Redistricting and Howard Finn’s Death

I could not believe my ears at the Los Angeles City Council public hearing on redistricting to remove our deceased Councilman Howard Finn’s district from the Valley and give it to Councilmen Woo and Ferraro.

I heard Councilman David Cunningham say, “Fortuitously, a hand greater than ours injected itself into this council . . . and we have an opportunity to make certain that the agony that would occur between two of our colleagues, we having to choose between Mr. Woo and Mr. Ferraro, having to put the people of the 4th District through that kind of anxiety, anger and competitiveness, does not have to occur.”

Is the councilman saying a Higher Power, out of concern for Councilmen Woo and Ferraro, did away with Councilman Finn to spare everyone the agony of having to choose between the two?

At the least, Mr. Cunningham is scraping the bottom of the hyperbole barrel to justify something he is hard pressed to defend. At worst, he has completely lost his perspective and his sense of decency in his eagerness to show what a buddy he can be when he finds an opportunity to stockpile some political chips.

I really hate it when elected officials justify political actions with allusions to their own interpretation of a Higher Power. I find it arrogant, blasphemous and unconstitutional.

EVA MAPES McCRAVEN

Granada Hills