Mailbag: Some grisly details are best left out

As I read today’s Glendale News-Press about the woman being struck and killed by the Amtrak train in Glendale (“Train hits, kills woman,” Nov. 24), I found it very distasteful to read the photo caption, “A witness said she saw the woman’s leg fly off after the train hit her.”

Sheesh, could you show just a little compassion for the dead woman and the friends and family she must have had, who now have to read this cheap sensational journalism about how her body flew apart in the tragedy?

CHUCK WEISS

La Crescenta

Column brings back memories of Iran

Gary Huerta’s Nov. 19 column “’Tis not the season yet; not here, anyway,” came as a surprise to me, because I was not expecting to hear such comments from someone who has been raised within the American culture.

Yes, as Huerta says, the Christmas season seems to be coming earlier and earlier.

The reason might be that Christmas every year is becoming more and more commercialized — a massive marketing quagmire.

When I was still living in Iran, my mother and I took a summer vacation to New York City in the summer of 1969.

One of the unusual things I remember seeing was the display of Christmas decorations during summer in some of the department stores.

So, when we went back to Iran, the fact that Americans begin celebrating Christmas as early as August went into our repertoire of unusual things that we had noticed about America.

At the time of the Shah, when I was growing up in Iran, we had the freedom of celebrating any religion.

We Armenians, as Christians, celebrated the birth of Christ on Jan. 6.

All the hoopla — the coming of Santa and the gift giving — was geared toward celebrating the new year, not Christmas.

I sometimes wish that Santa’s arrival, around the world, would be recognized the same way we had it in Iran, at New Year’s Eve.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all children could enjoy the magic of Santa Claus?

I also wonder, why should a pagan tradition become so ingrained in Christianity?

CATHERINE YESAYAN

Glendale