Does Living Within the Law Now Make Up for Breaking It Then?

So Mark Rudd is confused about the chickens coming home to roost (“Graying Radicals Are Facing New Ire in America,” Jan. 28)? He says, “They were living openly, right?”

Certainly Kathleen Soliah, repackaged as Sara Jane Olsen, wasn’t living openly. She was undercover these decades later, as were most cited at various stages before assuming innocuous roles and reinventing themselves.

Bernardine Dohrn and other Weatherman members certainly were not abhorrent of violence in their earlier incarnations. And slipping into bourgeois roles as convenience may suit should not serve as absolution for folks who advocated and pursued the destruction of the structures and institutions of this civilization. Now they serve on faculties of law and continue to flaunt what they’ve co-opted to their advantage.

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LAURA McGINLEY

La Crescenta

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I’m glad that they fearfully consider themselves to be the subjects of a “fishing expedition.”

Regardless of how long they have been living within the law, they are all traitors to their country and should be hunted down and tried.

At the very least, they should be stripped of their American citizenship and branded for what they were and still are: terrorists.

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NORMAN HEATH

Oxnard

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Let’s see, Karl Armstrong thinks it’s unfair that his sandwich shop is being boycotted simply because he killed a man in a 1970 terrorist bombing.

What’s unfair is that his innocent victim is still dead while his killer has a normal life

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KIP ALLEN

Palm Springs

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The Blue Light Special: A Sweet Slice of Childhood

Regarding “Attention, Shoppers: Kmart Wrote Its Epitaph,” Jan. 25: In telling us “no one will reminisce years hence about grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk with grandma,” staff writer Mary McNamara underestimates the human capacity to reminisce.

As kids in Anderson, Ind., a trip to Kmart meant ham sandwiches (Blue Light Special, three for a quarter) for me and my two brothers, which we loved. With luck, a red Slush Puppie, popcorn or a hot pretzel was part of the deal. Three of our own nickels bought a bottle of soda, which we shared. With sparing sips, we could make it last most of the day.

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J.P. CATIVIELA

Colusa, Calif.

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The Human Toll Behind Neighborhood’s Upgrades

One picture accompanying the article about developer Andrew Meieran gentrifying Koreatown really said it all (“A Blossoming Bohemia,” Jan. 20).

There he sits, on the steps of one of “his” buildings, with his stylish shoes tied just so, while beside him three of his low-income tenants file out, squeezing to pass him on the stairs.

They may or may not yet know that they will soon be squeezed out of their homes, because Meieran is intent on catalyzing a “changing demographic” in their neighborhood.

Well, you can rest assured, Mr. Meieran. With two new Starbucks in the neighborhood, people able and willing to pay half an hour’s minimum wage for a cup of coffee can’t be far behind. The minimum-wage workers living there now won’t be able to afford it.

Meieran blithely deludes himself that this changing demographic “comes about entirely naturally.” In reality, he buys a building, raises the rent and displaces the low-income tenants.

He describes this process as “problematic,” explaining that he doesn’t want to displace people, but he wants to “upgrade the buildings.” Well, when you put it that way ....

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LISA HARRIS

Sierra Madre

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It’s amazing that $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment is considered affordable.

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RONNA KAJIKAWA

Los Angeles

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Not All Whistle Blowers

Are Created Equal

How could you compare the “whistle blower” from Enron (“When a Woman Blows the Whistle,” Jan. 27) with the likes of Linda Tripp, whose actions can only be called venal? She began taping her conversations with Monica Lewinsky to enhance her credibility with a New York book agent.

President Clinton’s dalliance with an intern did not cost thousands of people their jobs and their life’s savings. Add to that the thousands more who lost money in mutual funds that were heavily leveraged with Enron.

Sherron Watkins risked her job and reputation to warn company executives of the possibility that Enron was imploding. Tripp betrayed a friend to assuage the contempt and bitterness she felt toward Clinton and his administration.

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BETTY C. DUCKMAN

Long Beach

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Photography’s Power to Touch the Heart

Ken Hively’s portrait of Judith Freeman on the cover of Southern California Living (“A Painful Visit to the Past,” Jan. 22) that accompanied the article about her book is extraordinary.

I don’t recall the last time that I spent as much time looking at a photograph as I did reading the article; it is a visual biography. Its balance and line bring to mind artists Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, and its insightfulness, John Singer Sargent. It is quintessentially American and remarkable.

Mr. Hively is an artist, and his photograph is beautiful.

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FRED APPLEGATE

Burbank

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