PUBLIC FORUM : FOR EMPLOYEES, `THE AIR IS HEAVY' AT TEXACO.

The subject is we, the victims of Texacogate.

I am usually an upbeat optimist who takes life in stride and makes the best of it. On Nov. 4, that changed. I awoke to allegations that Texaco executives had not only indicated on tape that they should possibly shred documents that had been requested by the court, but had also referred to my co-workers with words that my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap for even thinking!

I was raised on the premise that bias and prejudice against others had no rightful place in our home or in our world. However, I was not raised in a vacuum. I knew that the world was sometimes unkind, that ignorance existed.

I am a Caucasian female who has worked for Texaco for over 30 years. I have always been proud of this company.

At this moment I cannot be. The air is heavy. Employees no longer joke lightheartedly. As I walk through the corridors, my eyes tend to seek the carpet, not the eyes of those I meet.

Do people of color think that I share the opinion of those men? I am not sure. Yet one of my African-American friends, a lovely woman that I hired 20 years ago and have always loved and admired, cried during a meeting last week that was held to discuss the situation and the company's diversity program.

She feels that she is being blamed. Other minorities and women are wondering if our top management uses similar words when speaking of them.

I have this to say to my co-workers and the community.

We, the people, are not the minority. We, the people are the majority. The men in that meeting room are that minority. Ignorance and intolerance is not our game.

- Sharon K. Pfeiffer

Universal City

Smog Check II

Nowhere in your story on Smog Check II (Dec. 1), did you even mention the massive smog produced from the city and school buses in our city or the unregulated trucks from Mexico.

The American people have to face up to it, that the government has finally taken over. It tells us what to do, not as it was founded by our forefathers. That is called communism, folks.

Paula David of the state Bureau of Automotive Repairs makes it sound so good for us, so wonderfully pure and fresh. Fresh baloney. Everyone knows it is stupid, just like the one that has been in effect for years. Nothing accomplished at a very high price paid by the workers.

- Ray Holm

Woodland Hills

EPA `is a joke'

The Environmental Protection Agency is a joke. Its directives and proposals are disingenuous to the extent that they omit one of the major polluters.

For example, the following is a direct quote from a recent article in The New York Times: ``We would have to look at some additional controls on everything from motor vehicles to aircraft, to ships.'' With the inclusion of the words motor vehicles they would have you believe that motor vehicles - read automobiles - are the culprit.

Does the trucking industry have special dispensation to belch thousands - maybe millions - of tons of particulates from 18-wheelers that crowd our freeways every day? How about buses that ply our city streets daily with the same result?

I don't know about you, but the EPA and the South Coast Air Quality District commit the sin of omission with their continuing pronouncements.

- Joe Benoit 

Valencia

Banning leaf blowers

Councilman Marvin Braude and the Los Angeles City Council are once again completely out of touch with their constituents. With all the serious problems we have to endure in Los Angeles, the City Council has chosen to spend its time debating the pros and cons of leaf blowers.

Several of my neighbors' yards are professionally maintained by gardeners who clean up the sidewalks using gasoline-powered leaf blowers. This ``disturbance'' only lasts about five minutes a week and is carried out by what appears to be hard working, low- to middle-income individuals.

The inconvenience caused by leaf blowers pales in comparison to other noise-producing problems, such as the amplified music of local youths. I can close my front door and not even hear the leaf blowers in action, but I cannot escape the hours and hours of loud music that enters my home each week against my will.

If I choose to spend the 20 to 30 minutes - on hold - to report the music disturbance to the police, they usually will not respond for three to four hours, if at all.

The City Council reached its apex in arrogance in choosing to fine both the gardener and the homeowner for leaf-blower use, while city employees can continue to use their leaf blowers with impunity.

I would love to personally hire some of these leaf blower-toting gardeners to clean-up the next City Council meeting. Maybe leaf blowers would be an effective tool in removing some of the ``arrogant trash'' that is littering City Hall.

- Bob Thorpe

Sun Valley

The problem with gasoline-powered leaf blowers is not the noise, which is bad enough. It is not the fumes, which are bad enough. The major problem that air pollution officials and asthmatics and I have with the arguments set forth is that they omit the worst pollution of all: dust.

It is this stuff that filters onto window sills and furniture. But don't forget that is also filtering into our lungs.

This dust is not just nice clean soil: It is pollen, it is algae, it is dog and cat feces, it is particulates of the worst kind. And all over the city people are blowing it into our faces every day as they tend their own and their customers' lawns.

Then the City Council in its wisdom says that it is OK to make noise, create fumes and blow dirt all over city property. It thinks that it is OK for city employees to work in this kind of atmosphere. I see many gardeners wearing masks while they work. There is a message there for us.

The message clearly is ban the blowers of any kind. They are hazardous to our health.

- Theodora Howell

West Hills

Locking the barn

It is very interesting to me that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is so eager to spend my federal tax money to keep Capitol Records' 300 jobs in Hollywood. What is even more interesting is that no attempt was made to save the 60 jobs that Capitol's parent company, EMI Capitol Music Group, transferred to New York City in June.

Thanks, mayor, but for those already affected, it's a bit too late.

- C.H. Schenck

Los Angeles

Giving thanks

Bill Tammeus in his column (Opinions, Nov. 28) on Thanksgiving Day does not get the point of giving thanks.

The Scripture - First Thessalonians 5:18 - which he is quoting is in the midst of a part of the Bible on praying. Giving thanks to God in all circumstances speeds up answers to prayer. Refusing to give thanks to God in everything slows down answers to prayer.

Tammeus, with his clever sarcastic words, makes complaining seem like an admirable quality. It is not.

Giving thanks changes situations around us. Giving thanks also changes the character traits within us.

We all have reasons to be thankful for the beauty around us in the richest, the most prosperous, the most democratic and the most freedom-loving nation on Earth.

- Herbert Goldstein

Newhall

`Living an illusion'

Anyone who believes marijuana is not dangerous to one's emotional and physical health is living an illusion - probably caused by marijuana.

- M.W. Magnus

Canoga Park

Bilingual education

``Making the grade'' (Editorials, Nov. 25) prompted me to write to you. Students must meet basic goals instead of being passed from grade to grade without learning to read and write.

The reason this is happening is that they are taught in Spanish and bilingual classes. The dropout rate in high school is very high because of that.

We are having a hard time putting our granddaughter in a grade school where they are taught in English only. She is in a waiting list. She is a fourth-generation citizen of this country.

When I was in school we were told to speak English. My kids were taught in English and are doing very well as adults.

By the way, we are Americans of Mexican descent and are very proud of it and our language is English.

- Lupe A. Sanchez

Sylmar

Cartoon hit mark on education

Without realizing it, cartoonist Mike Smith (``Portfolio,'' Nov. 29) has put his finger on the problems facing education today.

His cartoon shows a family at home. Papa, reading the newspaper, says: ``U.S. students are below average in math. What can the schools do?''

Mama replies: ``Teaching them to read would help.'' And Sonny, sitting on the couch next to Mama, is holding his math book upside down.

Their actions indicate that both Papa and Mama know how to read, yet neither makes a move to instruct Sonny. Instead they wait for ``the schools'' to do it.

Parents and schools should work together to teach kids. It's a crime when a child of literate parents needs to go to school to learn how to read.

- Nancy Martsch

Sherman Oaks