Olson Didn’t Hurt a Living Soul

Re “Sara Jane Saga Ends--We Hope,” Dec. 5: Sara Jane Olson is a beautiful, intelligent, generous, compassionate mother, wife, community activist and artist. She is a pillar of humanity. Of course she hid all these years from small-minded, vindictive troglodytes like your (former city attorney) Mayor James Hahn, Deputy Dist. Attys. Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin and a lynch mob typified by your disgustingly callous writer Steve Lopez, who glibly compares Olson’s torment about going to jail for the rest of her life with indecisively ordering a pizza.

The real monsters are people who revel in the destruction of a good person’s life and, like Lopez, crack sick jokes about it. They are the historical Pontius Pilates, Salem witch-burners and Nazi informants in World War II France.

The fact they don’t like to discuss is that in 1974, the LAPD burned six SLA members alive in a house, including Olson’s friend. Whatever angry thoughts may have crossed Olson’s mind, she didn’t hurt a living soul. And even if she were guilty of some minuscule part in a retaliation plot, no one truly committed to justice would even have the gall to demand that she stand trial before the murderous L.A. cops do, who incinerated those six people.

But 27 years after these events, I’m sure Olson would generously agree to trade amnesties with the LAPD and let the ‘60s be history.

Ben Rosenfeld

San Francisco

Thank you to Steve Lopez. It’s refreshing to read an opinion that reflects common sense and states the obvious. Olson is a mastermind of manipulation and has not had to answer for her behavior all her adult life. Finally, Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has called her on it (“Olson’s Attempt to Change Plea Fails,” Dec. 4).

Mary Motheral

Upland