Pepper Edmiston

As executive director of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, Pepper Edmiston was a terrific fund-raiser. But the Pacific Palisades woman who in 1982 founded Camp Good Times for children with cancer, expanded it throughout Southern California and later helped persuade McDonald's to join her, now concedes that it may have been a mistake ever to have become involved with the hamburger giant.

Re "The two Hillarys," Opinion, June 13 Surely Ronald Brownstein knows that women have many sides. Implying there are only two Hillarys is an insult to a brilliant, complex, capable woman. I am voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) for president not simply because she is the best person for the job. I support her because she is a fighter and, when the Republicans once again try to steal the election, she won't be a lady and go away. We Democrats must remember: It's not only the votes that count, it's who counts the votes.

Re "The two Hillarys," Opinion, June 13 Surely Ronald Brownstein knows that women have many sides. Implying there are only two Hillarys is an insult to a brilliant, complex, capable woman. I am voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) for president not simply because she is the best person for the job. I support her because she is a fighter and, when the Republicans once again try to steal the election, she won't be a lady and go away. We Democrats must remember: It's not only the votes that count, it's who counts the votes.

Re "Kerry Takes New Hampshire; Dean Finishes Distant Second," Jan. 28: My fellow Democrats need to wake up. Republicans will be delighted to "bring it on" with Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry. More liberal than Howard Dean, with a 20-year record to attack, Kerry has supported a half-trillion dollars in tax increases, opposed the death penalty for terrorists [in the 1980s], supported federal Supplemental Security Income cash benefits to drug addicts ... and the beat goes on. President Bush's political advisor Karl Rove and the gang will make mincemeat of Kerry.

In answer to Nina J. Easton's question, "What Could Hollywood and D.C. Possibly Have in Common?" (March 24): Well for one thing, a lack of creativity. For others, fiscal irresponsibility and moral ineptitude. And Easton's favorite: public detachment. As the saying goes, two wrongs don't make a right. Both sides need to get their acts together before the whole country goes to hell with them. L. M. Kates Encino Easton is a terrific writer. We enjoyed her piece on the common, shaky ground that Hollywood and Washington share.

Re "Kerry Takes New Hampshire; Dean Finishes Distant Second," Jan. 28: My fellow Democrats need to wake up. Republicans will be delighted to "bring it on" with Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry. More liberal than Howard Dean, with a 20-year record to attack, Kerry has supported a half-trillion dollars in tax increases, opposed the death penalty for terrorists [in the 1980s], supported federal Supplemental Security Income cash benefits to drug addicts ... and the beat goes on. President Bush's political advisor Karl Rove and the gang will make mincemeat of Kerry.

Mayor Max Salter welcomed four young cancer patients from the Soviet Union to Beverly Hills in a City Hall ceremony last week. The patients--Alina Ivanova and Nina Djenda, both 11, and Tanja Shmorgoner and Angelea Mihay, both 13--were accompanied by Drs. Lev Durnov and Liana Nikelova, a of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer Research Center in Moscow. Salter gave the visitors keys to the city and gift packages including teddy bears, wrist-watch walkie-talkies and perfume.

Re "Healthcare for prisons: $7 billion," April 12 Seven billion dollars is too much money to go to the prison system. We have made our children sacrifice their education to balance the state's books. Instead of sending hundreds of pink slips to California teachers, a large portion of this money should go to our schools. In my community, they are already talking of permanently closing some elementary schools because of a lack of funding. We are regressing, and the only way we can undo the damage is if our leaders reevaluate their priorities.

When President-elect Bill Clinton led a joyous procession across this city's Memorial Bridge on Sunday night, it was no accident that he was surrounded by hundreds of children, including a contingent from a California camp for youngsters with cancer. "Let us build an American home for the 21st Century where everyone has a place at the table and not a single child is left behind," Clinton said before leading the procession across the Potomac River.

Even the grainy L.A. Times photo of the Disney Hall model made me gasp ("A Project in Need of Greater Harmony," June 24); what a magnificent structure, soaring upward, elevating the viewer as great music elevates the listener. What is there to debate? Of course Frank Gehry must guide his masterpiece through its completion. Who else could? My husband and I are happy to wait for the designs to be properly executed and to one day see Gehry's Disney Hall built exactly as the eminent architect intended.

In answer to Nina J. Easton's question, "What Could Hollywood and D.C. Possibly Have in Common?" (March 24): Well for one thing, a lack of creativity. For others, fiscal irresponsibility and moral ineptitude. And Easton's favorite: public detachment. As the saying goes, two wrongs don't make a right. Both sides need to get their acts together before the whole country goes to hell with them. L. M. Kates Encino Easton is a terrific writer. We enjoyed her piece on the common, shaky ground that Hollywood and Washington share.

As executive director of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, Pepper Edmiston was a terrific fund-raiser. But the Pacific Palisades woman who in 1982 founded Camp Good Times for children with cancer, expanded it throughout Southern California and later helped persuade McDonald's to join her, now concedes that it may have been a mistake ever to have become involved with the hamburger giant.

The wealthy father-in-law of Joseph T. Edmiston, head of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, paid $4,700 for a newspaper advertisement urging the public to lobby elected officials to support a controversial conservancy-backed swap of National Park Service land in Cheeseboro Canyon.

A controversial newspaper ad, in support of the swap of national parkland for property owned by entertainer Bob Hope, was paid for by Beverly Hills City Councilman Max Salter, whose son-in-law heads a conservancy that negotiated the exchange. Salter said Thursday that his daughter, Pepper Edmiston, asked for the $4,700 as a part of her effort to help form a citizen group to lobby federal legislators to support the proposed agreement. She is married to Joseph T.