Goodbye to an Old Friend
On Saturday, the Crescenta Valley community came together to say goodbye to Monsignor John Foley, lovingly referred to as Father Jack. The crowd was enormous with cars parked across the freeway and on all the side streets [surrounding the church] plus professional parking was needed to get the most cars into the Holy Redeemer lot. Forty priests and four bishops were present traveling from as far as Africa and Ireland and all across the Los Angeles archdiocese. It was an honor to have Archbishop José Gomez officiating with our beloved retired Bishop Wilkerson plus three of our new bishops.

Father Gerard O’Brien, who started his priesthood in our community, gave the homily for his best friend who for some 20 years he joined for breakfast. Father Gerard had us laughing with stories of Father Jack’s Nevada pilgrimage and [he] ended by singing a beautiful Irish melody that Father Jack loved.

Fifteen Knights of Columbus stood guard for Friday’s viewing from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. alternating the two man honor guard every 15 minutes. For the funeral on Saturday, the Knights again formed an honor guard at the church and five traveled to the cemetery in Long Beach. The crowd was remarkable sitting outside in tents with TVs streaming live the entire mass, plus sending it across the Internet. The community enjoyed the marvelous choir and musical instruments that included a harp.

This was the church that Father Jack rebuilt after an earthquake caused damage during Mary Sambar’s funeral many, many years ago. It takes a great man to have built the new Holy Redeemer church, but more importantly, to have befriended the community – Catholic and non Catholic – whose members came out to show their love in return.
May he rest in peace!
Danette Erickson
La Crescenta
Editor’s note: A video of the service is available on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/jpyubeb.
Counters Claims
I wish to respond to the editorial on March 9, 2017: “Urges time to step up” by Roberta [Medford] in Montrose.

Some factual errors were glaring; for example, [stating] a narrow electoral vote margin. I believe Trump 304, versus Hillary 232 is far from that. For a filibuster-proof senate, Republicans must hold 60 seats; I think they have 52. The house does not filibuster, but they have 247 seats, which is a majority, but 290 are needed for a veto-proof vote. As to other claims, no facts were presented, just personal attacks.

Americans stood up against an intellectually unprepared, emotionally unfit and morally deficient unprincipled president on Nov. 8, 2016 by voting against his hand-picked successor and took back the country from the precipice.

As a side note another letter in the same issue by Les Hammer asked a question about Portantino concerning his state senate seat and whether he will be a good representative. My answer would be that soon after he was elected, his first proposal was to name [a portion of] the 134 Freeway “President Barack H. Obama Freeway in honor of his attending Occidental College. I doubt that Portantino has any records of Obama’s performance since transcripts were never made public. This act would tell me that Portantino is more concerned about his career in the Democrat party in a one-party state.
Robert Perry
La Crescenta

Bravo for ‘Phantom’
I cannot let another day go by without writing to CV Weekly to let all of your readers know what a gem we have in our own backyard with talent beyond words.

A friend invited me to go to this show held at CV High School. I was eager to see it and also be in the school again as my two children graduated from this school many years ago.

The play was “Phantom of the Opera.” It was outstanding! It held everyone spellbound. It was so hard to believe this was all done by teenage high schoolers. The singers, the costumes, the sets, the orchestra were just beyond belief. It was so professional in every way.

[The students] and the dedicated teachers have my heartfelt thanks for such a wonderful day and I’m so thankful to see CV High still has maintained its high standards for our young people.
Betty Sharp
La Crescenta

Urges No on ‘L’
It’s tempting to think term limits will bring new office holders with new ideas into policy making positions but there is another side to the issue. When elected officials have only a few years in office the real power stays with those who understand the system; that is, the employees and special interest agents. As with any job there is a learning curve and public officials who are new to the process can miss important subtleties. I think having the option to re-elect those who have served the people well is better than setting some arbitrary limit on years of service. There is always some turnover anyway when some office holders are elected to higher office or choose to retire. It’s good to have a mix of veterans and newcomers, decided by the voters at each election.

There is no way for voters to guarantee their representatives are actually representing them except to pay attention, learn about the candidates and issues, vote in every election for which they are eligible, and monitor the performance of those in office. Democracy takes hard work.

When Glendale voters decide on Measure L on the April 4 ballot I hope they consider that experienced councilmembers can be a lot wiser in dealing with the lobbyists than those new to the process. People talk about not wanting “professional politicians” but do you really want a bunch of amateurs running the city?

I urge a no vote on L. The last day to register for the April 4 election is March 20. You can do it online anytime, http://registertovote.ca.gov/.
Sharon Weisman
Glendale
Appreciates ‘Stemming the Tide of Hatred’
I just wanted to take a minute to thank the paper, Mary O’Keefe and Charly Shelton for their articles on “Not in Our Town”/Stop the Hate [March 9].

In these challenging times, it is such a relief and comfort to see our local paper take a stand on the misdirected and unwarranted anger of a few in our local community towards those they may perceive as different from “them.”

Please keep it up and help stem the tide of hatred rising in our nation!
Carolyn Klas
La Crescenta