Readers do it the write way

One advantage of a community newspaper is that it gives readers a perfect forum for the complete expression of opinion. By and large, The Acorn prints all letters the way they arrive, except when they're too long (more than 300 words) or when certain rules of decency come into play.

Unfettered letter writing is the purest expression of First Amendment freedom, and this week those freedoms are being exercised to the fullest.

The debate over whether or not a new Lowe's home improvement store should be approved by voters on Nov. 7 has produced some charged opinions in Westlake Village.

". . .There is no room in our small village for big boxes," writes Cheryl Tabbi of Westlake Village. But according to Sonia Rosa of Agoura Hills, "More than 10 years ago this community opposed Costco, and now we can't live without Costco."

The community couldn't be more polarized-or misinformed.

"The advertising is devious, deceptive and not true," say Ray and Carol Kirschbaum in their letter to the editor this week.

Truth is relative and uncovering it is hard. Take, for example, the Oak Park school bond measure on next month's ballot. "Most of the bond money, by far, would not go to repairs but to (new) construction and upgrades," writes Tom Gray of Oak Park. Diane Milavetz thinks the $71 million school bond is just right. "The funding amount in H6 is the minimum necessary to meet the district need."

Some letter writers just want to vent about topics that heretofore seemed noncontroversial. Nancy Golden of Calabasas complains that the new park built for special needs children at Gates Canyon looks like a McDonald's restaurant. "A monstrosity of a playground in bright red and yellow," she calls it. "A visual assault on our beautiful neighborhood."

Alternatively, some letters serve to enlighten, educate and inform.

"With more CO2 in the air, plants grow bigger and better in almost every way," says Dominick Odorizzi, who believes global warming is not the threat that it's made out to be. Seeking to explain the recent E.coli bacteria outbreak and its relationship to cattle, Betsy Milligan of Calabasas says, "It is their infected manure that contaminates the groundwater and hence the crops that grow near where the cows live."

And that's no bull. We love your letters. Keep them coming.