PUBLIC FORUM : OPRAH VERDICT WAS VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH.

I am somewhat gratified that Oprah Winfrey won the defamation lawsuit against her in Texas. I was sort of hoping that she would lose, because she is one of the few citizens of America who could afford to take the issue to the Supreme Court and get these laws declared unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court over the years has made many decisions on censorship. And censorship is what this case was all about.

The laws under which she was accused are censorship at its most blatant. How dare the state of Texas, or any other state, actually put such laws on the books, then try to enforce them against people making statements of opinion while in some other state.

Apparently, the people are not allowed to have opinions in Texas and other states with similar laws. The beef marketers are trying to restrict the right of a citizen to voice an opinion that they happen to disagree with, and then bring in the government to enforce that restriction. The fact that the beef interests announced their intention to appeal the decision backs me up. Maybe they will take it to the Supreme Court.

Hopefully, the rights of the individual to have and voice an opinion will prevail.

My surprise in this entire issue is that those cattlemen think Oprah, one person, speaking her opinion on a television show, can influence so many millions of people that sales of beef would actually decline for no other reason than that she spoke her opinion.

With that in mind, I openly ask Oprah to end a few other problems for us by expressing some other opinions, such as: ``Gee, discrimination is not nice,'' or ``We really shouldn't be robbing, stealing from, raping, or killing each other,'' or ``I wish Saddam Hussein would retire.''

Could this one woman alone, simply by speaking her opinion, make this a better world?

- Jerry Schwartz

Granada Hills

What about Van Nuys?

Re ``Valley to spice up Main Streets,'' Daily News, March 1:

While improving business districts with landscaping sounds wonderful, I have a few questions and concerns.

First, has anyone considered that all the themed areas might turn the San Fernando Valley into one giant Disneyland?

Secondly, are improvements limited to the wealthier areas? Is there a theme for Van Nuys? Will it be Third World Land or the Red Light District? Since two new adult entertainment businesses are under review for Van Nuys, it looks like Red Light will be it, regardless of what the homeowners want.

What ever happened to the Van Nuys Specific Plan written 17 years ago? Could it be that because Van Nuys is split into five City Council districts, it was never put into effect? It seems like a perfect example of why secession from Los Angeles would be good.

- Nancy Valentine

Van Nuys

Henny Youngman

The Daily News obituary Feb. 25 for Henny Youngman contained a highly dubious explanation of the classic line, ``Take my wife - please!''

Actually, the first part of the line was a common opening for observational humor when every man over 30 was assumed to be a husband, then the final ``please'' bursts our expectations and turns the line into a plaintive plea.

These days many people misunderstand the line as a simple plea, thus robbing it of the mind-bending surprise that made it the classic line it is.

- Henry S. Mercado

Encino

DWP's debts and assets

It seems that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is starving to death with a loaf of bread under each arm.

I am puzzled by the one-sided relationship between the DWP and the city. The DWP gives and the city takes.

Whenever the DWP sells surplus real estate, the proceeds go to the city. If we are so desperate, why has not the city applied surplus real estate proceeds to paying down DWP debt?

What about the Chatsworth Reservoir, which will never be used and could be sold for about $4 billion? Development also would generate lots of tax revenue.

What about the 400 square miles of real estate in the Owens Valley?

- Francisco Fernandez

Los Angeles

Credit union decision

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that credit unions cannot enroll members from outside their core membership group is based on the Depression-era law that governs credit unions. This ruling severely restricts the ability of consumers to choose a credit union as their financial institution. The effort to update this law and preserve consumer choice is under way in Congress with HR 1151, the Credit Union Membership Access Act.

The bank industry opposes HR 1151 because bankers hope to eliminate credit unions as a viable alternative for consumers.

The difference between banks and credit unions is that for-profit banks answer to their stockholders; credit unions answer only to their members. Credit unions are exempt from federal income tax - not because their membership is limited, but because they are nonprofit cooperatives that serve the public good. Like other nonprofit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, they deserve this exemption.

Consumers deserve access to credit unions, because a choice between two banks isn't really a choice at all.

- David L. Chatfield

President/CEO

California Credit Union League

Pomona

MTA land sale

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board of directors, at its meeting Feb. 26, did the transit-riding residents of the San Fernando Valley a considerable disservice. Ever since the Rapid Transit District's West Valley bus division moved to Chatsworth in 1986, the former location at Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard remained vacant except for some occasional short-term uses. On Feb. 26, the MTA voted to sell that property to a developer to be used to develop a supermarket.

The San Fernando Valley Transit Restructuring Plan, adopted by the MTA in late 1994, identified the intersection of Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard as the location in the Valley with the highest total of weekday Wpassenger boardings, and endorsed the concept of ``transit centers'' where multiple bus lines would meet to facilitate transfers.

Such a transit center at this intersection would serve five bus lines, and possibly a sixth line that is within a half-mile and one Los Angeles Department of Transportation commuter express line.

I urge the MTA to insist that a transit center become part of the development of this parcel.

- Kymberleigh Richards

Van Nuys

Oppression in China

The Daily News article ``FBI arrests Chinese suspects in selling inmates' organs,'' Feb. 24, may increase public awareness of not only this ghoulish practice, but also of the other gross violations of human rights in that nation. Suppression of free speech and religion is common in China, as is the general persecution of political dissidents . At the same time, it is a sad commentary on our priorities as a nation that we import huge quantities of merchandise from China while conveniently ignoring the system our dollars are helping sustain.

One possible answer to this dilemma was provided to me by the purchasing department of a national retail chain after I recently wrote them to inquire why many items in one of their lines were now being made in China. The answer was that this is how they could provide the best value for the money.

That scenario is being repeated over and over across the United States. It may be assumed that the buyers and sellers in the human organ trade are also ``getting the best value for their money.''

This last example, of course, is possibly atypical. It does, however, underscore the need for Americans, who always have valued personal freedoms, to examine what we buy in general from China. This may be our only way to influence a political and social system that all too often has punished severely its own citizens who sought to change dehumanizing policies.

- Robert McKay

- North Hills

Caring for open space

Re the response by Chuck Heinold of West Hills (WPublic Forum, Feb. 25) regarding our comments (Public Forum, Feb. 19) concerning the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy under Joe Edmiston and the proposed Tujunga Wash golf course.

First, we are not against the conservancy purchasing open land. What we said is that the conservancy should offer market price for the land it wants to purchase and not try to ``steal'' it with low-ball offers and hold up any development for years while trying to wear down the owner-developer.

Second, after the conservancy does purchase land, it needs to ensure that it has sufficient funds to properly operate and maintain the purchase, so as not to let it grow wild and create extensive fire hazards for nearby homes, as is the case in Topanga Park.

Because of the recent heavy rains caused by El Nino, the threat to our homes this summer will be horrendous if the conservancy doesn't now make plans to care for its property.

We do not expect the city, county or state to ``bail us out,'' as Heinold suggests. We have, ever since we moved into our home in Topanga almost 30 years ago, paid very high insurance rates to protect us from both fire and earthquake. The high fire rates are a direct result of the extensive brush area that is not properly maintained.

We do not expect the taxpayers to pay our bills. But we do expect the conservancy to take the same precautions that we do in protecting our area against fires, not add to that threat.

- William J. Dillon

Topanga

If a golf course is built in the wash, how much will cleaning up after a storm cost and who will pay that bill?

I have not forgotten what a ``wash'' does to earn its name.

- R. Laing

Studio City