A bright future for LACMA
Re “Start over, LACMA,” letters, April 2
I have been visiting the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since it opened in 1965. In 2002 I joined the board of trustees, where I have served in many capacities, including successfully chairing the Curators Circle, the largest support group at LACMA, for more than a decade.
While critics may have doubts about LACMA’s new building project, I have nothing but confidence in the museum’s plan and its potential to enrich the lives of all Angelenos.
Having seen the evolution of LACMA since its establishment, it breaks my heart to see the condition of the buildings on the east campus, which do not do justice to the museum’s extraordinary collection. Director Michael Govan’s vision for the new galleries, as well as our plans for satellite locations, are the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that an institution as vital as LACMA needs. The generosity that has been shown to realize this project is unprecedented.
I look forward to the day LACMA’s new galleries open and the public experiences one of the world’s great museum collections in the kind of home it and Los Angeles deserve.
Janet Dreisen Rappaport Los Angeles The writer is a member of the LACMA board of trustees. the Trump administration’s demand for North Korea’s full and complete denuclearization at the Hanoi summit was a nonstarter. Insisting on a big deal will not only result in more stalemate, it could also pave the way to a war that could kill millions of people.
Some on Trump’s national security team would prefer a more forceful approach to North Korea. Despite the fact that deterrence has long worked in keeping Pyongyang from acting rashly, Bolton has not been shy in calling for a preemptive military strike in the past.
By pushing deals that Kim will inevitably reject, such advisors will be able to claim that diplomacy has failed and that more forceful options are needed. This is a road to catastrophe Trump should avoid.
The top U.S. national security priority on North Korea is not denuclearization; that is all but impossible. Rather, avoiding war at all costs and establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula are the two most important objectives.
With peace established on the Korean peninsula, perhaps Kim will conclude one day that nuclear weapons are no longer necessary for his country’s survival.
Daniel DePetris Astoria, N.Y. The writer is a fellow at the Washington think tank Defense Priorities.