PUBLIC FORUM : LAW NEEDED TO BAN LIQUOR ADS ON TV, RADIO.

On Nov. 10, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told NBC News that he concurs with President Clinton's continuing family-values opposition to ``hard'' liquor ads beginning to run on TV and radio, in violation of a voluntary decades-old distillers' policy recently rescinded (``Liquor makers end broadcast ad ban,'' Daily News).

While the CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox networks currently claim they have no plans to alter their policies and practices against accepting liquor ads, the alcohol-related problems that will inevitably result from pushing more than beer and wine on the public's airwaves, particularly targeting young Americans, involve more than the major networks.

Over 1,200 independently owned affiliate TV and radio stations, and cable companies, currently are out of the loop. To bring all the broadcast players under control and prevent previous mavericks like Canadian-based Seagram Co. and Telemundo - a national Spanish-language network - from shamelessly milking their bottom line at the expense of public health and safety, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy's H.R. 3644 should receive strong bipartisan support. Its simple purpose is that ``it shall be unlawful to advertise distilled spirits on any medium of electronic communication subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission.''

With beverage alcohol the leading cause of death and injury to teen-agers and young adults, and beer and wine ads hypocritically left out of the current national discussion, surely our federal officials can now get the clear and unambiguous message that the liquor lobby's unconscionable greed needs H.R. 3644 curtailment.

bbb- Ray Chavira, member

Los Angeles County

Commission on Alcoholism

Palmdale

Taggants and the NRA 

After reading recently of the National Rifle Association's stand on taggants, I felt that I should be taken out and shot were I not to respond.

The NRA preaches relentlessly that criminals, not guns, must be controlled. Agreed. So when law enforcement develops taggants to trace explosives, and thereby help nail the perpetrators, one would expect widespread NRA approval, right? Wrong. Taggants, in NRA cosmology, will make gunpowder more expensive and of lower quality; this, in other words, is more important than catching murderers who kill with pipe bombs.

Oh, and those nasty feds can't be trusted with objectively studying the use of taggants, anyway we all know that all feds are our enemies.

Precisely what will it take for NRA members to see that their organization has been shot dead by right-wing fanatics? It is entirely possible to be a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment while being a fierce opponent of the NRA. I am.

The NRA is to the guns issue what Louis Farrakhan is to race relations, what Richard Nixon was to the principles and ideals of the Republican Party, what the ACLU sometimes is to sensible civil liberties. Let's dump these dangerous, extremist clowns and discuss the creation of a lobby that promotes the Second Amendment responsibly.

- Tom Braun

Littlerock

Texaco boycott

With reference to your Nov. 7 article, wherein Texaco's chairman, Peter Bijur, said that he has suspended the culprits who made the racial epithets, plus suspending retirement benefits to a couple of others suspected of doing the same. He expressed anger over this, and apologized for the unkind remarks.

However, even after this apology, the ``holier than thou'' crowd, consisting of ministers, rabbis and bank executives from San Diego, still wanted to retaliate against Texaco by calling for a boycott and urging customers to cut up their Texaco credit cards.

I expect that the bank executives would yell ``foul'' if their customers would cut up the bank's credit cards, but for the ministers and rabbis to urge this is not following the spirit of forgiveness taught in the Scriptures and proclaimed from their pulpits. Yet now they proclaim revenge, even after an apology has been given, and appropriate action has been taken to alleviate the situation. Could it be that the world sees no difference in the church than what is practiced by anyone else?

- E.E. Schmidt

Sylmar

Why all this fuss about Texaco? Don't we have enough serious problems to be solved without frivolous complaints about a couple of words being used, which offended one group of people?

Surely these complainers are intelligent enough to rise above this and ignore it, taking it from whence it comes. The men who made the slurs seem to have no intelligence at all.

My husband, whose father was Ukranian, his mother Polish, was born in this country but suffered many insults while in school. He was called ``dumb Pollock,'' ``Hunky'' and other uncomplimentary names. He rose above this, ignoring it until his tormentors saw it was a losing battle. My husband said it was two or three years before he realized he was as good as the next person.

The Texaco episode is a tempest in a teacup. Let's get on with more serious matters.

- M. Jean Levicki

Panorama City

`For want of a horse'

This in reference to ``For want of a horse'' by Ronna Jurow in Opinions on Nov. 8.

For openers, I am offended by Dr. Jurow's patronizing attitude to female patients; she also refers to them as ``sisters.'' I for one do not consider myself even remotely related to her.

I am a female who uses synthetic estrogen. I also have enough nursing training to know what is good for me. Doctors are not infallible. According to modern medicine practice, a client is encouraged to discuss his or her treatment with the physician and choose what is best.

As for the treatment of female horses in the process of obtaining their urine for estrogen, it is far from being humane. Dr. Jurow does not describe the method by which this product is extracted. The mare is confined to a very tight space throughout her pregnancy in order to facilitate the collection of her urine. After the foal is born, more often than not, it is destroyed and the mare is impregnated again as soon as possible.

When I found out about this practice, I asked my physician to prescribe synthetic estrogen, and he was more than happy to do so.

- Haydee Pavia

West Hills

Political eyesores

Now that the campaign is over, it is time for the campaign offices to take down all of their posters, etc., that have been littering our street corners. This would also be a good time to remind everyone that it is against the law to hang private and commercial graffiti on the public utility poles.

Not only is this unsightly, but it is hazardous to the repairmen who have to climb these poles. We all have to work together to keep our communities clean and to retain the value of our homes and neighborhood.

- Roberta Rowe

Northridge

Voters' mandate: Bye, bye, Bob

Thank goodness; it looks as if the Orange County voters have finally rid themselves of Bob Dornan. He never represented his constituents; he represented himself.

He is an abrasive, mean-spirited, arrogant man who took delight in insulting people he disagreed with.

My congratulations to the people of his district who decided they needed a decent representative.

Earl D. Horwitz

North Hills

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PHOTO BOB DORNAN