PUBLIC FORUM : AMERICA NEEDS LESS GOVERNMENT, NOT MORE.

Re the State of the Union address:

What happened to President Clinton's refrain that ``the era of big government is over?''

The president wants to enact several new programs or expand existing ones. We need less government.

Targeted tax cuts are unfair. Take, for example, the proposed child day-care aid. Why should someone who chooses to stay home and care for her children be forced to subsidize others who chose not to. Taxpayers would not need aid if the government did not take such a large portion of their income.

The president's proposed use of the budget surplus to shore up Social Security is a fraud. We are already taxed 12.4 percent for Social Security. The surplus came from our income taxes and now the president is proposing to add this income tax to the Social Security trust fund. That is a tax hike.

If the president and Congress truly wish to save Social Security, take the Social Security funds out of the calculations for the surplus and begin privatizing the Social Security system through investments in U.S. industry with stocks and bonds.

We need across-the-board tax cuts. We need a simple flat tax system.

- David L. Cartier

Granada Hills

Your Jan. 28 editorial, ``State of the Union,'' was a disappointment to me and a perfect example of media interpretation of the general public reaction to the president's problems.

You seem to think that all Americans are overly concerned over the president's personal troubles. Your overreactions are typical of the media's frenzy to create panic with their readers.

Have you gone to the street and talked to the people? I have. Every time I talk to the checker at the market, the salesperson at the department store, I get the same response:

Let up on Clinton. Let him get on with his duties. Prove that he is guilty instead of blanketing the newspapers and TV with cheap and vulgar insinuations about his personal life.

- Earl D. Horwitz

North Hills

Clinton and Arafat

For the first time in my life I felt sympathy for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when I saw him on TV sitting next to President Clinton in the Oval Office facing the news media.

Here is a man who has traveled thousands of miles hoping to find the allegedly most powerful man in the world to help him find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, most likely feeling like an orphan.

The impression I got from Arafat's embarrassed face was, ``Allah, why am I here? Help me. This is a personal matter being discussed between a `leader' (Clinton) and his people.''

- Michael A. Campos

West Hills

Editorial rebuttal

Before you blasted me (``In denial; some LAUSD board members believe they are above the law,'' Editorials, Jan. 29) about my position regarding the role of the (Proposition) BB Oversight Committee, you should have checked your reporter's notes. Had you done that, you would have found that I praised the work and the composition of the BB committee and value their role.

I clearly said that although the Board of Education cannot delegate the authority to let contracts to any lay body, there were some contracts too complicated and/or too large that should be referred by the board to the BB committee to analyze and make recommendations before the board acts.

That would certainly include big-ticket items such as Belmont (Learning Center) and the air-conditioning contracts. I do believe that the bulk of the contracts should be seen by the committee after the board has made decisions as a check and balance that we are spending the money and letting contracts properly and prudently.

There is no inconsistency with the opinions I shared with your reporter, which you chose not to include in her article, and the position I took during my campaign.

I am used to being misquoted, or inadequately quoted, but I cannot stand by and let you misrepresent my position. I'll be happy to accept your apology.

- Valerie Fields

Member

Board of Education

Los Angeles

Editor's Note: As a candidate, Fields wrote this in an April 14, 1997, letter to Jeff Horton, who was president of the Board of Education at that time:

``I write to strongly urge the Board of Education to submit the proposed development agreement for the Belmont project to the oversight committee guaranteed with the passage of Measure BB before any funds generated by the recently passed bond measure are committed to the project . . .

``If the district is to regain public confidence in its management of the schools, the board must live up to the commitments made to Measure BB supporters and the voters at large. We voters were assured that the oversight process would guarantee accountability and public deliberations on how Measure BB funds are to be spent . . . Bypassing the oversight committee is not a responsible action.''

`Outrageous' MTA move

In its latest outrageous move, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to use the Chandler Boulevard median from Colfax Avenue to east of the 170 Freeway as a welding station and a storage facility for railroad tracks.

Also, it plans to park trucks and heavy machinery there. In addition the MTA plans to erect a 16-foot plywood wall on the median.

This was done without proper notice or hearings. This will have a negative effect on property values, may be a health hazard and certainly will be a blight on the neighborhood.

While there is ample industrial space east of the freeway, the MTA prefers to ruin a peaceful residential neighborhood for years to come. This is another example of the arrogance and incompetence of this agency.

- Betty Velasco

Valley Village

Weakening the message

Re ``Animal commission adopts neutering ad,'' Daily News, Jan. 27:

Under pressure from the mayor and City Council, the L.A. Animal Regulation Commission decided to tone down a proposed billboard campaign on neutering pets.

Instead of showing the photo of euthanized dogs and Ncats in barrels, as originally planned, the ads will show a silhouette of a live dog and the message: ``Nobody wants to be abandoned, live on the streets and die. Fix your pets.''

Will this be written in several languages? Why are they sugar-coating this billboard? Animal overpopulation is real. How they die is real. People must see what inevitably befalls these animals.

The old adage that ``one picture is worth a thousand words'' stands true.

- Ms. Marion Winkler

Sherman Oaks

Leaf blowers

The leaf-blower ban was passed because Los Angeles City Council members spent months reviewing health facts and statistics that showed the dangers of particulate matter and gasoline emissions from two-stroke engines. These affect all Los Angeles residents, and many who live in surrounding areas.

Some employers have found that rakes take no more time. In 1991, the Air Quality Management District reported 5 percent more work time for rakes vs. blowers. That is only three minutes per hour, assuming it takes a full hour to collect leaves with a blower.

Finally, even if it takes the 40 percent more work time suggested by some gardeners, compare and calculate the amount of time the blower is used on leaves themselves. And remember, the gardener saves some time and money because there is no need to buy gas for the leaf blower or take the time to fill the tanks.

- Diane Wolfberg

Santa Monica Canyon

Capital punishment defended

The letter by John McFadyen in Public Forum Jan. 22, taking issue with the letter I wrote Jan. 12 regarding the death penalty, has a few statements that I would like to respond to.

First, he says that the ``death penalty has never been a deterrent.'' Not true. During the 1930s and early '40s there were a number of holdups committed with guns that were purposely left unloaded so as to not accidentally kill someone and put the robber in the electric chair. This is a matter of record, not some hypothetical conclusion.

He states that ``most murders Nare crimes of passion,'' and questions if people who are emotionally unstable enough to kill are capable of rationally considering the potential consequences of their actions.

Into what category does he put those who murder people because they did not flash back the proper gang sign or respond with right words to the question, ``What gang are you with?'' What about those who would shoot to death a small child because their parents turned up the wrong alley?

His reference to the death penalty being a nondeterrent for crime is typical of those with same the myopic view. My response is: What death penalty is he talking about? Though there are alleged death penalties on the statutes today, they are not enforced. That robs them of any deterrent factor.

He calls the death penalty revenge. While it may be to an extent, some families of persons who have been murdered have said that the execution of the guilty persons gave them a sense of closure.

Punishment has to be first and foremost a deterrent. Until the day comes, more and more police will be killed, drive-by shootings will continue to escalate and, in the foreseeable future, it will be unthinkable to be on the streets at night in any location in this fine city.

- Walter Poe

Woodland Hills