Mailbag

Residents must have guilty consciences

To get upset about the suggestion that a certain group of Glendale residents might not like the idea of a smoking ban, because many of them might smoke, is about as ridiculous as an Anglo resident here getting upset about the suggestion that because many Anglos like to play golf, they might be a tad angry if the council was thinking about shutting down Oakmont Country Club.

Of course they’d be. But so what?

In other words, where’s the culpability on the part of City Councilman Dave Weaver? (“Weaver taken to task again,” Wednesday).

Even worse, who in their right mind thinks that this Pasadena Weekly writer has any credibility about the source of his claim?

He already admits that he attributed the quote incorrectly to Mayor John Drayman, and he never even placed it within quotation marks in the first place

So he is reliable?

It is a phony issue. Many people in European and Middle Eastern cultures like to smoke.

So what?

Is there a guilty conscience somewhere?

I have no problem with this idea, and I’m wondering why anyone else does.

It all sounds like pretext to me, and I admire the fact that at least two Glendale council members refuse to get involved in this ridiculous grandstanding.

This is clearly a deliberate attempt to evade the real issue, which is the smoking ban itself.

Its opponents are falsely trying to turn it into a discrimination issue, while at the same time decrying anyone else who they think is referencing ethnicity.

JIM CARLILE

Burbank

Enough already with the Weaver issue

This matter concerning City Councilman Dave Weaver has officially been beaten to death (“Weaver taken to task again,” Wednesday).

The Glendale News-Press is only continuing to fuel this ridiculous issue by printing articles and letters on it.

There must be more important matters to write about.

I am very glad that my home is outside the Glendale city limits.

TOM HARRIS

Montrose

Stick to real issue in smoking debate

Thank you to Patrick Azadian for pointing out that just because City Councilman Dave Weaver may have said that many Armenians are smokers does not make him a racist (“Side-stepping the real issues,” From The Margins, Aug. 23).

I’m tired of the racist card being pulled out whenever a minority feels slighted in any way.

What Weaver allegedly said seems to be a fact to most of us.

Just as it may also seem that a large population of Asians are smokers as well.