Mechanics class a vital part of aviation...
Mechanics class a vital part of aviation history
Glendale has a history of aviation, beginning with Roy Knabenshue
flying dirigibles over Glendale in 1906, L.C. Brand flying from his
front lawn in 1917 and the opening of Glendale Airport in 1923. When
war clouds were gathering in 1938, the U.S. government organized
training facilities to prepare our country for the coming
hostilities. The Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute was established
at Grand Central Air Terminal and Glendale Community College began
its aviation maintenance and ground school programs.
Thousands of pilots, designers, mechanics and technicians were
trained in Glendale, and they went on to win World War II and
establish Southern California as a major center of aviation
development.
At the very least, Glendale Community College has a contract with
the current students in its aviation mechanics program, and they
should allow currently enrolled students to finish their courses and
graduate like the thousands who have before them.
If the college decides to discontinue the program in the future,
they should realize that they are killing the last connection with
over 60 years of aviation development.
As the Walt Disney Co. commits to preserve the historic Grand
Central Airport Terminal building, Glendale College votes to
discontinue the other half of that history -- the aircraft
maintenance program and ground school.
Glendale College is following the same path that the city of
Burbank has taken: disconnection from its aviation history and
destruction of the historic equity of its citizens, past and present.
If the Glendale College Aviation Department has to close, then its
history should be well-documented and preserved.
If you don’t want to do that in Glendale, let me know and I’ll do
what I can to bring it over here to Burbank, where we know what we’ve
lost.
J. RON DICKSON
Burbank
One last Forum page hoorah for Holbrook
This may be my last letter to the Glendale News-Press, and likely
much to the joy of some editors and readers. But also likely, my
letters weren’t all that important in the scheme of things in
Glendale, and I can hardly claim to have impacted much, if anything,
for the better.
Glendale, like its surrounding areas, is fraught with some weird
and divisive people, including some who are of deviant and
sociologically aberrant character, judging in some forced objectivity
from visits to Glendale and from the many letters and articles
published in the News-Press in the past.
But for all the political wrangling and name-calling that has
escalated during my time trying to keep up with all the internal
conflict of Glendale politicians and residents to carve out a name
and place for themselves, there’s something the city’s residents
should think about for the future -- particularly about crime,
traffic and blind self-interest.
We raised our family in the foothills of Sylmar, living here for
some 30 years, and not too far from what used to be a short and quick
trip to the pleasant and accessible shopping mecca of Glendale. But
that has now changed and not for the better.
Traffic and crime are causing an exodus of what some say are the
better and more conscientious neighbors and associates.
During the months that our home was up for sale in Sylmar, a
number of Glendale families and couples visited our home “looking for
a better place to raise their children.” While our little corner of
Sylmar may not be the “hub of the Western cultural and civilized
world,” these families were elated at the chance to leave Glendale’s
conflicts and political infighting behind.
While I’m sure that there are pleasant and more serene places that
can be found in the corners and hilly niches of Glendale, their
stories did parallel the articles of conflict and disdain published
in the News-Press about Glendale over the past few years.
Nevertheless, thanks to the News-Press editors and staff who have
put together what must be a continuing and not-too-enjoyable task of
trying to make salable and sensible the rantings of would-be writers
and pundit journalists, some likely fraught and forged in my own
self-image.
So, adios, and goodbye -- maybe good riddance, who knows.
RICHARD M. HOLBROOK
Sylmar
Arts funding is needed greatly in education
Thank you, Dan Kimber, for your public support of arts and arts
education. Your recent article, “Arts don’t belong on the fringe of
education,” (Education Matters, March 11) was gratifying in that it
came from an educator not necessarily in the arts.
We have had wondrous recognition of successful arts education in
Glendale schools: Glendale High School and Crescenta Valley High
School visual and performing arts departments have won outstanding
awards from the Los Angeles Music Center. Glendale High School’s
Visual and Performing Arts Department performed at the Kennedy Center
Millennium Stage as part of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts
Education program.
Citizens who support our arts education efforts please come
forward. Let the governor of California know of the need for arts and
arts education for the advancement of our community. Support your
arts students.
JO NESS
Montrose