PUBLIC FORUM : U.N. WISH HAS BECOME COMMAND FOR U.S.

President Clinton clearly indicated the underlying reason behind the current U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf in his Jan. 29 speech. The president said he was using our nation's forces to comply with the ``will of the United Nations.''

He added that their deployment and possible use would help ``write the international rules of the road for the 21st century'' and deepen the ``interdependence of our United States with other countries.'' On Feb. 6, Clinton rejected the view that the U.S. mission was designed to remove Iraq's Saddam Hussein from power. ``That is not what the United Nations has authorized us to do.''

Can anyone doubt that our own leaders have brought this nation to the point where a U.N. wish is a U.S. command? Yet, there is no authorization in the Constitution for a president to place America's military at the disposal of the United Nations or to comply with U.N. requirements.

The reality of this latest international incident is that Saddam Hussein has provided the excuse for our internationalist-minded regime in Washington to propel our nation into the ``New World Order'' where an internationalist-minded world government will rule over all.

- Chris Letizia

Newbury Park

MTA whistle-blower 

Thank you for your recent articles on the mismanagement of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Despite the prognostications of the politicians, this appears too often to be ``business as usual,'' and Amelia Earnest apparently losing her position for following her conscience and doing the job she was detailed to do is just another example of the mind-set of spend the money or we won't have it to spend next year.

I say kudos to Amelia Earnest.

- David Tong

Burbank

Riordan's Asia trip

While I have long regarded the Daily News to be a very reliable and accurate source of news and information in Los Angeles, your March 10 article regarding Mayor Richard Riordan's trip to Asia missed the mark.

By rushing to print before the facts were in, your reporter left readers with an incorrect impression. Unfortunately, it is the first impression - even when it is wrong, as in this case - that people all too often remember, and not the later clarification or retraction.

It is significant that this trip should result in contracts worth over $1.5 billion and the development of other business relationships that will provide benefits and jobs for Los Angeles companies and residents well into the 21st century.

It is also significant that Riordan - who only takes an annual city salary of $1 - fully paid for his and his new wife's first-class travel and accommodations out of his own pocket. Few, if any, elected officials across our great nation give so generously of their time and money for the betterment of others.

Let's hope that these are the things that your readers most remember when they think about Mayor Riordan's recent travel to Asia, rather than speculation about his air fare that was subsequently dispelled.

- Bert Boeckmann

Northridge

Shame on the Daily News for reducing Mayor Riordan's historical business and friendship mission to Asia to an issue of first class vs. business class.

My understanding is that the mayor secured $1.5 billion in port contracts for the city. He also planted the seeds for future business partnerships with our neighbors across the Pacific.

The mayor and his delegation were treated as heads of state by three presidents and the emperor and empress of Japan - a clear indication that Asia considers Riordan as the leader of a world-class city.

I know the Daily News is capable of reporting real news. I was sorry to see your reporter stoop to the level of sensational, ill-based ``reporting.'' Next time, I'd rather see you focus on the facts, the good news, and the business that the mayor generates for our city.

- Keith S. Richman

Commissioner

Community Redevelopment Agency

Northridge

Editor's note: The Daily News' reports last week focused on whether members of the mayor's Asia trip entourage received free upgrades from business class from an airline owned by the Taiwanese shipping company that had just contracted with the city to continue using the Port of Los Angeles for its cargo.

Information about the upgrades was provided by members of the mayor's staff and other city officials. The Mayor's Office needed three days to confirm that he and his wife had paid for their upgrades to first class.

L.A. sanitation fee

In mayoral spokesman Deane Leavenworth's statement (Daily News, March 10) that the sunset clause on the sanitation fee was not a promise to end the tax, he said: ``The reason you put a sunset clause on something is so you can evaluate it later to see if it is working. In this case, it is working.'' This creative reasoning declares this to be justification for continuing the fee.

Does Leavenworth really think that anyone would believe such nonsense? Sunsets are inevitable events, sunset clauses are to cause the inevitable ending of something, as is supposed to happen with this tax.

His suggestion that the term ``sunset clause'' has a meaning that would allow the sanitation tax to continue is an insult to the intelligence and common sense of us all.

The mayor should be embarrassed to have him as his spokesman.

- Dennis E. Harding

Woodland Hills

Threat of asteroids 

Ordinarily I agree with your editorials. But your March 16 editorial, ``Earthlings in danger,'' is off base and wrongheaded. You used the false alarm over the asteroid that was supposed to be a threat in 2028 to ridicule Congressman Dana Rohrbacher's call for a $25 million outlay to study ways of preventing such threats. The risk of an event is a combination of its likelihood and the impact of the event occurring. In the case of a milewide asteroid, the probability of an impact is small, but it is not zero. The impact could be enormous, as the dinosaurs learned million of years ago.

The question is not if but when a large body will strike Earth. It could be in 10,000 years - or it could be tomorrow morning. We have not cataloged or charted the orbits of all of the bodies that have potential for striking our planet. The earlier we know of a threatening body, the earlier we can start to plan a response.

- James F. Glass

Chatsworth

Courthouse funds wasted

In reference to your editorial ``In contempt of taxpayers'' (March 13):

The greatest waste of courthouse construction funds is the colossal expenditure of $96.7 million for a new courthouse, which is opposed by the Chatsworth community and doesn't even add a single new courthouse to the San Fernando Valley.

Meanwhile, Antelope Valley residents have to drive 130 miles round trip to the next closest court. State law required the county to build the new Chatsworth court, which is 11 miles from the Van Nuys court and 10 miles from the San Fernando Valley courthouse. The Van Nuys and San Fernando Valley courts are less than eight miles apart.

During the past 10 years, your editorial cited $78 million being spent on new courthouses. Of that amount, more than $52 million has been spent on LAX and Chatsworth municipal courts, which will open in 1999 and 2001, respectively. Since 1994, only $2.4 million has been spent toward construction of a courthouse in the Antelope Valley, which does not yet have a scheduled opening date.

It is imperative that the Board of Supervisors identify funding for the Antelope Valley court. Nowhere in the county do residents have to drive as far or put up with as much overcrowding as those in the Antelope Valley.

- Michael D. Antonovich 

Supervisor

5th District

Los Angeles

Radar `a police toy'

I hate to write anything against the California Highway Patrol because it does a fine and often thankless job of protecting our highways. But, I must ask: Which button on their radar guns detects drunk drivers?

President Clinton has a great idea in encouraging all states to change the legal limit to .08 percent blood alcohol. It has worked in California to reduce accidents and injuries. It will, however, be ineffectual unless we can get the CHP and police off their radar guns.

Using radar is a danger to all. It is a police toy, their political tool to dupe the public. Radar guns are simply ticket mills, the use of which makes the officers appear lazy and duplicitous.

- William Crane

Chatsworth

School funding initiative

Vote no on Proposition 223, the United Teachers Los Angeles initiative. Why should downtown Los Angeles get all the money? This initiative is a sham designed to redirect money away from local schools and small school districts and into the coffers of the large Los Angeles school district.

The union's proposal is to limit the amount of funding for administration to 5 percent that UTLA says does not go directly to the classroom. The proposal does not account for the various things mandated by the state and federal governments that school districts must carry out.

This initiative threatens every local school district with the potential loss of almost $200 per student, even for minor or inadvertent violations. Services such as maintaining and repairing school buses will have to be cut to fulfill the letter of the law.

This initiative requires school sites to take on more administrative responsibilities and cuts overall district responsibility. That means teachers, principals and other school site staff will spend less time with students and more time with paperwork.

As drafted, the initiative fails to address improvements in student performance and, instead, imposes many new administrative reporting requirements on district offices.

- Paul C. Rodriguez

Member

Southern Kern Unified School District 

Rosamond