Letters to the Editor: Mailbag: Readers write on traffic safety, leveling campaign playing field and more

This letter is in response to the article on March 21, “Cyclist appears at fault in collision with car, Glendale police say.” The article was quick to lay blame on the bicyclist, without providing any information regarding the behavior of the driver. Walk Bike Glendale is concerned that this type of reporting unfairly assumes bicyclists are at fault for collisions involving bicyclists and other users of the road.

Walk Bike Glendale, a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is dedicated to promoting and increasing safe walking and biking in Glendale. We believe a city with opportunities to safely walk and bike is more livable, healthier and less congested.

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As advocates, we are sensitive to how walking and biking is discussed in Glendale. We request that GNP reporters and the Glendale Police Department disclose all relevant information when reporting a serious injury or fatality involving a bicyclist or pedestrian. We believe that making statements before obtaining complete information is a poor practice. We ask that reporters include all pertinent details, including driver speed, driver distraction (e.g., talking by phone or texting), and other relevant events occurring at the site and time of the collision. Until complete information is available, it is premature to report fault. Assigning fault to vulnerable road users with incomplete or inaccurate information discourages people from walking and biking.

Steve Nancarrow
Chair, Walk Bike Glendale

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Letters came too soon before vote

I am writing to protest your publication of blatant political campaigning in the Mailbag forum just three days before an election. Both Pam Ellis and Sharon Weisman made direct pleas for votes, one for Measure L and the other for candidate Grant Michals. You should be ashamed of your journalistic ethics! Aside from blessing them with over 16 column inches of valuable space, you did not even edit out their last sentences, which made those direct calls for votes.

You should not publish direct campaign messages or calls for a particular vote. I expect you to accept letters that try to persuade, but there needs to be time for rebuttal — especially as the News-Press publishes only twice a week. Our previous News-Press editor, Dan Evans, routinely announced, well ahead of time, that there would be a moratorium on Mailbag letters regarding election issues (usually two weeks ahead of the vote). That gave both sides time to make their points. By not cutting off editorial letters, and printing these two, you failed to set a level playing field. In fact, you created two examples of free campaign advertising — sponsored by the News Press!

Kurt Sawitskas
Glendale

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Remembering the Armenian Genocide

Dear World: In the absence of ears and eyes, you would not have heard or seen the cries. The world did not have the ears and eyes since the Armenian Genocide was deliberately forgotten. Do you remember that distant past of ours? We have reminded you; you must not have the memory.

If you cover your ears and eyes, does reality disappear? Have you disappeared? An entire civilization almost disappeared to the act of an inhumane crime of a magic show. Search within the realms of your brain. Do you remember following the bloody trails of innocent Armenians? If you are not deaf, do you hear the laments? If you are not blind, do you see the agony in Mother Armenia’s heart?

Our historical lands have been denied to us, yet you have allowed the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide to deny their crimes. We are Armenians and by divine power we have survived; we live before your eyes.

Search for us, Armenians. Close your eyes and listen for our call. Like a blind man, your senses may hear beyond the average human’s ear. By denying justice, you deny peace. Refrain yourselves from ignorance. Find our truth.

Your mouths have reworded our truth and brought invisibility to our history. Help grasp the gravity of the perpetrators and the infinite vitality of our pain. Our wounds are open, our justice is scarred. Our history is written in books around the world.

Have we gone extinct? No, details of the horrifying murders are out there. Search for them. Find Armenian history. Let’s march together on April 24 and put an end to this blackness and help inform the world.

Rachel Melikian
Glendale