Diseased Palms

Re “Topless in Beverly Hills,” March 26: Let’s get it right this time. Let’s let the palm trees go, those diseased and those not diseased.

We have a right to beautiful elms, oaks, sycamores, eucalyptus etc., etc. Trees that provide shade--that make you want to walk. Trees that take the toxic fumes of the diesels into their lives and give us back air. Air for our blackened, browned, grayed lungs. The “palms” belong in the desert--Palm Springs, Twentynine Palms, or on some tropical island, which we are not. It isn’t called Palm Angeles.

RACELLE HELLMAN MANES

Los Angeles