PUBLIC FORUM : FATE STRIKES KENNEDYS.

It seems to me that fate strikes the Kennedy men time and again, not randomly but with a vengeful purpose, to prevent them from reaching the presidency. The first was Joe Jr., who was groomed from the cradle to become the first Kennedy in the White House. Then came Jack who made it to the highest office but was prevented from finishing the job. Bobby was next during his attempt to take JFK's place. Teddy tried to carry on the tradition, but Chappaquiddick stopped him.

And now, last week John Jr., struck down perhaps before ever even thinking in earnest of picking up the baton his father dropped so tragically. Once again, fate intervened.

- Shari Vester

Sunland

International mourning

There is criticism from some quarters of all the media coverage and the major role being played by the U.S. Navy in the search for and recovery of the wreckage and bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette.

Young John Kennedy won the hearts of millions of Americans when a small boy we knew as John-John stood at attention and saluted his father's coffin as it passed atop a caisson that carried him to his final rest. Who has not seen this scene played and replayed many times?

I have just returned from a trip to England and Northern Europe. These are all nations with kings and queens where the Kennedys are looked upon as American royalty. I was overwhelmed by the media coverage and the concern shown by the people in the streets for this latest American tragedy. I left with a genuine feeling of kinship.

I'm proud of President Clinton for extending the service of our Navy to the Kennedy family.

- Philip Wilt

Van Nuys

Circus is about over

Well another circus is about over. And it amazes me how the media can so enmesh themselves in such lugubrious carrying on over the death of young people whose claims to fame were little more than celebrity, good looks and wealth.

Both Diana and JFK Jr. came across as fine young people. I admired much about both of them. And of all the Kennedy younger generation (the males at least) John-John was to me the most palatable. I too was saddened by his death as well as that of his wife and his sister-in-law.

But the maudlin behavior of the American people I saw on TV during this ordeal makes me wonder if we have become a nation of mush heads. Such coverage makes me hope that the folks in Peoria might have limited their mourning to a respectful pause and then gotten on with their business without making a big to-do over it.

This leads me to admit that despite the many character flaws the Kennedys have laid bare over the years, their dignity in the face of death cannot be denied. Even the profligate Teddy shows character in such terribly tragic circumstances. The sob sisters in the media could learn a lot from the Kennedys.

- Bobby Harwell

North Hollywood

Stanford 9 scores skewed 

It is surprising that no mention was made of the decision to combine the Stanford 9 scores in schools that have both traditional and magnet programs (Daily News, July 23). In previous years the scores were separated, which was helpful for parents who wanted to compare either traditional schools with other traditional schools or magnet programs with other magnet programs. This enabled parents who were applying for open enrollment or magnet programs to make a more informed decision.

The combining of scores between magnet and traditional programs renders some of the data almost meaningless at a local level. How do we know how a school is performing if the scores of a gifted or highly gifted magnet are mixed in? Such schools possess an unfair advantage over schools that do not have those kinds of programs to bolster their scores. It is extremely disappointing that the decision was made to give a less accurate picture of how our schools are performing at a time when what is needed is even greater accountability.

- Miriam Koenig

Granada Hills

LEP scores improved

Everyone seems to be missing a key result from the recent Stanford 9 tests for limited English speakers. During the Prop 227 campaigning, it was claimed that English immersion would be a tragedy for the kids. It didn't happen! The LEP kids did even better than last year, along with the rest of the kids. So English immersion sure doesn't hurt. Let's wait and see. We might even have more improvement as it gets fully rolling.

- John Haag

Woodland Hills

Revealing letters

The letters about principals (Public Forum, July 24) said more about the writers than about principals.

- George Norstrand

Northridge

Belmont's a bad hand

They don't know when to hold them or when to fold them. The Los Angeles Unified School District School Board members should not walk away, they should run from the Belmont boondoggle as fast as their kindergarten-teacher legs can carry them.

They hire consultants for more opinions with another $100,000 of our money, to act as Pontius Pilate, washbowls for the board's egregious error in purchasing contaminated property in the first place.

Then, they spend another $2.2 million to weatherproof the folly, which is tantamount to placing a tarp over the Titanic so it won't get wet when it sinks.

There will be no cries of environmental hysteria when ambulance-chasing attorneys crying foul pour into the predominantly low-income Latino community when catastrophe pays them a visit. With our tort system and sympathetic juries, we'll need another Proposition BB to pay the billions and billions of dollars awarded the plaintiffs.

- Roger B. Huntman

Woodland Hills

This is tax money

Mark off the district where you live. Each residence pays $2,000 to Lord-knows-what in property taxes per year.

Add up just how many years it will take every resident in your district, all of their property taxes, to pay for the $170 million LAUSD fiasco, Belmont ``Learnless'' Center - this is what profligacy like this means to real people.

Politicians seem to think that money materializes out of the fourth dimension. It does not. It comes out of taxpayers' pockets.

The LAUSD should be sentenced to maintaining its offices at Belmont Learning Center. Maybe if they had to be where they sentenced children to. . . .

- Barbara Noonan

Sylmar

Teeth in gun control

I see that they finally added some teeth to the gun control laws up in Sacramento. It is about time. My only question is, Why do these politicians write them so they do not take effect for six months or more, instead of putting them into effect immediately? I can understand a slight delay because of printing up the newer regulations, etc., and getting them published so that the citizens are aware of them, but there is no excuse for delaying the actual enforcement of them for such a long time. In this case, this is roughly six months worth of lives that would be saved by enforcement of them beginning now.

- Graydon Wayne

Santa Clarita

He wasn't there

I must respond to ``Family may grieve'' (Public Forum, June 25).

The writer seems to know what he would do if he was there. But we all know he would not put his life on the line, like a police officer does every day, when he or she puts on the uniform and has to make quick decisions.

I feel sorry that the writer has such great dislike for the police. As a mother of a police officer, I am proud of my son and other police officers.

I hope if the writer's mother were ever homeless, he would make every effort to get her off the street.

- Sandra Allen

Van Nuys

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, right and her husband Edwin Schlossberg, center, ride a Coast Guard vessel to a ceremony for her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., aboard the USS Briscoe.

Bill Greene/Boston Globe