Peace

In his Oct. 14 community commentary “Turkey-Armenia talks cause for celebration,” Gerry Rankin makes a couple of astute observations. He states that “Armenia may be strong in heart, but it is relatively weak in economic and military power, and potential adversaries surround it on every side” and that “peace is everybody’s business.” To his latter point, he is correct that peace is everybody’s business. But the question must be asked, “At what cost?

As I write, I just finished helping one of my daughters master her multiplication (I pray!), did several loads of laundry, cleaned up after another daughter with the stomach flu, and cleaned the stove after my sick son asked for soup. In the middle of the storm, I tried to sneak moments of calm to call back a few patients I needed to reschedule. I know we can all relate to days like these whether we have children or not. As I reflect on the day, for some reason I say it was ?a good day.?

Letter writer should read up on facts I must respond to Ken Artingstall's Mailbag letter ("Peace not as easy as protesters think," Thursday), although there are so many unsupported assertions in it that one letter can't cover them all. A good place to begin making oneself better informed on U.S. history is a book by Stephen Kinzer entitled "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq." Our excellent Glendale Public Library has several copies available.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6). This popular proverb calls people to trust in God amid each and every one of life's circumstances. As I write this column, I am in New York at a conference for a rare disease called Hermansky Pudlak syndrome (a platelet dysfunction that can effect people with albinism). While I look around me at all the children and adults effected by this syndrome, my mind has countless thoughts and my heart experiences profuse emotions.

This letter is in response to Margaret T. Snyder comments in the News-Press on June 29 ("Reader's letter didn't seem to promote unity"). Her comments that the United States of America was founded in freedom, yes that is true, but at what cost? And she went on to say, she felt sorry for Khachadour coming to America. Heck, everybody wants to come to America, but somehow they always bring their problems with them and they want to be an American. American Mexican-American or anything-America, just be American, and learn to live your life with peace and joy. Everybody in this country needs to quit pointing the finger at each other when everything hits the fan. And if we had the freedom to write what we wanted to, the Glendale News-Press would have printed my letter to the editor, "Why Armenians and Latinos hate each other so much!"

For the last few weeks, I've been reading two books: "The Iliad," which makes me sound smart but feel dumb, and Stephen King's "The Stand," which has the opposite effect. The former is a classic tale of men who, for various reasons, want to kill men and attack and enslave women. The latter is a less-respected work about men who, for various reasons, want to kill men and attack and enslave women. The former is readable to me mainly because Hollywood's recent popcorn epic "Troy" helps me to picture Brad Pitt as a barely clad Achilles.

Obituary for Mavis Cain Sept 27, 1922 to Oct 30, 2011 Mavis Mahan Cain died surrounded by family on October 30, 2011 in San Rafael, CA.  Mavis was part of the greatest generation.  Born and raised in San Francisco to Dr. Eugene Mahan and Alma Meherin Mahan, she came of age in the Depression, matriculated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, then UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Political Science in 1944.  The...

A letter on this page was critical of the Occupy Wall Street movement (“Occupy Wall Street a cause for concern,” Nov. 8). Is the person who wrote it OK with the bonuses in the finance industry? For example, the insurance giant AIG gave more than $165 million in bonuses shortly after it received a $170-billion taxpayer bailout. Is it OK that taxpayers bailed out financial institutions “too big to fail,” but foreclosures are allowed to continue - foreclosures that bring down the property value of a neighborhood if too many are in the same area?