Write On
Thank you for printing Lilliana Zar’s perceptive firsthand account of the recent march against gun violence. As someone who protested as a teenager some 50 years ago, it is inspiring to see so many younger voices speaking out against the senseless violence that has become part of today’s American experience.
Fight on, Lilliana. Write on, Lilliana.
Tom Weitzel | The Highlands
Bite Back
Regarding the lil’ “Reality Bites” ditty that appeared in a recent 2 Cents column, I wish to set the record straight with the make-up of the Pacific Palisades Community Council board membership.
The commentator wrote how surprised he/she was to find out how many real estate-type people are linked to the community’s LUC and the PPCC.
Please allow me a minute to point out that the PPCC organization members come from various walks of life and many different professions.
We have educators and college professors, a department head of human resource, a Hollywood location manager, attorneys, and a CPA.
Yes, I developed real estate in New York City for more than 25 years; retired here in 2000 and moved to The Highlands in 2001; now I grow olives and I consider myself a gentleman farmer.
So to my fellow Palisadians, please do not be blindsided by some silly gibberish about the proposed eldercare project here in The Highlands.
Your community is well represented by wonderful truly dedicated people who spend countless hours volunteering their time for the good of all of the Palisades.
To paraphrase the wonderful British songwriter, Donovan, in which he wrote in 1968 in his song “Atlantis:”
“On board were the twelve …
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.”
We are not gods of legends but simple ordinary hard-working individuals, accomplishing thankless tasks that mostly go unnoticed by our fellow Palisadians.
Peter F. Culhane | PPCC Area Two Representative —pfc@culhane.org
Hard Commute
Reading Christian Monterrosa’s article (“The Long, Hard Trek to Pali High from April 5) really brought back some memories. In the late ’90s, I commuted to Palisades Charter High School from North Hollywood.
I thought it was a long haul to commute from the Valley; I can’t imagine commuting from Port Hueneme and Fillmore. A five-hour daily commute? That’s pretty rough.
Pali High’s reputation as a top charter and location are an unmatched combination. My younger cousin attended Paul Revere Charter Middle School and I planned to go to Pali High with him.
Things don’t go according to plan, however. I was waitlisted and attended a LAUSD magnet in downtown Los Angeles instead. To get to that school, I rode a school bus from my home in Hollywood. More or less, it was a part of my life, a routine I didn’t think about twice.
I felt ecstatic to enroll at Pali High for eleventh grade. Not to talk down the DTLA magnet, but the prospect of transferring to a school with a football team, a few blocks from the ocean, was an upgrade.
Never mind that the commute from North Hollywood meant dealing with the 405 south gridlock every morning. Back then, I just didn’t think about it like an adult.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t behind the wheel, or because I could finish my homework—or listen to music in my headphones—that the trip was something I didn’t mind.
There are plenty of moments when I questioned whether it was worth it.
There was a lot of time wasted on the bus in mind-numbing traffic. It prevented participation in after-school activities or sports, in fear that I may not be able to get a ride home.
Even with the second-guessing, I have no regrets about going to Pali High. I made friends with kids from all over LA County.
One lived near The Village, while others lived in Inglewood, Hollywood and all over the Valley. Outside of geographic diversity, my friends were diverse along ethnic and socioeconomic lines.
It could very well be that commuting to Pali High also prepared me for the commuter lifestyle. Like thousands of students, I commuted to Cal State Northridge.
When I headed to the University of Maryland as an exchange student, I didn’t hesitate to accept an internship at USA Today headquarters, which required taking two trains and a bus across two states. The 2.5-hour commute may have shocked my supervisor, but for me, it was no sweat. I was prepared … I’ve done it in high school.
Slav Kandyba | Pali High Class of 1999
Time for Single-Payer
Apparently reporters writing about healthcare proposals have not read the third paragraph in the current Assembly Select Committee report, which clearly states that current “healthcare spending across California from all sources totals about $400 billion” and that our health care is already 71 percent publicly funded.
Nor does it seem that writers have read the SB562 financial analysis from the Political Economy Research Institute, written by well-respected economists. (Available online to anyone interested in actually understanding the financing of this single-payer proposal.)
The overall healthcare savings to the state accrued in SB562 is $37 billion, a very conservative estimate, while covering everyone for quality privately delivered care of broadly expanded services at half the cost.
Out-of-pocket costs to individuals like premiums, co-pays and deductibles now threatening some with financial ruin would disappear and be replaced by a very modest 2.3 sales tax.
Eliminating the for-profit multi-payer insurance system with its ever-escalating premiums, denials of care and byzantine administrative tasks provides this savings, which currently drains one-third to one-half of our spending away from delivery of care into shareholder profits, unnecessary complexity, wasteful bureaucracy and exorbitant CEO salaries.
Countries all over the world spend much less and have better health outcomes than Americans.
People in Europe or Taiwan or Tunisia do not experience “medical debt” or “medical bankruptcy.” No one in a single-payer system dies because they were denied care or had treatment delayed or priced out of their means.
This happens every day in the “your money or your life” tragedy of our U.S. health insurance system. People are suffering physically, emotionally, economically in this unequal and unjust quagmire.
Americans are providing Wall Street profiteers “wealth care for a few” rather than “healthcare for all” with our tax dollars and our personal bank accounts.
We can’t afford not to have a single-payer system. And now is the time.
Maureen Cruise RN | Director, Healthcare for All–Los Angles Chapter
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