Public Discourse

CITY HALL ? A protracted battle over whether to change the absentee ballot application process for municipal elections is expected to end Tuesday, when the City Council is scheduled to hold its final vote on the issue. The final vote on a draft ordinance that would prevent campaign offices from intercepting absentee ballot applications on their way to the City Clerk?s Office was delayed Jan. 29 in a last-minute effort to assuage opposition with a community outreach meeting. But that meeting, which was held Wednesday, only highlighted pre-existing battle lines between those who feel the proposed change is anti-immigrant and those who want to remove any chance of electioneering when the actual ballots are mailed back to the applicant.

The Big Tent: Count Me In "We left Luftwaft IV in February, and man, it was cold. We were just outside Grosstychow, Pomerania. The Soviets were invading from the east and the Germans wanted us the hell out of there," said Sheriff Stevens as we sat in a local family restaurant in 1973. I had come home to Greenwood, Ind., from Quantico, Va., a spanking new 2nd lieutenant. After a couple hours, dad said, "Let's go to Jerry's." When we got there, we took seats at a large table occupied by dad's buddies, the same group of men I'd grown up with.

Goodbye, 2006. Hello, 2007. Oh yes, what a year it was ? the good, the bad and the ugly. And there was some of each in 2006. Elections brought a new crop of legislators to the area. Burbank saw a return of the popular Burbank on Parade back after a year's hiatus. Brand Boulevard in Glendale finished an extensive face-lift, work on the Americana at Brand began, and a Glendale woman's gift of more than $1 million led to a new field at Crescenta Valley High School for generations of students to benefit from.

Alex Coolman I was just finishing a slab of dense cheesecake when I heard the shot. The ballroom of the Glendale Hilton was crowded with technicians grazing over dessert, the somewhat bored attendees of a conference on ground water contamination. Up at the podium, dispensing one-liners, was Burbank's assistant general manager of water and power, Fred Lantz. Lantz had been carrying on about how little the public understood contamination and how hysterical the masses were in their desire to drink clean water.

Adam B. Schiff A secondary blast at the Pentagon rocked my building as I prepared to leave for the Capitol. I walked down East Capitol while people streamed out of the House Office Buildings and passed me on the street. The Capitol Hill police were cordoning off the area, sirens wailing in the background; no one was permitted further entry, and members of Congress were barred from their own offices. Another hijacked plane was in the air and one presumed destination was another target in the capital.

What happened at last Tuesday's City Council meeting, and the decision to dismiss two respected commissioners, defies logic and basic decency ("Council boots commissioners," Wednesday). As a resident of Glendale, I was ashamed of our city. Democracy is founded on the concept of free speech. "We the people" is the beginning phrase of the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln said it well when he proclaimed, "government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth."

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- Paul Carney walked out of Starbucks looking shaky. He'd been up since 4 a.m., he said. He's often awake at odd times these days, just thinking about the way things have gone. But the man in the basketball jacket and silver glasses sounded calm. He seemed far more thoughtful than the person who penned an angry letter to the Glendale News-Press in January. In that letter, Carney protested the city's lowering of the American flag to honor the Armenian genocide, and threw in a slur against Armenians for good measure.

We have one smart councilwoman, and I wish that the rest of the council could get on the ball and support Laura Friedman, who suggested that we need to complete the Gold Line to San Bernardino. Please read Sharon Weisman’s letter (“Show’s 710 stance was disappointing,” Aug. 17). She is so right — all that containerized cargo from the ports of Long Beach belongs on rail. With hundreds of trucks off the freeways, we will not have to read in the future of all those truck accidents killing people.