PUBLIC FORUM : COMPROMISES ON DUMP REALISTIC, BENEFICIAL.

Mary Edwards in ``Dump foes are victims of `misinformation,' '' Public Forum, July 11, states, ``We (the North Valley Coalition) have always said of our fight to save Sunshine Canyon that we might lose our battle, and then all we would have left would be our ethical standards.''

With all due respect, this statement is not entirely correct. Edwards apparently forgot about the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park and the steps to mitigate the project.

If Browning-Ferris Industries wins the fight, millions of dollars worth of mitigation from BFI will accrue to the public. Most of this will be in tree planting, biological research and community projects. There will be some major additions to a project started in 1987 by the North Valley Coalition: the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park.

The park was planned mainly to preserve rare vegetation and accommodate bears and mountain lions. As originally described and submitted, plans included BFI holdings in Sunshine, East, Rice, Weldon and Bee canyons. Sunshine Canyon is lost, but extensive modifications of the canyon have already caused a major mitigation: transfer to the county of 500 acres in East Canyon as public parkland, part of the Santa Clarita Woodlands.

Apparently BFI always intended to mitigate the destruction in Sunshine Canyon through East Canyon. Ultimately, the Woodlands should receive through BFI a total of 1,500 acres of parkland. The public will further benefit from gaining recreational use of several long dirt roads. Intentionally or not, the North Valley Coalition will enjoy major gains stemming from losses to BFI.

When I was active in the coalition, the coalition's leadership was focused on gaining total victory over BFI and ending the threat of a new landfill in Sunshine Canyon. I considered such a victory over the giant international corporation to be unlikely and proposed numerous mitigation measures. Without publicly requested mitigation measures, the plaintiff gets little or nothing from landfills and other projects.

My mitigation proposals pertained to many subjects. Some may have been adopted in one form or another.

Fortunately, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and supporters of the Woodlands Park are favorably disposed to these mitigation measures. They will probably come to fruition.

- Don P. Mullally

Granada Hills

Horton critic rebutted

Regarding Vicki Van Camp's outcry (Public Forum, July 14) on having to swallow Jeff Horton as a president for the Los Angeles Board of Education because he is openly homosexual:

Sorry, but not all of us parents are as appalled by homosexuals as she is. Some of us still believe that you should accept people for who they are, not what they are. Discrimination is ugly and illegal.

Race, religion or sexual orientation should not be counted against you. We should be accepting of everyone no matter what they are. Isn't that what we're supposed to teach our children - not to hate?

- Dawne Rust-Goracy

Van Nuys

One-sex marriages

What is it with the readership of the Daily News concerning homosexual ``marriage''?

One reader claims that 10 percent of the population is homosexual and is ``called'' to it. Neither claim is correct. Best figures are 1 percent to 2 percent at most. and homosexuality has not been shown to have a biological basis; no pathology has been identified.

- Richard Hodulik

Burbank

Van Nuys air show

I am amazed by the number of complaints that I read about every year regarding the noise created by the Van Nuys air show. It seems that every year all we hear about are the negative aspects of the show.

What about the hundreds of thousands of people who truly enjoy it? The noise is no more and actually less than that on a normal day of operation at Van Nuys Airport.

- Blaine C. Bryan

Canoga Park

Taking credit

The Clinton administration has been quick to take credit for all good economic and employment news during the past couple of years.

Will it also accept responsibility for the 40,000 jobs lost at AT&T, the recent increase in interest rates and the current declines in the stock market, which have dramatically decreased the savings, pension and IRA accounts of millions of Americans?

- Melvin A. Wolf Jr.

Burbank

`Too little, too late'

The new meat-safety rules just issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture represent too little, too late: too late for the tens of thousands of Americans who died of food poisoning in the past decade, when the source of poisoning was well understood but no effective remedial measures were taken.

The rules also are too little for the thousands of Americans who will continue to die of food poisoning while the new safety procedures are gradually phased in over the next 42 months. Even then, the effectiveness of the inspection system will hinge on the testing integrity of the same industry that brought us infected hamburgers in the first place.

Most importantly, the rules represent too little for the 1.4 million Americans who will continue to die each year of heart failure, stroke, cancer and other chronic diseases that have been linked conclusively with consumption of meat products that have been declared ``safe'' by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For every American who dies suddenly of meat-borne E. coli or salmonella poisoning, 350 suffer lingering, pain-filled deaths from a meat-linked chronic disease.

We cannot turn back the clock and restore the lives of the innocent victims. Nor can we trust government officials to protect our families' health. We can and must exercise a personal responsibility by gradually replacing animal fat and meat in our diet with whole grains, vegetables and fresh fruits.

- Lisa Steele

Los Angeles

LAUSD `clusters'

As a journeyman locksmith in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I wholeheartedly support the views presented by Sara Sommers (Public Forum, July 12) and Carolyn Whitehead (Public Forum, July 9). Were it not for an alert and highly concerned classified staff, the administrative clusters would collapse from the weight of their own ineptness.

The superintendent's vision is purposely blurred when it comes to appointing or evaluating his cluster cohorts in these manicured positions.

- Dennis Barney

Burbank

Civil rights and civility

D.C. Phillips wondered (Public Forum July 11) ``if it is too late for us to seek and then practice civility in our discussions of civil rights.''

Phillips should start in his own home. Name calling, such as using the word ``goons,'' is the height of childishness and benightedness.

- Eileen O'Neill

West Hills

Inmate abuse a `persistent problem'

Regarding your July 14 article (``Inmates tell tales of prison abuse'') on Corcoran State Prison: It is refreshing to see the media highlighting staff abuse of state prisoners, particularly those in the numerous security housing units throughout the state prison system.

This is an old, persistent problem. The federal courts took it up regarding the Soledad Prison security housing units in 1976 in the case of Jordan vs. Fitzharris. But because prison officers are not accountable to any real authority on their ``correctional'' decisions, the same level of abuse persists.

When abuses occur in agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department, public complaints are investigated as thoroughly as required by the chief of police. Officers found responsible for misconduct are routinely punished. No similar check on authority exists within the Department of Corrections.

True, occasionally the press will highlight a particular incident and shame the correctional authorities into action. But that is the exception. Under nearly all circumstances, correctional officers feel free of any restraint of written policy or rule in their handling of prisoners.

Many will argue that the prisoners are there to be punished, that they have earned abuse. But the sad fact is that these prisoners return to our communities, precisely the same communities where they committed their crimes. When the only example of authority and responsibility they have witnessed through their imprisonment is just as criminal, ignorant and dismissive of society's rules as were the prisoners before getting convicted and sentenced, then nothing is changed.

As the cost of prisons approaches 20 percent of the state budget, we must demand the same accountability of prison guards that we do of other law enforcement officers. Those guards are paid well enough. They should become as professional as other law enforcement officers.

W.K. Murphy

Van Nuys

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PHOTO Sunshine Canyon: home to wildlife and rare vegetation .

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