Thank you, Mom! Sunday, May 11 is an opportunity not only to celebrate or remember our own mothers but also to honor all of the important women in our lives—grandmothers, godmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, friends, teachers, mentors, leaders, mother figures of all kinds. Happy Mother’s Day! Cover concept and design by Urs Baur
Topanga is historically a community of activists. In the 1960s and 70s, grassroots environmentalists from right here helped fight to create the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and prevent Topanga from being completely bulldozed to create yet another suburb of the San Fernando Valley. Topanga residents like Will Geer and Herta Ware took a stand against McCarthyism and the Hollywood Black List in the 1950s. Topangans have stood up for civil rights and environmental protections, and opposed war and injustice, and this community has been home to and a refuge for thinkers, iconoclasts, activists, visionaries, and free-thinkers for decades.
Almost everything that has mattered to generations of Topanga activists is currently under attack in some way or another, but that doesn’t mean Topangans aren’t standing up and pushing back.
This issue of TNT is full of issues: Urs Baur takes a look at the troubling resurgence of book banning; Chloe Chapman presents a thoughtful essay on how women and trans rights are under attack; and Jimmy P. Morgan presents a dystopian look at what a post-global future might look like. But we also have a feature on the importance and value of charity, written by Claire Fordham; and a feature by Jill Cotu on volunteering to help the elderly and disabled through Meals for Wheels, an organization that brings food and comfort to some of America’s most vulnerable residents and is currently being targeted by the Trump administration.
As bad as the news is, there are people out there doing good things, standing up for civil rights, human rights, the environment, and the rule of law. Volunteering their time to help and make the world a better place. Continuing to work to protect the environment and the vulnerable. Those stories are easily buried in the avalanche of ill tidings, but they are equally important.
At the heart of this issue of TNT isn’t a political message or a news item, it’s a celebration of the life of an extraordinary Topanga resident and wisdom keeper, the indomitable Rose Wiley. This is someone who lived her life rooted in the community and who leaves a legacy of love and respect.
Rose was born during the Great Depression, but she grew up in what was essentially a pioneering lifestyle—the nineteenth century, not the twentieth. That gave her a unique perspective in life, one that was rooted in a tough, pragmatic self-sufficiency.
Rose focused on making her community a better place, looking out for her family and neighbors, helping to preserve Topanga’s history, welcoming new residents, and volunteering her time, even when times were difficult and money was tight.
In 2024, at the age of 93, she told a KCRW reporter that all of those changes didn’t trouble her “Ya know, ya just go with the flow,” she said. This was a woman who lived life on her own terms, from first to last.
In 2021, the New York Times concluded she “wasn’t the sort of person to worry much,” when she calmly informed them that she hadn’t evacuated during the Woolsey Fire. “‘No power, no lights, no radio, no TV, no cellphone service,’ she recalled. ‘I had some fried chicken I bought at Ralph’s and potato salad. It was just like going camping.’”
Rose was unflappable, but not because she didn’t care. She cared deeply about her family, friends, neighbors, and community. She always said she felt blessed. She didn’t let the things she couldn’t control bother her.
Rose Wiley is an inspiration to all of us to live our lives fully, with determination.
That’s an important message in a time when events are spinning out of control and hope is sometimes in short supply.
Despite flooding from a recent, late rain shower, Pacific Coast Highway will still reportedly reopen to the public in late May, but that reopening will be extremely limited: one lane in each direction, 25 mph speed limit, every intersection a full stop, and frequent delays can be expected.
It’s still better news for residents and travelers than Topanga has received. Topanga Canyon Boulevard south of Grandview remains closed with no official, or even unofficial, word on reopening. It may feel like a lifetime since the Palisades Fire changed all of our lives, but it’s been less than four months. We’ll get there. Someday.
May 11 is Mother’s Day. Please visit TNT online—www.topanganewtimes.com—for TNT chef extraordinaire Nathalie Kull’s special Mother’s Day recipe. The crew at TNT wishes all of the mothers and mother-figures in our lives a joyful and happy day.
Stay safe, be well. Happy Mother’s Day!
Thank you, very nice and well done.