Fear of Anthrax? I have none. Fear of Lyme disease? Yes, I do have for those who are unaware of the ubiquitous nature of Borrelia Burgdorferi, the bacterium which causes Lyme disease.

Borrelia Burgdorferi has been occurring in nature for centuries. According to the 1995 United Nations Security Council document, four species of borrelia were monitored for use as biological weapons in Iraq, including Borrelia Burgdorferi, Lyme disease.

Currently, there are less than 50 patients infected with anthrax. Lyme disease cases in the U.S. are estimated to be 2 million, costing society $18 million.

There have been three deaths due to contact from anthrax. Patients infected with Lyme disease have died due to complications from the illness. Pregnant mothers can pass the Lyme bacterium to their babies through the placenta and breast milk.

The rash, which occurs in 50 percent of patients, is the ONLY marker for Lyme disease; this is proof of infection–the diagnostic gold standard. If you have the rash, you have the illness and should be treated with antibiotics immediately with a 4-6 week course of antibiotics. Undertreatment or delayed diagnosis often result in a chronic, insidious difficult to treat disease.

Rheumatic fever, acne, recurrent otitis, bronchiectasis, recurrent cystitis and Lyme disease, are examples of illnesses treated long-term for persistent infection without any dire consequences as a result of the medications used.

I am not recommending that the people take antibiotics indiscriminately. But for Lyme, an illness which can be cured with early treatment, I would suggest consulting a physician regarding antibiotics, since the bacteria can disseminate to the central nervous system within 12 hours and lay dormant for months to years.

If the clock could be turned back seven years ago and my expanding rash identified and treated, I could have avoided persistent disabling Lyme disease, for which I have to take doxycycline and biaxin on a daily basis.

Barbara Barsocchini

Board member, Lyme Disease Resource Center

On the second Friday of every month, Malibu holds its Women in Film networking breakfast. That’s the way it’s been for the past 11 years without hiatus. One of our meetings fell on Sept.14, three days after the attack on America, the day President Bush named “Day of Prayer.”

America was in shock and we started to cancel the breakfast. We asked ourselves if this is appropriate. On television, I heard Chief Bernard Parks say, “Don’t let the terrorists take your freedom away. Continue your day as usual.” Members were calling and asking, “Is there going to be a breakfast this Friday?… Let’s do it…. We need to be around people…” Someone asked, “Should we give out American flags at the breakfast?” I said no. Let’s just do what we normally do. Let’s give out love.

And so it was all about love that morning. We had an open mike. Everyone had the opportunity to come up and say who they are, what they do, what they need, and what they can offer.

I was surprised to see the majority of the people who were from New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. Some had arrived in Los Angeles within days prior to the attack. One member asked us to try and forgive the unforgivable. We held hands, we hugged and kissed one another. At one point we all stood and sang “God Bless America.”

There was always something special about the Women in Film breakfasts that I could never put into words. On Friday, Sept. 14, it became very clear that through networking, mentoring and empowering one another comes love.

Candace Bowen

On Nov. 6 we will be voting on the $15 million bond issue. At the same time, Point Dume residents will be voting on those who will be on the Board of Directors of the Point Dume Community Service District.

The PDCSD Board wishes to expand into our neighborhood at the site of the Cowan Nursery and the Malibu Stage Co. theater site. In deciding to choose your board members, please consider the following facts.

1. Zuma Canyon is not in your service district, hence your board is not accountable to us, i.e. we have no voting rights.

2. The overwhelming majority of homeowners on Bonsall strongly object to your district expanding into our neighborhood.

3. Clark Cowan, owner of the site, told us that he does not wish the district to use his nursery site.

4. Clark Cowan was told by the M.S.C. (that leases the theater site) that they are no longer interested in entering into any agreement with the PDCSD.

To my friends and neighbors on Point Dume, please be sensitive to your neighbors on Bonsall Drive and inform your board of directors of the PDCSD, including Beverly Hammond, to confine their activity to their district and leave us alone! We do not share Beverly Hammond’s vision of a “New Future” that includes our neighborhood.

Malibu needs a community center. This site is not the solution. There are much better solutions. It’s a city-wide need and requires a city-wide solution; hence it should be under the direction of the City of Malibu.

Russ Drago

As a Santa Monica BayKeeper volunteer once a month, I walk my beach. My beach is from 2000 block of PCH (Big Rock) to the 19300 block of PCH (Las Tunas Canyon Rd).

While monitoring the storm drains, kelp beds and ocean life, I pick up trash. Since I live near the beach and enjoy swimming, surfing, scuba diving and observing wildlife, this is an ideal volunteer activity for me.

Last weekend, most of the beach and water were clean except for a few problem areas where I found beer bottles, plastic water bottles, Styrofoam, food wrappers and cigarette butts. (A plea to smokers: When smoking on the beach please bring a portable ashtray for discarding butts. It’s environmental friendly and very fashionable.)

The real problem for keeping our ocean water clean is the trash in front of the homes on PCH. All that litter ends up on the beach and evidently in the water, polluting the ocean. Most of the litter comes from cars driving by on PCH. Someone has to pick it up before it contaminates the ocean. I do it once a month. If everyone who lives in the area and/or enjoys the beach here would help by weekly cleaning their immediate area, we would have a cleaner, healthier ocean.

Marie Turner

A political injustice has been perpetrated in the City of Malibu. Last year, Assembly Speaker Hertzberg (with the full support of our then Assembly member Sheila Kuehl) introduced AB 988. This bill empowers the California Coastal Commission to draft Malibu’s Local Coastal Plan (LCP), which includes land use plans and land usage maps (which determine what people can do with their properties). Aided by many misconceptions and stories about Malibu, AB988 sailed through the Legislature and was signed by the Governor.

No one in Sacramento was told about the years of effort and public hearings that resulted in a Malibu General Plan and zoning ordinance which implements the Coastal Act. And no one from the Coastal Commission mentioned that we had submitted two drafts, both rejected without review or adequate explanation (the second was still sitting on the Coastal Commission’s desk). These rejections have caused almost irreparable harm to our community, first frustrating us, then fracturing our community, as we have thought that we may have been to blame for other reasons than possibly not having submitted the best format. Without a doubt, this has had a negative effect on the political atmosphere here.

We in Malibu must correct this situation. As disenfranchised citizens, we will fight to preserve the rights and integrity of our self-governance. We are circulating a citizen’s petition to send a direct message to our legislators. Copies are being sent to all the Homeowners’ Associations in Malibu. We will also be taking signatures at the markets on Saturday, Oct. 27, and at the Coastal Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the Webster Elementary School. You will also find a copy of this petition in The Malibu Times.

The United States is engaged in a war, fighting to preserve our democratic freedoms. We cannot lose them from within.

Please sign our petition.

Ruth White

Attempt to block City of Malibu land plan rejected

By Arnold G. York/Publisher

The Malibu Township Council (MTC), which recently has often been critical of the current Malibu City Council, suffered a major defeat in Superior Court last week when Judge Lorna Parnell knocked out an MTC lawsuit against the city in a summary court proceeding.

The MTC had sought to get the City of Malibu’s most recent version of the Local Coastal Plan (known as the 2001 draft) thrown out and to have the court impose upon the city what was, in effect, a gag order. In handing down her decision, the judge said, in the written order, “The court in essence agrees with the defendants [City of Malibu’s] contention … that the plaintiff’s [MTC] cause of action are based upon incorrect interpretations of legal authorities.”

The legal procedure, in which the court sustained the City of Malibu’s demurrer, without leave to amend (that’s just for the lawyers), is highly unusual, since frequently trial courts try to give the losing side an opportunity to correct their pleading. But in this case, the court was clearly of the opinion that what the MTC was trying to do was not legally permissible and therefore uncorrectable.

Malibu City Attorney Christi Hogin, who represented the city in the case, said, “The message of this case is that when you have a political dispute, the place to air it out is in the council meeting … if the MTC had won, the city would have, under a court order, to only speak when spoken.”

Attorney Frank Angel, who represented the Malibu Township Council, did not agree with either the court’s ruling or the city attorney’s interpretation of what it meant. He thought that AB 988, the bill that passed last year giving the power to the California Coastal Commission to draft Malibu’s LCP, essentially took the city out of the LCP game and relegated it to the sidelines. Although Angel conceded that part of the problem is the bill was poorly drafted and unclear, and thusly open to interpretation. He said the MTC sued because it sought to avoid the current situation where there are now two pending LCPs, the Coastal Commission’s version and the City of Malibu’s version, which, he believes, creates confusion. He said the MTC is extremely disappointed with the judge’s decision because MTC members felt it was a decision on a question that was not tough legally, just tough politically. He expects to meet shortly with the board of directors of the MTC to lay out all their options, which include the possibility of an appeal to a higher court, and get a decision on how to proceed.

Standing alone, the decision might not mean that much. However, the MTC lawsuit is joined by a group of other lawsuits, most from the green side of the environmental spectrum, and all appear to want to do the same thing-that is, tie the hands of the present City Council and keep it from exercising its political judgment in land-use matters.

Even if the MTC were to decide not to appeal, it would not end the legal challenges by the opposition to block the latest City of Malibu version (2001 draft) of the LCP.

There is another lawsuit coming up, filed by yet another group called Taxpayers for a Livable Community and by Malibu resident Jay Liebig. Liebig has been an activist in the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy coalition, which is seeking to stop the city from going ahead with the city’s LCP, and, in fact, wants the court to throw out the latest version (version 2001) and order the city to go back to the earlier version, which was drafted by the old Walt Keller/Carolyn Van Horn forces. That earlier version was unceremoniously dumped after Keller and Van Horn lost their elections. The reason it was dumped was never quite clear, although opponents claim the city told the Coastal Commission to dump it and the city charges that the Coastal Commission never considered it [the earlier LCP version] because it was inadequate.

Following the Taxpayers/Liebig lawsuit is yet another that seeks to force the City Council to reinstate Proposition P from the last election. You may recall that Proposition N (the City Council initiative) passed, and got more votes than Proposition and P and, since both ballot propositions contained a so-called “poison pill,” it was thought at the time it meant that N won and P lost. The enviro forces pushing Prop P apparently feel otherwise and are not about to go down without a legal battle royal and the case is probably enroute to the Court of Appeals.

It’s beginning to look like the issues raised in Malibu elections are never finished until a court says they’re finished, and that’s after years of appeals.

The interesting question is, who’s paying for all of this litigation? Most of the lawyers involved are first-rate political and environmental litigation types and they don’t come cheap. Someone or a group of someone’s is footing the legal bills, and many of these legal bills have got to add up to a lot more than it would cost to run for office.

Even the most spontaneous have routines. Part of my morning ritual is my cup of decaf and my morning walk with my dog. As I walk, I notice neighbors performing their rituals-one neighbor left the same time every morning as I. I would cheerfully wave to him as he drove down the street with his young son and dog. A few times he would stop and we would have a nice chat.

On Friday, Oct. 19, I was walking up the hill toward his house and since it was past his normal time, I was wondering when I would see him driving down. Just then the paramedics and police arrived. It seems that my neighbor passed away in his sleep! His 4-year-old son had discovered this and within a very short time, friends and neighbors were there to help. It’s even more traumatic when something like this happens close to home. I also thought of the son and the rest of the family and friends that would be affected by my neighbor’s passing. And I thought how fortunate that throughout all these years, I waved and said good morning and had the gesture returned!

It’s difficult to create a “neighborhood” in Malibu-so many of us are “loners.” I’m not very “social” myself! However, it doesn’t take much to respect neighbors and at least say “hello.” Each person may want something a certain way but cooperation and communication (the “middle path”) really works-working together!

Once again I am overwhelmed at the beauty around me and more appreciative of life. Hopefully it doesn’t take this sort of tragedy to make one aware of the preciousness of human life and the joy of the treasures of the heart, the human touch! This is a good time to review how we are all interwoven-even the most aloof, and how important human relationships are.

Alessandra DeClario