PUBLIC FORUM A DEFINING MOMENT.

Re "The teen who snuffed out smoking in Calabasas" (March 17):

The efforts of this young lady should be praised as she diligently pursued the right to have her voice heard. A defining moment for the First Amendment. The touting of the City Council with respect to the passage of an "ordinance" prohibiting smoking within the city limits of Calabasas does not.

As usual, an overzealous approach to controlling a "nuisance" (to some) renders a politically correct resolution at the expense of common sense. Since by law, no one has more rights than anyone else, it should stand to reason that a "happy medium" could be struck. A medium which would accommodate all parties, not what may be deemed the majority at the expense of the minority.

- Paul Pollara

Newbury Park

Smokers' rights

Re "The teen who snuffed out smoking in Calabasas" (March 17):

Well, does Margo Arnold drive a car? Yeah, let's take away the rights of the smokers who are paying a ton in taxes to do so. So, she can sit outside and breathe car exhaust only. What right can we take away from the Americans next? There is more real stuff to cry about in life than cigarette smoke; let's see, perhaps the rights of animals, crime, the farce the government has become.

Maybe Arnold should learn to make coffee and stay home and out of the public, as public means I have rights to it as well as everyone else. And I'll smoke. Grow up and look into everyone's rights before you start your car and then tell me about fresh air.

- Dave Hamblen

Sherman Oaks

Remaining smoke

Re "The teen who snuffed out smoking in Calabasas" (March 17):

The biggest remaining secondhand smoke problem will now revert to indoor places in Calabasas, i.e., no longer in various multiunit residential common areas, but rather in the toxic unit-to-unit drift that too often occurs within these core structures of multidwelling buildings.

To level this vertical playing field, the city of Los Angeles, itself, should add the words "private nuisance" to its own version of Calabasas' Penalties and Enforcement Code. By the way, I'm a smoker - an imposed-upon secondhand smoker.

- Harvey Pearson

Los Feliz

Elton's choices

Re "'Fess up, Elton" (Editorial, March 17):

Taking a page from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's long-distance political diagnosis, Republican Elton Gallegly's unspecified health concern and his wanting to spend time with his family, is clearly "Abramoffitus." After Gallegly dropped out because of contracting "Abramoffitus," he returned to the race when he developed "Roveitus," a disease he can't refuse.

- Jerold Drucker

Tarzana

Derailing charters

Re "Derailing charter schools" (March 19):

As one of the teachers involved in the charter movement at Parkman Middle School, I applaud the efforts of UTLA and the LAUSD school board in bringing about serious reform changes in public education. These efforts, however, come too late for Parkman. Serious changes need to be made now and as a charter school, we can make those changes.

LAUSD charter attorney Greg McNair has his facts very wrong. Not only have we retained a financial company specializing in charters, our budget projections leave us with a positive balance. Not only is our educational plan comprehensive, it is unlike anything a middle school has offered before. Its obvious that the district will do anything to hold onto its bureaucratic stranglehold on giving schools the resources they truly need.

- Bruce Newborn

West Hills

Aim - then fire

According to an article in Saturday's Daily News, - apparently culled from the Los Angeles Police Commission's own records - in 2005 our intrepid Boys in Blue fired at individuals (presumably for good reason) a total of 52 times. Twenty times they missed. (What those misses did hit is not mentioned. Hopefully, nothing crucial.) That's a success rate of only 62 percent. Not too good, guys. Maybe it's time for the chief to think about hiring Gunslinger Dickie for some lessons in marksmanship.

- Parker Young

North Hollywood

Media vs. religion

As Christians, we have felt the media "warring" with our religion and values for a long time ("South Park wars with Scientology," March 10), so we turned off our TV. Now the media is sending its missionaries in to spread their filth in our unsuspecting neighborhoods ("Richie asks kid what?" News Lite, March 10).

This intentional crusade to defile all that is innocent must stop. It is time for religious and nonreligious people who value the right to choose when and if to allow filth into one's family to join together to work against those who would take this choice away.

- Dan and Susan Ryan 

Northridge

Don't fence us in

I work at Nobel Middle School in Northridge. We are the only unfenced school in the LAUSD. We have the best attendance record and one of the best records for low vandalism. Board member Jon Lauritzen wants to spend $300,000 to put a fence around our school. We have a P.E. budget of $400 a year for equipment with 2,400 students. We are unable to get money for field trips or tutoring, but we somehow have money for a fence.

I spent my own money to buy basketballs. Then they want us to find money to have someone monitor the gates. The students, parents and faculty all voted against the fence, yet one man can tell us we're going to get it. We have a petition going around right now trying to stop it.

- Cheree Coyle

West Hills

Worst crop

This year, the teachers at the high schools located in the east San Fernando Valley have had to contend with the worst group of ninth-graders in their teaching careers. The students lack skills, are unmotivated and disrespectful. The middle schools do not provide any accountability or consequence for the students' actions. A student can fail every course, wreak havoc on the campus yet still be promoted to high school.

Prior to entering high school, the students should be required to attend a sort of "scared straight" boot camp. They would be required to partake in manual labor and go on an evening field trip where they can view the homeless shivering under overpasses. The student would then be aware of the consequence of being a pain in the butt and not receiving an education.

- David Shulman

Lake View Terrace

Financing elections

Your Sunday editorial "Clean money" raised a very important point. A few thousands in campaign donation cash can result in millions of dollars in payback. The return on investment for special-interest donors is higher than almost any other form of investment. We need to stop this practice and its harm to fiscal solvency. We need to finance elections publicly, in Los Angeles and in all our elections.

- David Greene

San Pedro

Distorting morality

Re "Death: It's not pretty or sinful. It's a fact of life" (March 15):

Mariel Garza's cynical remark about opponents of physician-assisted suicide saying, "society has no right to determine which lives aren't worth living (except, I guess, for those on Death Row)" is an epitome of moral confusion.

A decent, law-abiding person has the right to society's protection and care - even in the event of frailty and dependency. If a person commits a heinous crime such as murder, he or she forfeits the right to society's protection and care. Those who agitate to spare the life of an evil murderer, but tolerate the killing of a dependent person, unconscionably distort morality.

- Louis J. Feldman

Van Nuys