PUBLIC FORUM\Pierce College's farm isn't surplus property.

I feel obligated to respond to the articles written by Sara Catania in the Jan. 29 Daily News ("Pierce College fights decline, deterioration" and ("Fate of college's once-vital farmland in doubt"). Although mostly factual, they left the reader with the wrong impression of the Pierce College farm.

I have been associated with Pierce's farm for 25 years. I have seen much change in the management, funding of and support from both the community and the college district. Less than half of the college's land is being used by the farm. Your article suggests that it should be less than that.

While our student numbers are just under 1,000 in the Agriculture Department, this is an increase of 1,000 percent from 1947, when we farmed on 250 percent more land. We still have waiting lists to get into our classes. Thousands of community members, both from the San Fernando Valley and the inner city, tour our farm every year because we are the last opportunity for such education in the Southland.

Pierce is a community college, which means we do not just educate those in our classrooms but provide a broader-based education for the community at large. We serve the community's wants and needs. The community, on more than one occasion, has voiced its strong support for the continuation of the farm, the farm classes and the animal and crop production units.

Although Gale James' description of classroom needs is accurate, your portrayal of the campus as "land-rich" does not accurately describe our laboratory. We have far less land than we need.

Please do not join with some of the wealthy developers who have been trying to convince our district to sell or lease this precious resource in order to balance the budget. It is not surplus. It is not unused. It is a limited resource desperately needed by our department, the college and the community.

- Dr. Leland S. Shapiro

Professor

Animal/Veterinary Sciences

L.A. Pierce College

Woodland Hills

Maybe Mary Lee thinks she lost her job as president at Pierce College because of her abrasive can-do style, but as a graduate, local resident for 30 years and a user of the Pierce campus, I can tell you it was a "no-do" style that lost her the job.

No noticeable changes were made to the campus appearance. It still looks run down, as it did before she took over. Spending, attendance and staffing are also in a rut. But most of all she destroyed a cultural attraction, the "corn stand."

- Ray Holm

Woodland Hills

Seismic insurance

Re the Pacific Pipeline through the San Fernando Valley:

We now know that we have approximately 60 earthquake faults in the Los Angeles-San Fernando-San Gabriel areas. Long-term insurance policies should be required, by the contractors, to take care of this possibly sizeable future seismic expense.

Why weren't the contractors or designers of the freeways held financially responsible for their design flaws from all the quakes? Come on taxpayers, write this proposition up for the ballot and see some legislation to protect us rather than victimize us.

- Ron Hall

Sun Valley

'This move stinks'

Concerning your Jan. 21 editorial, "Watch your wallet": You neglected to tell us who the trustees are and how they voted.

I called the trustee's office and here is how the seven trustees voted. Yes: Althea Baker, David Lopez-Lee, Gloria Romero and Kenneth Washington. No: Lindsey Conner and Elizabeth Garfield. Abstaining was Julia Woo.

I am certain all property owners want to know the people behind the "benefit assessment" tax. It's a rip-off against Proposition 13, which states that there shall be a two-thirds vote by all the people before a special tax increase can be implemented.

This move stinks and these people should be voted out of office. They don't seem to get the message to leave our property taxes as is, the way we all voted. If they need money, go to the state and appeal there.

- Johnny Rotella

Van Nuys

Tax idea falls flat

Regarding the Jan. 28 Viewpoint article on Steven Forbes, "The Forbes Phenomenon: Why?"

In extolling the virtues of Forbes' idea for a flat tax, Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. hypothesizes that "if people had to pay less in taxes, more families could get by on one income, just as in the old days. That in turn would help restore American family life."

What bad science-fiction movie from the '50s has this "expert" been watching? According to published comparisons of the current tax system and a proposed 17 percent "flat tax," only taxpayers at the very top and bottom of the income scale would actually save money. People in the middle would stay about the same, even homeowners. Now this can vary depending on what kind of a tax plan is passed, but for Rockwell to assert that a savings of any sort, even as much as $5,000, would enable one parent to stop working completely is absurd.

- Bob Loza

Burbank

Death penalty defended

In his Jan. 25 letter, Fabio Escobar, in opposing capital punishment, seems to think that the penalty of death is immoral, unjust, and violates the principal of "thou shalt not kill" which he thinks is a basic human right.

It is the murderer who is immoral, the murderer who has initiated an unjust action, the murderer who has violated the right to life of the victim. The penalty and punishment come only after the murderer's initiating the real crime against society. Capital punishment is just because it conforms the same loss of rights on the criminal as was inflicted on the victim and is a guaranteed permanent assurance that the violator will never again threaten another individual's most basic right.

- Melvin A. Wolf Jr.

Burbank

In regard to capitol punishment: There is nothing wrong about it.

To you bleeding hearts: I say remember you are dealing with human garbage and you know that if garbage is not disposed of quickly, it contaminates everything around it.

- Edward Zwern

North Hills

The ozone hole 

The letters in Public Forum Jan. 17 about the hole in the ozone layer reflect a serious problem in public communication. Concern for the future is criticized and derided because evidence dates back such a short time.

At the same time, it is asserted that the ozone process is natural and has gone on for eons. How do they know that?

We are bombarded by this same lack of logic and knowledge in many statements today, from the budget to Whitewater - unproven theories buttressed by unsubstantiated fats, leading to dogmatic conclusions.

- Ira Skutch

Woodland Hills

Anthony R. Canales, writing about ozone depletion (Public Forum, Jan. 17) wants additional information.

In the highly respected magazine of WorldWatch of January-February 1996, we learn that "the effort to heal the atmosphere's recently received an important political boost."

Three scientists received the Nobel prize in chemistry explaining why the earth's ozone layer is thinning and allowing more dangerous ultraviolet light radiation to reach the earth's surface.

In the same month, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press published "Mending the Ozone Hole," arguing that targeted chemicals should be phased out more rapidly.

Ozone levels already have been lowered but much more action is needed. Methyl bromide, for instance, say the authors of World Watch, would have been outlawed if Assembly representatives and Gov. Pete Wilson were on the ball.

- Ed Newman 

Woodland Hills

Dealing with 'spoiled brats'

Poor Mona Charen ("Is anyone raising this generation of spoiled brats?" Opinions, Jan. 25). Having inadvertently stumbled upon one of the real reasons for the decline of American public education, parents' failure to support teachers, she is in a quandary as to how to reconcile this fact with her traditional demonization of the teaching profession. She decides to charge parents with "tacit collaboration" in allowing teachers to get away with "dumbing down the curriculum."

The real cause of the deplorable state of education in this country is not poor methodology or even lazy teachers. It is lack of accountability. Unfortunately, to most people "accountability" means if the kid doesn't perform, blame the teacher or the school system.

From my vantage point - 34 years of teaching in Los Angeles Unified School District secondary schools - I would blame neither the teacher nor the school system; not even the parents, not even society.

Who's left? How about the kid? The main problem with American children is that we have allowed them to usurp the perks and privileges of adulthood without giving up the excuses and cop-outs of childhood. I have seen many students return from a mountain outing of several days with a signed excuse from Mommy attesting that they were ill. And, at the end of the semester when they were doing poorly for lack of attendance, Mommy would be on the phone to the counselor pleading for "extra credit" work to bring up the grade.

It's very tempting here to say that all would be well if only parents would control their children. But let's be realistic - most don't because they can't. After years of using TV as a baby sitter and giving in to social pressures to allow the kids adult freedoms, it's very difficult to rein them in.

The answer lies in national standards; I would convene a conference representing all points of view from Jerry Falwell to Jesse Jackson and see what they could agree on.

You would never get a consensus on American history or biological science. However, they might agree on basic skills. But once it is done, the focus of education would change. No longer would school be a game where students seek to achieve a diploma with as little work as possible.

- Bernard J. Feuerman

Canoga Park

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Photo On the range Over the years, Pierce College has been home to many farm animals. Daily News