I am responding to the criticism Scott Dittrich wrote last week regarding my letter about Rick Wallace’s contributions to The Malibu Times. I would like to set the record straight on several issues that Mr. Dittrich brings up. Mr. Dittrich implies that people, and by inference me, expected real estate values to increase in perpetuity, that homes were used as piggy banks and that an income drop was the motivation for my letter. While these unfortunate facts may be true for some people in this difficult time, I can assure you, Mr. Dittrich, that I did not have these expectations or motivations, nor have I ever used home equity to live on.
In fact, I have been living in my modest house for years and it is not for sale. My point was that the real estate industry was part and parcel to this terrible economic morass to begin with and now, in retrospect, it is predicting further steep declines, which I feel is self serving.
In reference to the comments that I am employing “Stalin gulag” writing tactics, I want to remind you that in Russia and other countries that control their news, the press is used for propaganda, and biased writing such as Mr. Wallace’s are part of the power of totalitarianism.
If you truly read my comments, you will learn that I feel Mr. Wallace’s comments are perfectly fine if they are in the editorial section but are unacceptable when Mr. Wallace is acting as a reporter for the Times. Mr. Dittrich, you have every right to be critical of my writing. However, I stand by my comments with pride and as a matter of my free speech.
Matt Borenzweig