This letter is in response to J. Patrick Maginnis’ letter [The Malibu Times, Sept. 24] “Take That Out Of Your Pipe.”

If you want shopping and convenience, live in Westlake or Thousand Oaks or any of the many other “built-up” beach communities. Don’t live in Malibu.

We who live here, do so because it is a rural area and we don’t have lots of stores and shopping centers. We live here to keep the land natural and vacant of structures. We want nature in all its splendor — wide open spaces. The majority of us don’t want to “Pave Paradise and Put Up A Parking Lot.”

Incidentally, if you have ever participated in the Beach Clean-Up you would have picked up the tons of trash deposited on our beautiful beaches and along our roadways by tourists defiling the area. And you want more people coming here?

Not all of us in Malibu are rich. We sacrifice to live here in paradise. Let’s not be stupid and ruin Malibu with more traffic, more people and more trash.

My suggestion to you is move and quickly.

Marc Johnson

As time goes by, those who did not attend the Dolphin Ball will regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of their lives. These words recall the Bogart/Bergman wartime classic about honor, commitment and renewed idealism. At “A Night in Casablanca,” the Malibu Cystic Fibrosis Guild’s second annual gala to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, there was plenty of the film’s spirit to go around.

Amid luxuriant palms at the Hazard Estate in Serra Retreat, 360 guests dined, danced and bid beneath the stars Saturday to raise upwards of $85,000 for CFF. That’s about 50 supporters and $15,000 more than last year.

The movie theme made for one helluva party.

Mere steps from the sign-in table was a martini bar with enough olives and onions to keep Bogie stocked for two world wars. Guests entered a Moroccan marketplace tent and were greeted by Malibu middle-schoolers Alex Anfanger, Sally Mills and Dylan Ross in full costume.

On the lawn, another hosted bar and 12 tables of silent auction delights beckoned guests to Rick’s Cafe Americain. The nightclub was aglow with candles floating in the azure pool and Casablanca lamps atop the dining tables. Throughout, Rick and Ilsa flickered in glorious black and white on a cinema-sized screen. The stage was more than ample, the dance floor substantial and the little touches such as souvenir fans made the evening memorable.

“General Hospital” star Jackie Zeman Gorden and “Superman” Dean Cain set a warm tone as emcees; this was Malibu’s party. They welcomed honorary chair Linda Hamilton, who praised the community’s ability to enhance one another’s lives. She quoted from Ralph Fiennes: “The people I consider successful are so because of how they handle their responsibilities to others, how they approach the future. . . . I call people ‘successful’ not because they have money or their business is doing well but because, as human beings, they have a fully developed sense of being alive and engaged in a lifetime task of collaboration with other human beings . . . .”

Meghan MacGregor brought little sister Kayleigh onstage. Of the 20-month-old toddler who was born with CF, Hamilton said, “She’s our girl. Give generously and give from your heart tonight!” Dr. Stacey Smith spoke of recent strides in medical research and about new developments in treatment for the disease. As Cain knelt beside him, Webster student Jordan McCarthy talked about the challenges he faces each day in coping with “Mr. CF.”

After guests dined on salmon and peppercorn fillet of beef, film and Broadway star Lou Diamond Phillips revved up the crowd for a live auction. Even those who’d retired to the cognac tent for an intimate performance by one beauty of a bellydancer came out to hear the rapid-fire patter of the auctioneer.

Partygoers danced past midnight to Roger Cain’s band, Catch 22, who, as predicted, heated up the Casbah. They danced to Rick Springfield and Prescott Niles doing the finest “Down to the Crossroads” we’ve ever heard.

All the entertainers, committee chairs and volunteers who made the event possible (most of whom were listed in last week’s newspaper) have no regrets. They were there for the best cause and Malibu’s best party ever.

I am a Catholic nun — and an animal lover — which means Oct. 4 is a very special day to me. It is on this day that we celebrate Saint Francis’ feast day. While he was alive, Francis of Assisi honored all of God’s creation, including the animals. With this in mind, churches around the country hold special services on his feast day in which animals are blessed.

When God created the world, he designed it to be like heaven, with people and animals all living together in peace. We were to care for the animals, not persecute them. Because of the original sin, we are where we are — in a troubled world in which we destroy animals on a massive scale without a thought for their feelings.

Animals suffer at humans’ hands in many ways, but perhaps the greatest number suffer in the meat industry. Each day, millions of animals’ cries go unheard in huge factory farms and slaughterhouses. Yet the chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys and other animals are all marvelous creations of God. I believe God didn’t mean for us to rob these animals of everything they hold dear. Let us address this agony, not just worry about whether these lovely beings’ flesh carries some mortal disease.

Many, myself included, find a vegetarian diet satisfying, healthful and, best of all, kind. Some also believe it to be consistent with Christian teachings. The very first vegetarian society in the U.S., for example, was founded by the Christian Bible Church, whose members held that the Bible teaches us to be vegetarian.

Clergy of all faiths can do more. I urge them to speak out on behalf of animals who suffer. I ask them not to remain silent when a few words and prayers could do so much to help. As Saint Francis himself said: “Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission — to be of service to them wherever they require it.” For more information on vegetarianism, call 1-888-VEG-FOOD.

Sister Mary Vianney,

PETA Correspondent

They popped onto the TV screen looking very serious, the weight of their constitutional task heavy on their brows.

I watched, thinking the House Judiciary Committee even considering the possibility of the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton should feel like tragedy and high drama. But it doesn’t. It feels more like low comedy. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Why?”

I remember watching the Army vs. Sen. Joe McCarthy hearings in the ’50s. The participants seemed larger than life, the villains more villainous, the heroes more heroic, the Senators all men of stature and the drama so taut it was almost unbearable.

Then came the Watergate hearings in the ’70s. Nixon was a villain you could sink your teeth into. The incriminating evidence dribbled out, a little at a time. Nixon wheeled and dealed to the very end, watching the slow erosion of his own partisan support until the end was inevitable.

At the end it became clear that the only thing that could have saved Nixon was if Spiro Agnew was still his vice president. Poor old Spiro, however, had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar; payoffs were delivered to him while he was in office, which was a bit much even for a vice president. In the final analysis, all agreed that there was a sensible alternative — Gerald Ford. He seemed a decent guy, and Nixon was a goner.

Will history repeat itself?

There are many similarities between Gore and Ford. Both are basically decent guys. Both are creatures of the Congress with friends in the Congress who go back many years. Gore practically grew up on the Senate floor. The Congress, and particularly the Democrats, tend to be a pragmatic bunch, and ultimately they may just decide, “The hell with Clinton. Let’s dump him, get Gore in there and start with a comparatively clean slate.”

That’s what make this so interesting, and at the same time low comedy. There are many Republicans making speeches now about how Clinton should go, but in reality the last thing they want is for Clinton to leave. Mortally wounded and in place, he’s an enormous political asset to them. They can all run against him. They can claim the moral high road. They can rail against him and satisfy their most rabid partisans. They can anticipate that the Democrats will be so disheartened that many may not go to the polls to vote and the Republicans could pick up seats in both houses.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are saddled with an albatross. With many, there is no great love for Clinton. Besides, there is a sense that Clinton is bleeding from a self-inflicted wound. Nevertheless, for now they have to play their role, support the president, be good party loyalists and watch the election returns, but in their hearts many would like to be rid of him.

Then there are the rest of us.

This crew in the White House and Congress just seems so much punier than our past leaders. I remember Erwin and Baker in the Senate and Radino, Jordan and Wiggins on the House Judiciary Committee, and I sensed men and women of high purpose, deeply committed to their country, with a larger historical sense of their mission and the gravity of the event, as well as a sense of caution about what they were doing.

I certainly have seen no indication of that yet in this current crew. It makes me wonder whether the new batch really is different and if we really have lost something.

Then there’s that little voice in the back of my head that says, “York, you’re full of baloney. You’re just getting old, and the past is taking on a rosy haze that was really never there. Besides, it’s not that they’re smaller, it’s just that you’re bigger.”

Perhaps that voice is right. I hope so.

Maybe in this process a few new leaders will emerge. New voices we can believe. Men and women who have some character and really do place country before party or self.

Let’s hope.

They are at it again! In the present case, the proponents and opponents of the so-called “Indian Gaming Initiative” are filling our airwaves, asking us voters to decide on a controversial and complex proposal when as yet we have scarcely a clue as to what the initiative says and includes. We are challenged to try to decipher over five pages of legalese in very small print!

This is only one of the 11 initiatives on the November ballot, all probably complex and difficult to understand. Cartoonist Fiore in a recent drawing put the issue in perspective. In his cartoon a mother says to her young son, “And if you study very hard, do all your homework, go to college, go to grad school, get a doctorate you might be able to understand all the ballot initiatives.”

It may take a “rocket scientist” to vote intelligently on the proposals, but it is easy to recognize that the initiative process is not working out as it was intended. The initiative process was established as a reform measure that would give control of the government back to the people, but the process has been taken over by special interests and has become a worst example of money politics. Odds are that the side that spends the most will win. For the Indian Gaming Initiative, each side will spend over 20 million dollars — mostly on 30-second radio and TV sound bites to convince us that the other side is bad, and which will give us no solid information on which to base our decision.

This is an issue that should be decided by our Legislature. We have no way of knowing the actual changes that this proposal would make. I sympathize with the Indians, but we need a law that will be simple and that will just let them keep their slot machines. It should not take five-plus pages to say that.

Chuck Green