AND THEY’RE OFF

A lively launch to this year’s 20th annual Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon at Spago in Beverly Hills. Jimmy may be gone but his legions of fans and friends are keeping his philanthropic spirit alive.

“It just keeps getting better every year,” explained the marathon’s Charles Mitchell. “From a chairman’s standpoint, we’ve raised a lot more money. There’s been more exposure and we have always had a lot of support because everyone loved Jimmy so much.” How much? Well, just take a look at some of the heavyweight Hollywood help — Sharon Stone, Daryl Hannah, Charlton Heston, Wolfgang Puck and Kenny Rogers have all participated in past events, and more big names are expected to step up to the starting line this year.

After humble beginnings as a 10-kilometer road race in Marina del Rey, the marathon has turned itself into a Southern California tradition. The Jimmy Stewart race is the largest five-person relay marathon in the United States. Thousands of competitors will gather on the grounds of Griffith Park on April 22 for a day of sweat, sun and fun. The event will be divided into three major categories — the 26.2-mile relay marathon, a five-mile celebrity race and a kids’ challenge. Over the years, the event has raised $7.1 million to support the work of Saint John’s Health Center’s Child and Family Development Center.

OPERATIC VISION

Malibu Bond-man Pierce Brosnan joined A-list celebs Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Sela Ward and assorted libretto lovers for a bit of night music at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as the Los Angeles Opera showcased Placido Domingo and friends. The Welcome Concert & Gala was a celebration of Domingo’s new role as the opera’s artistic director.

The evening featured a bienvenidos performed in several languages as well as a little vita loca with swinging hipster Ricky Martin. Following the program, a flock of 700 guests made its way to a tented party venue at the California Plaza for a little champagne, a light supper and the sounds of the Swingtown band.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne chimed in to help celebrate the “Golden Age of Choral Music” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The evening reunited Horne with Los Angeles Master Chorale director Paul Salamunovich as well as superstar singers Marni Nixon and Harve Presnell. The gifted trio sang with Salamunovich when they were all in the Roger Wagner Chorale way back when. “It was 1946,” the director recalled. “We were just kids then, but what a great time we had and we’ve remained friends all this time.” The program was a mixture of popular American music, Broadway tunes, folk songs and patriotic anthems from the 1950s — an era that drew choral music into the mainstream and which Salamunovich describes as one of the exciting times in choral history. The spectacular performance ended with Aaron Copland’s “The Promise of Living” and bravos all around.

On March 28, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case addressing whether medical marijuana distributors may offer a “medical necessity” defense in federal court. The Court’s ruling in U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative cannot overturn California’s medical marijuana law.

In the case, the U.S. Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to reverse the September 13, 1999 decision of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which permits entities to distribute marijuana if they can prove that their clients are seriously ill and have a legitimate medical need for the substance.

This case deals exclusively with federal law and is essentially limited to distribution issues: it does not question a state’s ability to allow patients to grow, possess, and use medical marijuana under state law.

Nearly 99 percent of all marijuana arrests in the nation are made by state and local (not federal) officials. Thus, California’s medical marijuana law effectively protects 99 out of every 100 medical marijuana users who otherwise would have been arrested and prosecuted – no matter what the Supreme Court rules in the Oakland case.

Robert Kampia,

executive director

Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C.

In churches and outdoor sunrise services around the world, Christians celebrated Easter Sunday with messages of peace. Even in strife-ridden countries where peace is more a concept than a reality, pastors talked of hope. Even as Israel attacked Syrian radar bases, in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Christ is believed to have been crucified, the Roman Catholic patriarch, who is a Palestinian, said the resurrection of Jesus is a message of hope for ending the fighting. In St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II said, “Peace is possible even where for too long there has been fighting and death,” naming Jerusalem, the Holy land, the Balkans, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Among the crowd of 100,000 Romans and tourists, there must have been some from those troubled lands who wondered if they could, “Rediscover with joy and wonder that the world is no longer a slave to the inevitable.”

Even in countries where communists once banned religious practice, Easter celebrations flourished. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin attended services at the Russian orthodox cathedral of Christ the Savior. In Grozny, Chechniyans gathered, under heavy guard from rebel attack, beside the ruins of their church for an open-air service. Priests later carried blessings to Russian soldiers at the military barracks in the city.

In Ireland, Protestants and Catholics celebrated Easter in remarkable similar services for a nation so deeply divided along religious lines.

At Whidbey Island prayers were offered at Christian churches of many denominations to celebrate the return from China of our spy plane crew members.

All over this country, Easter was celebrated in dozens, if not hundreds of different Christian churches. We marvel at their diversity, all apparently delivering the same message in similar, if not identical, services. Why so many? Why, among all the Protestant churches, do worshipers feel comfortable with a particular one? In the small mountain community where I live there are about two dozen churches for a population of less than 10,000, spread over about 30 miles. One Roman Catholic, one Lutheran and one Baptist speak to traditional worshipers. The rest seem to be leaning toward new concepts of faith, and maybe even a new ecumenicalism. The Lutheran pastor gives one service at the 7th Day Adventists church and one at the El Camino Pines Camp Chapel. The Foursquare Church meets above a restaurant; the Living Faith Christian Church and the Evangelical Free church share a business address, but meet at the elementary school; the Calvary Fellowship, an outreach of Calvary Chapel Santa Clarita, meets at the Frazier Park Community Building. There’s even a Southern California Bible Fellowship (conservative Mennonite) meeting in a residential area nearby. Their messages sound similar: “Spiritually relevant to a changing society”; “A family fellowship, Bible based and Christ centered”; “For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry”; “We have room for you in our hearts.” One even has a Web site and touts tax deductible auto and RV donations.

I’m not sure what all this has to do with enlightenment, but very little of it is based on our cultural or religious traditions.

Nevertheless, we attended the only sunrise service in town. Billed as a combined effort of all the local churches, only two pastors actually participated. But it was held at a lovely rustic chapel in a pine forest where my daughter had been enthralled two years ago by the beauty of an Easter morning snowfall. We tried to keep our tiny candles lit in the 32 degree breeze while reading the chanted responses, “He is risen, indeed.”

My m ind wandered to the Easter mornings of my childhood at Church of the Good Shepherd, where I lit candles, made the Stations of the Cross (depicted in majestic stained glass windows) on Good Friday, and was granted absolution for my many but not very grievous sins. I was always enchanted by the profusion of fresh flowers on the altar, the solemnity of the Latin mass, the scent of incense drifting up to the heavenly painted ceiling, the marble columns and holy water fonts, the carved walnut pews and confessional doors, and the choir loft with its pipe organ that filled the huge space with sonorous chords. I sang in the choir, classical hymns in Latin, Bach and Handel.

That’s what is missing for me in the new churches, with their electric keyboards, guitars and folk songs with the lyrics projected on a screen at the front where the altar should be.

That’s why this Easter service seemed so strange to me. “He is risen, indeed.” Where were the Hosannas, the Glorias, the Agnus Dei, the hallelujahs (the ahlaylooyahs sung with such joy in my clear, childish soprano)?

After breakfast, I retreated to my room and turned on the local NPR station. Handel’s Messiah from some grand European cathedral filled the air, striking a chord, so to speak, somewhere in my deeper consciousness. I gazed out the window at my hyacinths and daffodils, not nearly as regal as the glorious Easter lilies of yore, but the effect was the same. God is in nature, in the music of the ages, and that may be the real path to peace.

Through the vision and generosity of Malibu clubs and associations, your Malibu Public Library now has a more beautifully landscaped public entrance. The Malibu Garden Club, the Malibu Optimist Club, the Malibu Kiwanis Club, the Malibu Rotary Club, and the Malibu Association of Contractors all contributed ideas and funds to re-do the planting outside our front door. It is a great improvement. We extend our thanks and appreciation to all those involved. You have helped to make our small corner of Malibu a more pleasing place to see.

Sherri Smith,

library manager Malibu Public Library

After reading the numerous comments on both sides regarding the attack on Sharon Barovsky’s possible past connection to Christi Hogin and the appropriateness of her involvement in a present appointment as city attorney for Malibu, I can’t help notice that no one seems to be addressing the more important issues: Why, indeed, was Ms. Hogin fired from this position two years ago? And what merits the doubling of her past salary if she is appointed again?

If there was any impropriety involving Sharon Barovsky, hopefully it will come to light and be dealt with appropriately. But I believe the citizens of Malibu should be far more concerned with Christi Hogin’s qualifications for the position than who does or does not endorse her.

What we should have access to read about is the details of her firing and the determination of the salary being offered our city attorney now. Am I alone?

Katie Delaney

In this week’s newspaper there is a letter to the editor from Efrom Fader, the president of the Malibu Township Council. I suspect that some of you who have been here for less than a lifetime may well be wondering just what the Malibu Township Council (MTC) might be and who do they really represent?

To answer that question you need a little history.

Many years ago, in the late 1940s / early ’50s or so, long before Malibu was a city, at a time when it was part of the outskirts of the county, a local organization called the Malibu Township Council formed to be a local voice. The Township Council communicated with the county supervisor and his local deputy to let the county know what the Malibu community wanted.

Over the years, the organization, being the only local political voice in the community, was relatively effective. It was part of the resistance to a massive overbuilding of Malibu, which was in county plans, and to help stop other things like a marina, a freeway over the top of the mountains and, its major accomplishment, stopping a nuclear power plant scheduled for our local shoreline. Serving on the Malibu Township Council allowed our future leaders to get politically seasoned. Many of our city’s leadership cut their political teeth serving on the MTC.

But then cityhood came along and many on the MTC gave up advisory power for real cityhood political power. The MTC sort of became surplusage, but continued to stumble on, looking for a role for itself.

Someone died and left it a little money, so the MTC soldiered on, running some programs like political forums. In fact, the MTC is holding a forum this Saturday to discuss the proposed Civic Center guidelines.

Theoretically, the members of the MTC, who come from different geographic areas of Malibu, elect a representative to the MTC council. But the reality is that very few people participate in the process and you tend to see the same faces associated with the MTC year after year after year. Since cityhood, the MTC heir political power has waned substantially.

Lately, it’s been a place that the zero-growthers group goes to wait, sort of a shadow government in exile, hoping some day to come back into the sun. While there, they typically take pot shots at whomever is on the council that they’d like to replace with one of their own. That’s what this nonsense is all about relating to Christi Hogin moving over from city manager to city attorney and this equally nonsensical suggestion that somehow she and Councilmember Sharon Barovsky were in cahoots five to 10 years ago in connection with a lawsuit.

The background on the lawsuit is that in the early 1990s Barovsky caught her foot in a hole at a construction site on Malibu Road and sustained a bad ankle fracture. It required two surgeries before it was finally set. I know it was a bad fracture because I tried personal injury cases for many years, and ankle fractures requiring surgery are usually fracture dislocations, typically requiring pinning and plates. Even if the surgeon does a great job, there are almost invariably long-term impacts — arthritic changes in the joint and lots of medical expenses. Also, at a construction site on a city street, there are loads of defendants, usually the contractor, the subcontractor, the city, and just about anyone else who touches the job.

When an injury occurs the insurance companies take over, select their own attorneys and direct the litigation. Large cities, like Los Angeles, may have their own city attorney staffs, but small cities typically let insurance company attorneys handle it. In fact, smaller cities generally have no choice since it’s the insurance carrier that pays the tab.

In this case the medical bills were very large and the final settlement was in the neighborhood of $75,000 with the City of Malibu’s carrier, I’ve been advised, putting in $7,500 of the overall settlement, which seems to me to be relatively modest. Settlements by governmental entities have to be approved by the governing body, the council for example, but those approvals are typically pro forma, because it’s the insurance company’s money that usually pays the settlement. And it is known, from experience, that insurance companies are fairly hard-nosed in deciding whether or not to settle.

This whole issue, to put it mildly, is a tempest in a teapot, with nothing more than a political agenda behind it. Someone is blowing a lot of smoke around because someone, or their friend, wants to run for the Barovsky council seat, which is up for grabs in 2002. This is just an early part of the political campaign.