Your publisher’s columns are always entertaining, although they usually must be read with an understanding that very few facts upon which you base your opinions are accurate. The divisiveness this week’s column intends to foment deserves a response so that Malibu residents have the record straight.
When describing a meeting at Serra Retreat to discuss the possibility of the community working together on a bond measure that would help purchase open space now slated for development, you stated that the meeting was attended by “the most improbable group of people, many who are seldom in the same room together without their boxing gloves on.” Then you include me in the list of those who attended.
While I did not attend this meeting and can, therefore, not confirm the attendance of any of the others you list, I can say that absolutely your premise about the boxing gloves is completely off the mark. Laure Stern and Dierdre Roney, two of those mentioned as attendees on the list, have been in the same room with me on several occasions, as we all belong to the Malibu Youth Coalition, which is dedicated to working together to support the young people in our community and their needs. We have never had any need for boxing gloves, and, in fact, Laure Stern and I also worked in harmony on a successful solution for the Point Dume Natural Preserve and its management. There are several others on your list of “attendees” at the meeting who I know have worked together in successful collaborations in this community.
While I could not attend the meeting about the bond measure, I would have been quite happy to be in the same room with all of the people your column mentions were in attendance, and I assure you that none of us would have though about boxing gloves. We have much more in common than you might think — all being dedicated to preserving the quality of life in our community.
The divisiveness that has been spread in this community has only been so incited by the Malibu Bay Company, its agents, and your newspaper. Hope springs eternal that the bitterness that is stirred up during elections and debates about issues crucial to the future of Malibu will end.
However, given the high stakes, tremendous profits and personal gains to be made by both the Malibu Bay Company (MBC) and your newspaper by increased advertising from the businesses MBC would need to lure to their proposed developments, it would seem we can expect more of the same. Let’s hope at least that this warning will remind us all to be cautious of such devious manipulation.
Marcia Hanscom