MAILBAG - Dec. 6, 2008
Alleged pimps aren’t only ones to blame
On Nov. 15, the Glendale News-Press published an article about two 16-year-old girls who were arrested on suspicion of prostitution (“Prostitution sting nets 6 arrests”). Undercover detectives arrested six men for allegedly soliciting prostitution during a sting operation and rescued the two teenage girls, who were allegedly being used as sex slaves.
The girls had been giving their earnings to two men because they promised the girls to buy them a pair of shoes, according to the article. By selling themselves, the girls were getting a place to stay, shoes, clothes and video games.
This article proves one more time the bad choices young adults may make nowadays. Those girls chose to become prostitutes instead of living a normal life and pursuing a better future.
They stated that it wasn’t a choice they made. They tried to excuse their actions by announcing their inability to survive otherwise. That is the worst excuse that a young person can bring in his/her defense.
The U.S. is a country of opportunities. Sadly, some people take everything that this country offers for granted, and they don’t take any of the opportunities that the U.S. offers them. Instead, young people may dive into lives full of drugs and body-selling.
It is their choice to do so, not the lame being forced. The idea of people throwing their futures out the window makes me so frustrated. They ignore the opportunities, when other people leave their lives behind in order to move to the U.S. and be just a little bit closer to the American dream. They struggle every day in order to get those opportunities.
Girls who sell their bodies for money to find an easy solution to their problems are a disgrace to females in general.
LIANA KOCHINYAN
Glendale
Still room for fun during tough times
After observing opinions for a week about the Americana’s fireworks, which took place on the same day that we had an active fire, I decided to respond. I am very disappointed from this group of haters who never leave our great shopping mall alone (“Fiery display riles council,” Nov. 19).
If I remember correctly, we had the same situation and complaints from some people regarding the opening night of the Americana with the fireworks and the music.
It is sad that we had a fire disaster on the same week, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop our ordinary life and activities. Once again, I was present the night in question, and I enjoyed the music and the fireworks a lot. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: This new mall is amazing, stunning and beautiful.
The mall generates good crowds and sales for our city. So what if we have fireworks once or twice a year? For those Americana-haters, I suggest that you stay away from the property, or even better, move to another city. From now on, I am planning to attend every single fireworks show. Maybe there is another one coming up for New Year’s Eve.
EDMOND GOLBAS
Glendale
Enough fireworks about the fireworks
So Rick Caruso’s partly taxpayer-subsidized center introduces a new tradition of sparkling Christmas that requires more than champagne bottles popping (“Fiery display riles council,” Nov. 19). It’s only natural. It’s a celebration for children and families of the special day yet to come.
Fireworks have been a Christmas tradition in many countries for years, but leave it to a commercial establishment to add American sizzle to the day the king of humility was born.
For those who can’t afford to make their purchases at the Americana, or can’t bear to watch the waste of perfectly good gunpowder, I suggest a large bowl of Rice Krispies and some hot tea. Nothing like the snap, crackle and pop in the privacy of your own bowl while you watch the tempest in the teapot. With a local budget deficit to attend to, this is the controversy to which we pour precious ink? Enough already.
HERBERT MOLANO
Tujunga
Taxes are not the answer amid crisis
Democratic Assembly nominee Carole Lutness declared that California has a revenue problem, not a spending problem (“Revenue increases needed in crisis,” Mailbag, Monday).
Lutness also made several references to the need for “revenue increases” but never called those increases by their rightful name, “tax hikes.” Then she used the typical scare tactic of warning us that, without “revenue increases,” we would have to cut spending for schools, seniors and the disabled. Those who want to raise our taxes never discuss eliminating wasteful and unnecessary spending, nor do they ever mention their own bloated budgets, outrageous salaries and overly generous pensions. They always threaten to cut the budgets of the most important programs, never the least important.
State Democrats have proposed $8.1 billion in new taxes. As taxes go up, Californians have less money to spend. How about lowering the sales tax and allowing us to keep more of our own money? We would then spend more, and that extra spending would give Lutness the “revenue increase” she desires. The spending will also benefit struggling restaurants, automobile dealers and retail stores, and that, in turn, means less unemployment. We can never, and will never, tax our way out of a recession.
STEVE THOMPSON
La Crescenta