PUBLIC FORUM : NATO EXPANSION WILL BE COSTLY, PROVOCATIVE.

Your editorial of July 9, questioning the wisdom of NATO expansion, is most cogent and overdue. Not only will it cost tens of billions of dollars for American taxpayers to subsidize our arms merchants to re-equip Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and others, the expansion of NATO to the Russian border accentuates age-old Russian fears made real by repeated invasions from the West.

It also re-creates Cold War fears in the world by revealing the untrustworthiness of promises by our Western leaders to Mikhail Gorbachev at the time of German reunification not to push their NATO military alliance eastward. Understandably now, efforts to disarm Russian nuclear and conventional weapons are being seen by them as an attempt to weaken and isolate Russia militarily and economically.

Unfortunately, the vision that the Cold War is over and that the world is entering a new era of peace guaranteed by American superpower is beginning to look like a short lull of talk between intervals of economic and political struggle: The West under the NATO umbrella vs. the East from Kalingrad to Hong Kong, with Japan playing the middleman.

Let us hope that the ``bridge to the 21st century'' being planned by cold warriors of the 20th century does not produce a similar or even greater devastation for the world's people as the century now ending.

- Paul Sawyer

Pasadena

Charen `downright mean'

Re ``Abhorrent surge in illegitimacy a true tragedy,'' by Mona Charen, Opinions, July 10:

I would like to suggest that Charen is backward and sexist and downright mean when referring to any baby or child as illegitimate. That word is a gossipmonger's dream.

To put down females who give birth without circumstance of marriage is of another era. When will society learn not to put children down for things out of their control?

Let's please strike the signifiers illegitimate and ``out of wedlock'' from our language. These name-callings and judgments by Charen and others like her represent yet another tragedy.

- Le Baron Stewart

Los Angeles 

Regarding Mona Charen's July 10 column regarding yet another baby born under sad circumstances: She left the obvious solution unmentioned.

To quote from her last paragraph, ``Abort your baby, or raise it yourself.''

This lack of vision seems to be gaining widespread acceptance. That's the two options I see outlined again and again. Whatever happened to giving the baby up for adoption to a married, stable couple that is happily willing to commit to raising a child?

``Happily willing'' is the operative modifier. Nowhere in her column did she mention the adoption option. Adoption gives the baby a loving family and it offers the twentysomethings a second chance in life to reflect on the consequences of their actions.

- Ellen Switkes

Van Nuys

Mona Charen rightfully expresses outrage that so many men these days are getting women pregnant and not marrying them. She correctly observes that the time for a man to decide he's not ready to get married is before conceiving a child.

Charen makes several other important points: The number of men who do not take responsibility in situations like this has grown enormously, more than doubling in 15 years. Pregnant women have been left with no support. We, as a society, are essentially saying: ``Abort your baby, or raise it yourself.''

But Charen doesn't seem to see why all this has happened. The reason is obvious. It is because abortion is considered an acceptable option. Abortion was supposed to give women a choice. Instead, it has left them without any support. These days, many men view a woman's body as if it were a pencil with an eraser. Any time a man wants to run away from his responsibility, he can just say: ``Get an abortion. I'm not ready to be a father.''

We, as a society have to decide whether we are committed to family values. We can't have it both ways. When I was growing up, I was taught that if a woman gets pregnant, that means she has a baby. We are now witnessing the behavior of the first generation of males who were not taught that.

- Matt Reagan

Sherman Oaks

`Neighborhood snoops'

Concerning ``Neighborhood snoops; Volunteers to help inspectors enforce health, safety codes,'' Daily News, July 15:

``Hooray'' for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick. Now all the wanna-be police officers, self-righteous, get-even-with-society types can turn in the elderly. Those who cannot afford to pay someone to maintain their property or are too ill to do it themselves will now be issued threatening letters by the snoops.

I am sure this will add to their comfort and well-being. What's next, have the kids turn in their parents if they are illegal?

Why not be more productive and form a volunteer group within each neighborhood to help clean up?

- Paul I. Alfaro

Palmdale

Integrated science

The Daily News has served the children of California well in bringing the issue of integrated science to the attention of the public.

This is a critically important issue because the nation's future health, welfare and security are dependent on a first-rate science education for the youngsters of the United States of America.

The proponents of integrated science are dedicated and truly believe that this approach to science education will help more youngsters understand and enjoy science. And when implemented properly, integrated science has many worthwhile features.

But look at what happened to reform education when it was not implemented properly. When reformers excluded phonics instruction for reading, replacing it, without choice, with whole language learning, California's youngsters suffered from poor reading skills, damage that can not be easily undone.

Some of the proponents of integrated science say the old ways did not work. Boy, are they wrong.

A recent study by the National Science Foundation shows that Cal State Northridge ranked No. 1 in the nation in terms of the numbers of CSUN graduates in the sciences who go on to achieve doctorate degrees.

This major achievement is a direct result of a partnership between CSUN and the Los Angeles Unified School District (and other districts) that feed well-trained students to CSUN. I credit the LAUSD with doing a superb past job in providing outstanding pre-college traditional science education to our incoming students, training that was so good that these students are going for doctoral degrees in record numbers.

As long as schools adopt integrated science as a choice, but not a replacement for traditional science courses, I'm for it. But if schools throw out the traditional courses to implement no-choice integrated science, a major battle will be on the horizon.

I thank the Daily News for getting this critically important information to the students, parents and teachers in the LAUSD.

- Steven B. Oppenheimer, Ph.D.

Director

Center for Cancer

and Developmental Biology 

Cal State Northridge

Improving race relations

I believe there is a method to help influence better race relations. That method is to have a colorblind society that starts with the elimination of hyphenated Americans.

People should be proud of their heritage but that can be expressed in other ways. While I am proud of my Irish and German background, I want to be referred to only as an American, not an Irish-German-American.

This method may not be a 100 percent cure to all of the ills of race relations but it would certainly get us much closer than what we have today.

- Michael C. Hines

West Hills

Bilingual education critic rebutted

In the wake of the recent United Teachers-Los Angeles vote to continue the Los Angeles Unified School District's current bilingual education program, a response to the various letters Douglas Lasken has directed against bilingual education this past year is in order.

Lasken conveniently relates low test scores and poor academic performance to the LAUSD's bilingual education program. Yet why has he never mentioned the lack of experienced and fully qualified bilingual education teachers, the transitory nature of both student and teacher populations, the socioeconomic makeup of the program's students, or the opposition the program has faced from administrators and teachers since the very beginning?

Instead of delving into the cognitive and social intricacies and implications of bilingual education in the LAUSD, Lasken decides to attack the program by misrepresenting it, by connecting it to the bureaucratic politics of the district, which he refers to as a ``cash cow,'' and by appealing to statistics, such as district test scores that, in isolation, are supposed to unequivocally discredit the bilingual program.

There is no doubt that bilingual education in the LAUSD has had its fair share of problems. In a district as large and complex as the LAUSD, problems and challenges are bound to exist.

Though the most important concern should be the academic welfare of students, it seems that bilingual education will continue to be a predominantly political issue in districts like the LAUSD as long as people continue holding to the myth of a homogenous America, as long as people continue making the mistake of confusing unity with uniformity.

Part of the mission of contemporary bilingual education is to confront this type of deeply entrenched and destructive myth. The aim of bilingual education is not to polarize or segregate communities. On the contrary, it is an attempt to unite us by having us recognize, accept and hopefully celebrate our linguistic, cultural and racial differences, and not by imposing one impossible standard for all to follow.

- Julio Torres

North Hollywood