Effort to Buy Parkland Not ‘Doomed’

As a member of the Historic Oaks Foundation, I was shocked to read Patricia Klein Lerner’s article attempting to undermine our efforts to save the Paramount Ranch. Her insinuation that the foundation is no more than a puppet of the Living History Centre (producers of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire) is an affront to myself and the other members working so hard to save this precious land.

Though most of us came to know and love this land through our experiences at the Renaissance Faire, we have been quite clear from our very first meetings that the Historic Oaks Foundation was not formed to raise money for the Living History Centre and that no monies it raised were, under any circumstances, to be given to the Living History Centre.

Whatever financial or ethical shortcomings the Living History Centre might have are their own and have nothing to do with the Historic Oaks Foundation.

Baseless accusations by unnamed sources of guilt by association ring more of McCarthy-era thinking than of the enlightened reporting we have come to expect from a Los Angeles Times staff writer.

Ms. Lerner quotes a spokesman for the California secretary of state’s office as saying that there is nothing preventing the Historic Oaks Foundation from giving money to the Living History Centre. There is nothing to prevent Ms. Lerner spending her entire paycheck on a boatload of Froot-Loops. Does that mean that she is going to do so?

STEVEN OVERSTREET

Lake View Terrace