IN THE SPIRIT

Local notables David Foster, Whoopi Goldberg and Olivia Newton-John helped the Red Cross celebrate the good deeds of pal Jane Seymour at this year’s American Red Cross Spirit Awards. Jane was named the organization’s humanitarian of the year for her commitment to philanthropic causes and positive contributions to television shows like “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” The Emmy Award-winning actress has a long history with the Red Cross, saying, “My mother was a Red Cross nurse during the war. I was a member when I was young in England too, so the Red Cross has been a running theme in our family, and something like that means a great deal to all of us.”

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT

The celebrity traffic was bumper-to-bumper at the Regent Beverly Wilshire as half of Hollywood turned out for Cedars-Sinai’s Research for Women’s Cancer 5th annual “An Unforgettable Evening” dinner. The big draw was most definitely hot power couple Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas who received The Courage Award. Mingling in the crowd were the likes of locals Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna as well as Sylvester Stallone, Tom Arnold, Kirk Douglas — heck, even Denise Rich was there.

The unforgettable evening got some heavyweight help with Tom Hanks, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg serving as honorary co-chairs and Jay Leno taking the stage as emcee. The program took an unexpected turn when Robert Downey Jr. joined Sting for a rendition of “Every Breath You Take” bringing the crowd to its feet.

The annual fundraiser for the Women’s Cancer Institute will add another $1.5 million to its efforts to treat and prevent breast and ovarian cancer. The crusade is one that is close to home for Michael Douglas. “Both my own mother, Diana, and my stepmother, Anne, are cancer survivors thanks to early diagnosis,” he explained. “That’s why we share this award with every family that has supported a loved one through this terrible disease.”

IT’S ONLY SAX

It was B.B. King on guitar and Bill Clinton on sax at this year’s “A Family Celebration” benefit at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. The blues legend teamed up with Hollywood’s favorite former prez for a rockin’ jam session. It couldn’t have been a better way to top off an evening of performances by boy band ‘N Sync, salsa sensation Marc Anthony, good ol’ boy Dwight Yoakam and soul man Ray Charles. Before showing off his musical side, the former president took the stage with Elizabeth Taylor who presented him with this year’s Award of Merit.

While I understand justifiable anger, sometimes we do go too far with our words when we express that anger. I am inviting you (Sam Birenbaum) to take a look at some things.

You are correct about the responsibilities that dog owners have to others and their property, but labeling folks is not helpful. You have given a label to those who love their pets as “animal idolaters.” Most of the pet owners in Malibu don’t ‘worship’ their pets, but they do give them love and receive great joy from them. No one should worship an animal, or mere human for that matter. Giving love and receiving enjoyment are not synonymous with idolatry.

You accuse people who have a love for their pets as “anthropomorphizing” them and aggressively labeling it as a “deranged mental and emotional pathology.” Maybe some people are more inclined to love a pet because animals do not make a conscious choice to harm and attack as humans do. They do not judge and aggressively label as humans do. When an animal does inflict harm, it is quite often because a human has abused the animal, trained it to attack for their own ego gratification, or lack of being a responsible person. Animals attack by instinct and do not have the capacity to make a conscious choice. Humans attack verbally and physically by choice.

You also assume that many have pets as a replacement for a child or friends and call it “twisted.” Not everyone has a calling to have children, and some folks enjoy their own company enough to not need a group of friends to feel good about themselves or to feel accepted. Some people have human family members who have stepped on them, abused them, and abandoned them. Humans are not always as wonderful as you seem to make them out to be.They may be superior in intelligence, but many lack superiority in spirit.

Alethea Guthrie

The Coastal Commission and Coastal Conservancy are raping Malibu. Pristine beaches don’t stay that way with 37 parking spaces paved on the sand. Up on Broad Beach Road a man named Norm Haynie is pushing to make a private beach public because he can’t build on the sand.

Are we to be another Santa Barbara or Playa Del Rey or Palos Verdes where the sand is so dirty you can’t even tell it’s sand?

The state accesses are not maintained as it is now. Will the Coastal Commission pay for trash pick-up and patrol the beach at night? Will the Coastal Commission post signs on the private beaches and educate the public about lot lines?

Are any of the Coastal Commission or Coastal Conservancy members aware of what conservation means? Increased use of an area threatens the very essence and beauty of its natural ebb and flow.

Why always the push toward public use and resentment of private property? Why push and shove people who are not vested in the interest of respecting nature – why pit the people who are working at maintaining a quality of life with the people who don’t care about leaving piles of trash on the beach for the ocean to take away?

Who is Norm Haynie? Who are the Coastal Conservancy members? Why do they get to decide Malibu’s fate? Who said there can’t be private beaches?

J. Johnson

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.