Noisy Parties

* Re “Defending the Right to Party,” Voices, Nov. 7:

I am amazed at the arrogance of Mandy Tomson in her feeling that her right to “party”--presumably in a very noisy fashion--supersedes the rights of a neighborhood to sleep. She also feels it is an injustice to measure time from the movements of the Earth around the sun instead of using “The Tonight Show” as the standard.

Sleep, along with food, air and shelter, is a physiological necessity. Many of the people Tomson’s revelries keep awake must work the following day, even if it is a weekend. Others are children, the elderly and those with illnesses. And then there are selfish people who feel that they have a right to a good night’s sleep without any need for justification. Remember, those thin walls that do not keep in the noise of the revelers who are poor also do not keep out the noise from neighbors who are equally poor.

KENNETH L. CLAY

Santa Maria

*

I’m not a Puritan or a Ken Starr, I just think I should respect my neighbors as I would want to be respected.

Thomson mentioned that Halloween and New Year’s Eve should be exempted. What about wedding parties, birthdays, bat mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs, Presidents Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the list goes on.

It’s not the party that’s the problem, it’s the noise!

WARREN F. MOLLOY

La Verne