Listen to the Homeless and A Great Character

Sept. 20, 2002

Dear Editor,

Thanks for the article by Jennafer Yellowhorse (OPINION: "The Homeless Speak Out," Sept. 19). It's absurd to try to understand or address the problems of homelessness without listening to homeless people. Yet for those who think they know everything, it's apparently very easy.

Many people -- both citizens and city officials -- have come to think of our parks and public streets as if they were the common areas of a private shopping mall or condominium. There's a big difference folks. I only hope it won't take a judge to straighten out this kind of thinking.

Linda Sullivan

Sept. 18, 2002

Dear Editor,

That's a nice obit on Anne Morgenthaler ("Dean of City Hall Reporters Dies," Sept. 17). It captured her real well.

When I first got to The Outlook my desk was right next to Anne's, and she'd always have a thin dark brown cigarette dangling from the side of her mouth which she'd sometimes light and ashes would be all over her keyboard. Cracker crumbs would be in her lap. I was young and enthusiastic about every story.

Once, when I thought I'd gotten hold of a hot story, I rambled on about it to Anne, telling her the Santa Monica Bay was being polluted because all the storm drains emptied right into the ocean without the waste and water being treated, a story Anne had heard thousands of times and probably reported on many times, too.

She just listened, and when I was finished, she squinted her eyes and said, "You got nothin' kid," and she was right. My story was old. She always told it straight. A great character.