EDITORIAL WASN'T THE NIMBYS.

The Orange Line busway will not speed up the 101 Freeway by one minute. Each bus's capacity is 60 riders every five minutes - that is only five fewer cars per minute on the freeway. NIMBYs didn't stop the Valley subway; the little guy is powerless. Incompetence bankrupted the MTA Red Line somewhere under Hollywood. The underground train to Hazeltine and aboveground to Woodland Hills would have been great. The limited money the MTA has left over for the Valley would best be spent for six-story garages around the two Red Line Valley stations and a Rapid bus grid serving the entire Valley.

Fat chance. Our Valley power brokers (Supervisor-for-life Zev Yaroslavsky, Bob ``Huggy'' Hertzberg, $99,000-per-year Richard Katz, power-behind-the-throne David Fleming, VICA, Warner Center and the Daily News) are still calling the shots. ``Chinatown'' lives. The fix is in.

- Burton Roseman

Valley Glen

A better way?

Gowing up in L.A., I saw repeated attempts to develop mass transit derailed (literally) by NIMBYs chanting, ``There's a better way.'' Funny how none of those better ways ever got implemented (basically because other NIMBYs did the same thing). However, once the government basically rammed the Blue Line down the throats of poor and disorganized people in South L.A., the inescapable logic of efficient transit has created popular demand for more service, which the politicians are trying to satisfy.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A handful of people living near the path of the Orange Line has managed, once again, to stop a project which will easily benefit 10 (100?) times their number by claiming ``there's a (possible) better way.''

- Mark Boykin

Tarzana

Romer's concern

Re ``LAUSD's lawsuit share may have unwanted catch'' (Aug. 12):

Superintendent Roy Romer states that he's concerned that they ``might be forced to divert some of the money away from students to fund costly administrative procedures.'' Who is he kidding? If he had supplied textbooks and cleaned up decaying school classrooms like he should have, the ACLU would not have had to file a lawsuit ``challenging public school conditions for poor students'' in the first place.

Now, all of a sudden, Romer is concerned that the money resulting from the lawsuit won't benefit the students? The article states that the lawsuit has taken four years to work its way through the courts, so where has Romer's concern for L.A.'s poorest students been during these years?

- Mary Montes 

West Hills

Dog owner laws

Re ``Licensing dogs'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 12):

I agree with Phillip Carter ... too many dogs in Los Angeles are not licensed. In addition, too many L.A. dog owners don't know about L.A.'s dog ownership laws.

In conjunction with the dog licensing campaign, the Department of Animal Services should include a ``dog owner laws'' information sheet with every license initiation or renewal form. If even a small percentage of dog owners begins complying with all dog laws, our quality of life will improve.

- Sunny Arford

Arleta

Punish him

Re ``Gay pairs' weddings voided'' (Aug. 13):

As law-abiding citizens we cannot violate laws we disapprove of and as a result of that violation have zero consequences to pay. Gavin Newsom (mayor of San Francisco) deserves to be punished for violating California law by illegally authorizing homosexual marriages.

An ordinary citizen would promptly be punished for violating a state law he or she didn't agree with and violated. Justice isn't really blind, it's just nearsighted when it comes to those who are well-connected.

- Sam Chaidez

Mission Hills Want acceptance

Re ``Gay pairs' weddings voided'' (Aug. 13):

It is refreshing to see our court act like a court and nullify the marriage licenses forged in San Francisco. Gays and lesbians don't want to be married; the statistics on successful, monogamous, homosexual relationships prove that. What they demand is an accepting culture.

- Jennifer Ostroff

Pasadena

Defining marriage

Recent events in Washington and Missouri demonstrate afresh the danger of leaving to judges the definition of marriage. A Washington state judge has said that under that state's constitution, marriage is not exclusively heterosexual: Marriage may be entered into by any two people.

In Missouri, meanwhile, voters overwhelmingly passed a state constitutional amendment defining marriage in traditional terms. Yet there is no guarantee Missourians have that state judges, or federal judges at some level, might decide that their new amendment is unconstitutional. The truth is that the only good defense against activist judges is a federal constitutional amendment preserving the traditional definition of marriage.

- Gary Curtis

Granada Hills

Lies and roses

Re ``Frey tells of intense courtship'' ``DHS broadens border agents' powers'' (Aug. 11):

Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, says border security is increased. At least Amber Frey got three dozen roses with Scott Peterson's lies.

- Barbara Vickroy

Escondido

Dishonor to all

Re ``Double standard'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 12):

If we Democrats were seemingly silent on Bob Dole's or Bush Senior's service record, then at least we did not attack them as Republicans attacked the record of their own John McCain and now John Kerry.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth partisan attack on Kerry brings dishonor to all who went to Vietnam - they bring dishonor to themselves, they bring dishonor to my husband's three Purple Hearts and Bronze Star, but moreover they bring dishonor and demean every name on the Wall. Kerry did his job on a swift boat in the Mekong Delta and then came back to courageously expose a questionable war. How dare Republicans question anyone's service when the best their boy can do is give shameful displays of hubris with showboat landings on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

- Linda Azzarella

Lopez Canyon

And after Vietnam?

I thank Sen. John Kerry for the ``sacrifice'' he made for our country, but I am more interested in hearing what he has done since that brief period of his service life. Why doesn't he tell us what he has done for our country since, as well as more details of his secret plans that he promises to divulge only after elected?

- Joan Strieter

Mission Hills

Government intervention

Re ``Left favors power over knowledge'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 12):

Thomas Sowell states ``liberalism is about the government telling people what to do in their lives and work.'' He begins with Teresa Heinz Kerry making a marketing suggestion to a hog farmer and interprets this as a government command.

He fails to recognize the conservative goals that contradict his premise. Conservatives want government involvement in a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy - isn't this telling a woman what to do? - or religious groups telling government when life begins and government wanting to codify religious beliefs.

- Ron Wood

Burbank

Horrors in Sudan

The horrors in Sudan have gone on for years: civil war, ethnic cleansing, jihad against non-Muslims and campaigns of rape and pillage against those who resist. While there has always been tension between the Arabic Sudanese (Muslims) in the north and the Black Sudanese (Christians and animists) in the south, the issues are really stirred by the imposition of radical Islamic laws and practices.

U.N. diplomacy has completely failed to stop the Sudanese genocide and religious persecution. Now, the U.S. should lead a powerful campaign to put an end to the horrors.

- Gary Curtis

Granada Hills