PUBLIC FORUM : `REACHING FOR THE STARS BRINGS OUT THE BEST'.

Kudos to the Daily News for its editorial (``Godspeed - again,'' Oct. 30) supporting John Glenn's return to space. How sad for the cynics and critics who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Our quest for space is deeply imbedded in the natural human desire to explore the unknown and expand our horizons.

Space exploration in general and manned space flight in particular offer our entire planet an opportunity to come together on a common vision. It provides our youth with hope and the unquantifiable knowledge that even the farthest goal is achievable. Men and women reaching for the stars bring out the best in us all.

As Californians, we can be particularly proud. As the Daily News pointed out, rockets manufactured by Rocketdyne in Canoga Park have carried Americans into space for four decades. In the Antelope or ``Aerospace'' Valley, the next generation of the space shuttle, the X-33, is now being developed.

Indeed, the very vehicle that Glenn is riding in, the orbiter Discovery, was built right here in Palmdale.

Yes, Godspeed John Glenn. You have proven once again that America appreciates her heroes.

- David Myers

Palmdale

Teachers defended

I would like to respond to the letter by Stan Niedwicki of Woodland Hills (``Raises vs. books,'' Daily News, Nov. 1).

The teachers I know start the day at 7 a.m. and get home about 6 p.m., making it an 11-hour day. They volunteer for after-school functions. They buy supplies out of their own money, and are not reimbursed.

On their off time, they attend classes to further supplement their knowledge and to keep abreast of the latest teaching tools. They surf the Net at night to get feedback from other teachers.

Niedwicki states that ``The only way you can tell how much a student learned at the end of the year is by the score he got on the national standardized test.'' Any college teacher will tell you speaking in absolutes is wrong 100 percent of the time.

Also, if you try to fire teachers based on test scores alone they will become professional test givers. The students will pass the test with flying colors but will not know how to function in society.

The behavior and treatment that a public school teacher has to take from both students and parents would never be tolerated in a private school. The private school would throw the student and parent out of the school.

Teaching is not an absolute science. It is not cutting a board exactly 2 feet long. You cannot put absolutes into a situation that has no absolutes.

- Craig Hawley

Reseda

Bicycle funding needed

Articles have addressed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's fiscal woes due to subway expansion. What Los Angeles needs is to put more resources into all lesser-polluting methods of transportation, the most efficient being bicycles.

Improved bicycle roadways for commuting and recreation would reduce smog, minimize traffic congestion and improve the quality of life for all Angelenos. Over the past two years, the MTA got behind $18 million worth of bicycle and pedestrian programs, but they represent merely a fraction of the viable requests.

For example, hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes are still unmarked; one-third of the buses are still without bicycle racks; and thousands of businesses are without adequate bicycle parking.

The MTA has the funds and the discretion to spend more money on bicycling. And 1 percent for bicycles will provide the most cost-effective and environmentally prudent way to reach L.A.'s Clean Air Act goals for 2010.

- Andrea Askowitz

Venice

Stadium subsidies

Your Local View column by S.L.. Cook (``Too blase for football,'' Opinions, Oct. 27) had most of it correct.

Outside of radio talk show hosts, sportswriters and politicians, no one much cares about pro football in Los Angeles. Most disturbing however is the silence of the people who don't want football or don't care. What these people don't realize is how much they will have to pay whether they want it or not.

The net result will be that people who don't care about football will be subsidizing wealthy owners and players by giving up their tax dollars to build a stadium that they would not visit. Moreover, many of these same people would not be able to afford the tickets even if they wanted to go.

Players and owners are doing everything they can to ruin the games we all grew up caring about, and continue to raise prices to the point where the average family can't afford more than a game or two a year.

It's time for the people to wake up. Insist that your tax money be used for necessary items like police, fire, schools and libraries. If you want to see sports, support your high school and college teams.

- J. Cohen 

Culver City 

Murder and abortion

After reading the articles by Pablo Rodriguez, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Pete Wilson extolling ``individual freedom'' and ``exercising rights guaranteed by the Constitution,'' I must agree that murder is wrong and preserving life is proper.

So, I ask these fine citizens just what is being aborted? Is it a person, a thing, a potential thing? Until Rodriguez and others have the honesty and aptitude to clearly state what is being done during an abortion, all of this supercilious talk about ``exercising rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution'' and ``applying the state's Constitution'' is simply a smoke screen preventing us from answering life's most important question: Is it moral and legal to take an innocent life?

The reason for all of the ``division'' is that one group of people believes that science shows that there is no intrinsic difference in a human before or after birth. I challenge Rodriguez, Wilson and Feinstein to defend the opposing view.

So I ask again, just what are you allowing an 18-year-old to kill without a parent's consent? Dr. Barnett A. Slepian was a person, and it was wrong to kill him. Were the abortions he was performing on people as well?

- George W. Harris

Agoura Hills

Regarding ``Life advocates choosing violence, murder'' by Pablo Rodriguez, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, Opinions, Oct. 29:

I do not endorse the killing of abortion doctors or the killing of babies by abortions, but, I find a curious contradiction in Rodriguez's appeal for sympathy and understanding.

Rodriguez, an abortion provider, has to wear a bulletproof vest and his 7-year-old son wanted to know why. His son is around to ask ``why'' because he was not aborted. Rodriguez wants our sympathy because of all the threats that he has had to endure. Where is the article on all the babies that were his victims?

- Ross Yerkes

Los Angeles

Police shootings

In response to William Thomas' letter (Public Forum, Oct. 21) concerning the police shooting of a man with a knife:

Studies have shown that the average person of any size or age can cover 15 to 21 feet and stab a person before a gun can be drawn and fired. Even taking into account that an officer's gun probably is drawn, if he should hesitate before firing, there is a good chance he will be stabbed.

A vest is little protection against a knife. And although Thomas is correct in stating there are less lethal methods to subdue, they are not always immediately available to the officer.

As for martial arts, I have 10 years of training and a second-degree black belt, but I still would not care to take on a person armed with a knife. Even if all goes right, you still take a chance of permanent injury or death.

- Meg Francoeur

Canyon Country

Encino's dog park

Whoever thought up the idea for the off-leash dog park in Encino deserves a Nobel Prize.

Due to an emergency, my daughter left her golden Lab, Maddie, with me for three weeks. Every other day when I go to the post office, I take Maddie to the park at the corner of White Oak Avenue and Victory Boulevard for a romp.

There she meets hundreds of dogs that, like her, love to run, jump, gambol and sniff each other. Maddie's romps at the park serve to give her plenty of exercise and adjust her psyche. She eats better and sleeps like a log on the days we have our visits.

There is plenty of water available and trash cans are everywhere so owners can conveniently clean up after their dogs.

There is a special fenced part of the park for small and timid dogs, but I have never heard so much as a growl in the weeks Maddie and I have been going.

Anyone interested in getting a dog might want to stop by on a Saturday morning. You'll have a chance to see almost every breed of dog available in every size and shape. Owners love to talk about their dogs, so one could get a lot of valuable information to make an informed decision.

- Don X. Sanelli

Woodland Hills

Character and politics

Good character is of paramount importance when considering the qualifications of any individual for public office.

Consider the example of George Washington. During the debates over the ratification of the Constitution, there was a critical factor which swayed the argument. It was understood that George Washington would be the first president - not because he was proposing tax cuts or big government programs; not because he was a great general.

It was the fact that George Washington stood head and shoulders above the rest in moral character. His is the example we must consider before deciding what standards we expect from our politicians.

- David Galinsky

Simi Valley