CHARITY WATCH : Sisterly Suggestion

There’s certainly no shortage of worthy causes for the charity-minded citizen. The homeless problem here alone could absorb all our charitable energies--and worthy indeed would such a concentrated commitment be.

But as millions of Soviet citizens edge ever closer to the pulverizing polar coldness of winter, it might be worthwhile to remind ourselves of Los Angeles’ sister city relationship with Leningrad.

That relationship was struck by Mayor Bradley in August, and at the time it seemed like little more than one of those fluff-ball press-release things that no one gives a second thought to. But now that Leningraders face the very real prospect of a winter without adequate food supplies, the thought arises that perhaps Los Angeles should try to make something special of that relationship by organizing a private-sector effort to send food and other supplies to our fellow urbanites there.

The mayor’s committee could work on just such a possibility, and that would be good. These sister-city deals rarely have any meaning besides an exchange of trips by politicians, but in view of the very real, and potentially overwhelming, crisis in the Soviet Union it could be given a meaning wholly appropriate for the holidays.

Not so long ago Moscow, to borrow former President Ronald Reagan’s phrase, was the heart of the Evil Empire. No longer. A people-to-people charitable effort would be a small but not insignificant gesture. Leningrad is in many ways a gem of a city that must not be allowed to rot. Maybe Angelenos can help a little.