Readers React: Dissing the naugthy and praising the nice in 2014

Dec. 28, 2014 5 AM PT

To the editor: I took heart in reading your Christmas editorial saluting those who have been nice and dissing the “naughty.” I salute the unknown couple who drove around Detroit handing $100 bills of their own money to those whom they deemed needy. (“Who’s been naughty and nice in 2014,” Editorial, Dec. 24)

This is unlike politicians who travel about the country handing out much larger gifts of other peoples’ (taxpayers’) money to favored groups whose needs are for government favors.

Ron Lesovsky, Huntington Beach

To the editor: The Times lists as “naughty” the developers of a West Hollywood residential project who planned on building a separate entrance for the tenants of lower-rate units.

My father died in 1944 when I was 12. My widowed mother bravely, yet humbly, raised my brother and me. We learned that to be poor meant to gratefully and with dignity accept any benefits society might grant. We did OK.

Believe me, if someone had offered us the one of the affordable units in the West Hollywood project, our poverty world not have caused us to complain about using a different entrance or demand the use of the swimming pool. To do so would not just be naughty. Worse than that, it would have been haughty.

Jeremiah Flanigan, Long Beach

To the editor: Naughty: The Times for ignoring responsible journalism and printing the comments in private communications that had been stolen by a hacker.

If a thief broke into my home and stole letters I had written to my wife, would The Times likewise publish these if it decided they were of journalistic significance?

Bob Harbicht, Arcadia

To the editor: Nice: The new management team at The Times. We now have thoughtful, in-depth coverage of local and larger issues. Editorial positions have a ring of original thinking too.

This is a whole new newspaper and now well worth the read. Hopefully local ownership will be next.

Donald Duckworth, Arcadia

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