PUBLIC FORUM : NEW VA MOTTO.

``Putting veterans first'' is the official motto of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had the pleasure of working for the Sepulveda VA from 1992 to 1999. I started working in recreation as an impressionable 16-year-old kid who knew little about veterans' causes and sacrifices. I have recently left the VA with a broad understanding of what our nation's veterans have sacrificed.

It is with great sadness that I am reading about the continued cutbacks and closures that have become the true motto of the VA central office, as well as our Congress for the department. The promise of a new gym and pool - not just the therapy tub, uh, pool in the new building, but an actual swimming pool - and 995.5 jobs - from more than 1,700 before the quake - and other promises have never been kept. Staffing is far below 500 employees. Patient programs continue to be eliminated, and veterans must now brave the 405 Freeway to the West Los Angeles facility to get access to many of their rightful health-care options. And, now, the gym closes because of sudden concern about the safety of our veterans - more than five years after the earthquake.

- Alfred Jr. Pierfax

Pacoima

Help our veterans

I was unaware that our heroic veterans at the veterans hospital were without a gym until I read about the situation in the letters section of the paper. Then I read in the paper that Clinton spent $72 million on three trips abroad last year, taking along 1,300 government employees, when we can't find $2 million to fix the veterans' gym.

I was so incensed that I called Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon's office to vent my anger. His associate informed me that he is aware of the problem and working diligently to resolve it. So let's get behind him and right this terrible wrong. I am not a veteran but feel very grateful for the sacrifices they all made. Let's not forget them for putting their lives on the line. If we can send money all over the world, why can't we help our veterans?

- Ed Garfalo

Valencia

Testing rude

Re ``Rude driving? L.A.'s the worst'' (Daily News, Sept. 20):

One of the headlines states: ``Survey says we're the most aggressive motorists in America.'' This survey by the Steel Alliance researchers comes as no surprise to many Angelenos. What is so praiseworthy about the article, however, is the presentation of attitudes we should be putting forth to handle this unnerving situation.

The article mentioned the humiliating gesture by motorists of brandishing the middle finger at other drivers in an angered response. ``Flipping off'' other motorists has become so commonplace on our highways and freeways that I often joke that the written test for drivers should include a diagram of this gesture, under the category of hand signals, as a ``signal of disapproval.''

- Larry Stone

Valley Village

Using tragedy

Re ``Pit bull attacks boy, woman who steps in'' (Sept. 24):

Wasn't it just last week that Dan Knapp of Animal Services was telling us that neutering our dogs will not affect their usefulness as guard dogs? Now he says that ``unneutered dogs are more likely to attack because higher hormone levels make them less docile.'' Which is it, Dan: neutering doesn't affect a dog or makes him more docile? If I get my dog neutered, will he be just as likely to bite an intruder or will he, as Trish Witcomb states, be 2.6 times less likely? Or is all this just a way for the pro-alteration forces in this town to make political hay out of a little boy's horrifying tragedy?

- Scott Jones 

North Hollywood

We pay them to know

I'd like to thank all at the Daily News for sticking to their guns and doing such a good job of investigating and reporting the unbelievable wrongdoing by those concerned in the scandalous Belmont cover-up, including the ones who said they didn't know about it. Duh 

We pay them to know. Keep up the good work investigating any and all shady dealings. You are our strong voice.

- Shirley Thielman

Reseda

Rent Belmont to lawyers

Re ``School cost a sham'' (Daily News, Sept. 19): The Daily News articlementions that, along with the multitudinous Belmont woes, the retail section is a problem. I have a wonderful idea. Forget fast food. Forget shoe stores. Rent the space to lawyers.

The first time a student has a headache, he can run downstairs and talk to an attorney who will contact his parents and institute the first of many lawsuits that would come with the opening of this facility. Toxic headaches, toxic stomachaches, toxic hangnails - the possibilities are infinite.

Lawyers will climb over each other to rent this space.

- Tom Scott 

Sherman Oaks

Privatizing LAUSD 

Re ``LAUSD needs windows'' Sept. 23:

If I read the editorial correctly, we are spending $7 billion a year in Los Angeles to educate 700,000 children. That comes to $10,000 a child.

If I remember correctly, private schools will educate the students for about $2,000, and the education would most likely be better than they are getting now. If these numbers are pretty close to correct, than we are paying about five times as much as needed to educate our children.

I suggest we encourage people from all around the country to come to Los Angeles and open up private schools. Maybe we could farm out all 700,000 students, save billions of dollars, get the students educated and get rid of this rotten school system of ours.

- Stan Niedwick

Woodland Hills

Spelling it out

The school board and the police department seem to be doing everything backward. And what are the first two letters if you spell ``scandal'' backward?

Coincidence? I don't think so.

- Harvey Fleckman

North Hollywood

Further clarification

The recent headline in the Daily News (``Secession advocate, activist, 78, dies,'' Sept. 21) about the loss of former League of Women Voters President Annette Hall, describing her as a secession advocate, and your correction of what our secession study is doing still leaves room for a little clarification.

The league does take positions on policy issues, but only after we complete a study and gain consensus within the organization. Hall was chairing the study committee, laying the groundwork for the arguments and issues from both those supporting and those opposing secession. Although it is always more difficult to go forward without a strong leader such as Annette, we expect to continue the study, to engage in as much education as we can throughout the city on the secession process, and come to a position ourselves in a year or so. At that point, I expect we will become either an advocate or an opponent of secession.

- Xandra Kayden

President

League of Women Voters

Los Angeles

Not funny

Re ``Prison guards miss target with missive'' (Capitol Notebook, Sept. 12):

Your recent column belittling the seriousness of inmate assaults against correctional peace officers was a disservice to every man and woman working in a California prison. You poked fun at an assault known as ``gassing,'' an increasingly common attack in which inmates throw an unknown liquid substance at officers. But you failed to inform your readers that the unknown liquid is a combination of urine and feces and sometimes blood and saliva.

With hepatitis and tuberculosis at epidemic levels in prison and with the rate of AIDS five times higher than it is in the general population, ``gassing'' can be deadly and expose the officers and their families to terrible health risks.

You also made light of an assault by an inmate with a prosthetic leg. You should know that Joe Morgan, who headed the Mexican Mafia and was one of the most feared inmates in California's prison system, also had a prosthetic leg.

On average, five correctional officers are assaulted every day inside California prisons.

- Don Novey

President

California CorrectionalPeace Officers Association

Just wondering

Now that most people are driving troop carriers, what's going to happen to all those parking spaces marked ``compact''? I was just wondering.

- Mike Laskavy

Valley Village

Helping other kids

Re ``Boy's double heartbreak'' (Daily News, Sept. 20):

If the Daily News wants to help other kids who have single mothers like Cameron Smith's who are still alive, then the newspaper should take an official position supporting a law on the right to carry a gun. Try to have a thousandth of the courage that Cameron's mother did, when she held on to her purse, and back the right to carry a gun. As for Cameron's real father, whoever and wherever he is - and if anyone knows of this, please, for God's sake, tell him to do what he should - go to Cameron, hold him, protect him, love him.

- Josh Peaslee

Tarzana

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PHOTO War veterans gather on Plummer Street to protest their gym's closing.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer