PUBLIC FORUM : NO SEX FOR SENIORS.

This is about sex and seniors.

Why incite seniors to have sexual relations? There are already too many sexual predators abusing young children.

Steering sexual desires outside the normal relations intended by God, for young people for procreation, is very, very wrong.

Seniors should enjoy their senior years with peaceful coexistence, with love for each other, companionship and friendship, without worrying about sexual relations.

- Mary E. Ballester

Arleta

Bobbitt defended

Furious, I'm writing the Daily News regarding the continuing, sick-minded teasing and jokes regarding John Wayne Bobbitt, the 32-year-old ex-Marine whose penis was severed by his then-wife, Lorena, in 1993.

There's not a damned thing funny about the crime committed against this man. It was mayhem (California Penal Code, Section 203).

I'm particularly outraged against victims' rights and feminist activists and celebrities who make light of Bobbitt's mutilation. They bust their spleen against guns and domestic violence but applaud Lorena's crime and give her a bouquet of roses.

- Sheldon L. McCormick

Los Angeles 

No rational answer

Following an attack on Jewish children, whether here or in Israel, it seems that someone always asks, ``Why, throughout history, have Jews been hated and mistreated?'' I do not like this question; it implies that an irrational hatred can be explained in a rational way, as if perennial hatred of a people and mistreatment of its children might somehow be the fault of that people.

Abraham, the first Jew, was singled out and elevated by God because he was the world's first teacher, the first human being to take upon himself the task of spreading kindness throughout the world, and the first person to attribute all earthly goodness to God.

Abraham was also the father of the other monotheistic faiths. Against this background, an attack on Jewish children represents a rejection of the divine mission of Abraham and his descendants, a rejection of the values of kindness and goodness, and thus a rejection or a denial of God himself.

- Joshua Siskin

Sherman Oaks

Abolish gun shows

It seems to me, and undoubtedly to a huge number of other sane, peace-loving citizens of the world's leading country, that gun shows should be abolished immediately after the National Rifle Association is made to disband. And don't give me any ``Constitutional rights'' back talk: Don't all of the thousands of innocent victims of unleashed, out-of-control gun violence have the same rights? Let's remember when and for what purpose the Constitution was written! Until drastic action is taken, the Buford Furrows will crawl out of the woodwork and proliferate along with the increasingly obscene numbers of guns that hold all of us hostage in this hate-riddled society.

- Bettie Kapiloff

La Canada Flintridge

Here we go again

As a law enforcement officer, parent and life member of the National Rifle Association in the Southern California area. I have to say I am upset to still hear people saying that guns caused the tragedy at the North Valley Jewish Community Center on Aug. 10.

If no one can see through the hype at this time, let me try to help. The act was committed by an evil person intent on causing harm in some way to someone. The only thing that stopped him from doing it in other places was, in his own words, the amount of security at the other places. Above all of this no one mentioned the fact that the weapon this person used in this act is already banned in the state of California unless it is properly registered.

The politicians promised these idiotic laws would keep people safe. All the laws did was victimize law-abiding gun owners in the state. But evil people do evil things and there is very little anyone can do to stop them and then stop them from doing it again.

- Mike Judge

Simi Valley

Misjudged NRA 

I hardly know where to begin replying to Solomon Swidler's letter (Public Forum, Aug. 15) wondering where the National Rifle Association's outrage over the day care center shooting is, so I will start by saying please take a deep breath and one giant step backward.

I am a member of the NRA, and the actions of this maniac made me feel like throwing up. He is not one of us, and is not welcome in our organization. The NRA specifically states that it does not want anyone who advocates violence among its members. We have been a consistent voice for stiff punishment for people who commit crimes with guns, and the NRA does not want violent or deranged people to be allowed to buy or own guns.

Do not think that this monster has the NRA's blessing. He does not. From us he will get only our heartfelt wish of swift punishment to the fullest extent of the law.

- Ken Foerster

Thousand Oaks

Psychiatric drug problem

I'm very glad to see that at least some information has been released to indicate that Buford Furrow was on psychiatric drugs. This is a consistent thread throughout the spate of extremely violent shooting incidents over the past few years. Eric Harris, a ringleader in the Columbine murders, is just one recent example.

Some are saying that the solution is more ``mental treatment'' for criminals, more drugging of troubled people.

Look at the statistics. All, or almost all, of the people who committed these senseless and bloody crimes, with apparently no sense of responsibility or guilt whatsoever, were currently taking, or had recently been taking, psychiatric drugs at the time of the shootings. Therefore, administering these mind-altering drugs on a broader scale is far more likely to result in an increase of these incidents.

Psychiatric drugs are the problem, not the solution.

- Geraldine Whitt

La Crescenta

What took you so long?

In the past couple of days, Los Angeles has faced racism head on. Children are shot. Everyone seems to panic immediately. I have viewed more media coverage on this sad and tragic event than I wanted to see. On Sunday, our civic, state and government leaders gave speeches. I'm disappointed that it has taken two decades to hear these plans on gun standards. I am disgusted with the fact more minorities have died in gun-related attacks. In my following questions, I'm looking for truthful answers from our leaders.

To our political leaders: Why has it been this event, and not other events, which made you respond? Why are militant groups allowed to keep stockpiles of weapons? Why are we not penalizing the Boy Scouts for discriminating (against) homosexuals and atheists? Why are farm workers in unsafe transports (vans)? In my personal view, it seems that our political figures only follow polls and TV.

- Ramiro Corletto

North Hollywood

Prop. 187 and cheap labor

Reader Barbara Mark intends to work to recall Gov. Gray Davis because he got rid of Proposition 187 (Public Forum, Aug. 4). She says she does not intend to pay to take care of all the legal and illegal aliens that will be arriving in future years.

The best way to stop or lessen the flow of illegal aliens is to go after the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Republican Party. After all, everybody knows that thousands of illegal aliens are working in farms, particularly in the central and northern part of our state, and the INS does nothing about it. After all, the California farmers must have their cheap and exploitable foreign labor and we just look the other way.

The Republican Party in Congress had a chance to cut down the number of illegal aliens coming into the country, but, after intense pressure from farmers and cheap-labor urban employers and others, decided to drop the whole bill four years ago. In other words, the Republicans are the most avid backers of Prop. 187, but not when it inconveniences their conservative business people and farmers.

- John F. Mendez

Los Angeles

Illegal sign blight

Re ``Banner brouhaha,'' (Editorial, Aug. 9):

You write that the banning of light pole advertisements . . . in an effort to preserve the tidy and harmonious look for which L.A. is so famous, is . . . ``a really idiotic City Council ordinance.'' Well, count me in on the side of the idiotic City Council.

Joining me, I'm sure, are members of the Tarzana Improvement Association, the Tarzana Property Owners Association, as well as most anyone with the opportunity to drive down Ventura Boulevard. Groups such as the Tarzana Improvement Association have worked incredibly hard for many years to come up with a plan to improve the aesthetics of Ventura Boulevard.

The fact that most parts of L.A. are not presently ``tidy and harmonious'' is hardly reason enough to allow additional visual blight. Instead of adding more to our daily eyestrain, how about putting a list in your paper of all the other illegal signs currently on the boulevard.

- Beth Marks Nelson

Tarzana