

I find the Brad Sherman campaign’s mailers to be fairly scummy. My family recently received two mailers from Sherman in which he makes the race out to be just between him and a Republican named Lucie Volotzsky.

In one of those mailers he claims that polls have shown them to be the two front runners. I’ve tried looking up these polls, but I’m not finding anything. 538.com doesn’t list any polls. They don’t show up on Google.

The only thing I found was the Federal Election Commission’s report on campaign finances, which shows Volotzsky to have raised the sixth most amount of money in the race, with even another Republican ahead of her.

Sherman has good reason to want to make the race out to be between him and a Republican. He knows as well as I that the district isn’t going to elect a Republican. Not when the new district has a Democratic lean of +38. And he doesn’t seem to want to let us consider any of the other Democrats running.

Sherman is trying to bank on his incumbency. But here’s the thing: Sherman has never represented the Palisades before. He may be the incumbent for some of the new CA-32, but not for us. We deserve to be able to consider all eight candidates running for the position.

Full disclosure: I volunteer with a group, Sunrise Movement LA, which has endorsed a Democratic candidate for CA-32 named Shervin Aazami. But I’m not writing this letter to tell you to support him. Maybe you’ll look at all the candidates and decide in the end that Sherman would represent you best. That’s fine. That’s democracy. But Sherman shouldn’t pretend that the race has already been decided.

Zachary Handler

Paul Revere PRIDE Updates

This year, the parent board of PRIDE invested quite a bit of money raised in the course of successive past years back into the school to enrich and improve the public school education for students who attend Paul Revere Charter Middle School.

We lobbied hard with Los Angeles Unified School District and our elected representative for District 4, Nick Melvoin, and we advocated throughout the school year to launch an effective private-public partnership between the parent board and the school district to fast track repairs and improvements as well as upgrades to school facilities.

The result has been a generational investment in the school and its facilities that will benefit children for decades to come.

Part of our investment was made in the library, where the district will be repainting and redoing the floors over the summer, and we have already invested in new books and furniture.

We are celebrating literacy this year for the first time with a festival that our school librarian has aptly named: Literacy Brings us Together. We will combine the traditional Literary Anthology, which is a printed book of student writing across all genres, with the Spring Book Fair for what we hope to be the first annual Literacy Festival.

The evening will bring together a Revere tradition known as The Young Author’s Evening—when students read excerpts from their published writing—with the final book fair of the year in our new and improved library. PRIDE has underwritten the event with a taco cart and dessert truck for all, as well as a photo booth for memories we hope students will cherish for years. The entire school community is welcome.

We hope to start a literary tradition today, to last a lifetime, as we encourage students to rekindle a love of reading and writing.

Maryam Zar
Outgoing PRIDE President (2021-22)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Our children have attended and graduated from the schools here in the Palisades. My son will be a senior at Palisades Charter High School next year. Thereafter my wife and I will be empty nesters.

Raising our family here among such warm people in our community has been one of the great blessings of my life. I believe one of the reasons why the Palisades is such a unique place is the faith that resides here in our community.

Faith can take many forms: Faith in humanity, faith in family or faith in a supreme being that has a plan for each of us. Either way, faith is a word that stirs hope. That hope breeds other positive behaviors that I see each day in our community: kindness, selflessness and understanding.

I think a lot about faith because I am the Bishop of one of the church congregations here in the Palisades: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You may have seen our building, which is at the top of Los Liones Drive just across from the Los Liones trailhead. If you are a hiker, we may have seen you on Sunday morning as you start on your hike up the trail, possibly having your own faith-filled experience as you connect with nature.

Here are a few things to know about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that you may find interesting:

First, our congregation is operated by our members because we don’t have a paid ministry. Those who attend our congregation have the opportunity, if they choose, to participate in supporting the Sunday services. One person plays the organ, another might say the opening prayer, another may lead the music, another chooses the songs, others teach the children and so on.

The Sunday sermon is offered by members of the congregation. Personally, I love hearing my friends share their individual stories of faith. Their perspective and experiences inspire me each week.

Second, we love the other church organizations in the community. In fact, several of the ministers of other Palisadian church organizations had lunch at our building a few weeks ago as part of an ongoing interfaith collaboration. We relish our common interest in having people feel hope through exercising faith.

Third, our congregation acts as a second family to support each other. We celebrate each other’s successes and lift each other during challenges. I am honored to be part of this family of faithful members.

Finally, we are Christ centered. We believe firmly in the divinity and grace of Jesus Christ. The message that Christ taught—namely to love one another—is the central theme in our weekly meetings. We talk about how His example and teachings inspire how we treat others.

We have a saying in our church: We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous and in doing good to all men … If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I am currently the Bishop of the congregation, which gives me the opportunity to serve the needs of the members and help to foster faith. Given we don’t have a paid ministry, serving as Bishop is what I do in the evenings and weekends. That also includes working with the youth.

For example, we hosted about 80 teenagers from several congregations in the area at our building this past Tuesday evening. We enjoyed a meal and games. We firmly believe that teenagers can benefit from building their faith just like our primary aged children and adults.

We welcome all visitors to our services. I am sure you will find a warm welcome and a judgment-free environment.

We are having an open house on Sunday, May 22, at 9:30 a.m. for visitors to come and participate in our services. Of course, all are welcome any Sunday, but this coming Sunday you will be joined by other visitors from the community, which may make it more natural for those who may be curious to visit our service.

Remember, we meet at the top of Los Liones Drive (575 Los Liones Drive) if you choose to stop by and celebrate faith with us. We hope to see you there.

Matthew Garff