PUBLIC FORUM BALLOT ARGUMENTS.

Re ``On the Ballot,'' Opinion, Aug. 20):

The con side of secession: ``The new Valley city will have to pay additional annual fees for the next 20 years, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.'' OK. Got it. The Valley will have to pay all these fees. But, wait a minute. Keep reading. ``An independent financial analysis shows that secession could cost taxpayers of the remaining city of Los Angeles $3.9 billion over the next 20 years.''

The city of Los Angeles is going to lose $3.9 billion of the Valley's money. Well, let's see, we're going to have to spend hundreds of millions, but we have $3.9 billion to spend on our own Valley city. And we'll be better represented. Thanks Mayor James Hahn, et al, for making the case for Valley secession.

- John Aherne

Panorama City

I'll remember

For quite a while I was opposed to secession, believing we were stronger as a megalopolis than split. I've changed my mind. Opportunities to create a borrough system have been stomped out of probability, and our elected leaders have elected to decide that they know better than we do just what we need. They use fear of the unknown and disinformation to discourage the uninformed from joining in the vote to break away.

Let's start from scratch. I have missed one election in 30 years. Even if we lose the bid for secession, I'll remember who took away our right to choose how we are represented.

- Glenn Potvin

Valley Village

Pool of candidates

Secession in my mind would be great for our self-government for the Valley, but the thing that disturbs me, to the extent I may vote against it, is the candidates running for office. I cannot believe the people who think they have the knowledge to run a city. Just because you may have been a community activist does not mean they can run a city.

We have a doctor who has never been in politics except lately as an assemblyman, who thinks he can run a city. What will he do if the city gets sick - give it an aspirin and send it to bed? To elect a person that may have been Neighborhood Watch captain is utterly ridiculous.

- Frank Jacobs

Sylmar

Promises, promises

Re ``Putting Valley in lights'' (Aug. 20):

Here we go again. Candidates promising things left and right. We will do this and that, and there will be a budget, and we will stay in the budget, and this and that and that. Can anyone remember a candidate who did what he promised?

I wish we could go back to the laws of the republic of Venice (Italy) when Venice was a powerful nation and had criminals hanging up inside a cage to roast in the sun. Too much? Perhaps, now, three days would be enough.

- Dante F. Rochetti

West Hills

Stanford 9 scores

I was amused by your Aug. 21 front page story describing LAUSD's jubilation with its improved Stanford 9 test scores, now averaging in the 38th and 47th percentiles in reading and math. The children at Village Christian Schools in Sun Valley average in the 80th percentile in national testing.

More amazing, LAUSD charges the taxpayer more than twice as much as Village parents pay per student. There are some things Village doesn't have that LAUSD has ... drugs, gangs and violence. Isn't it time we give all children a choice? Vouchers provide alternatives to failure. Vouchers will also spur good old American competition that will either force improvements or provide replacements for LAUSD.

- Bob Thorpe

Sun Valley

Go all the way

Re ``Who's addicted'' (Public Forum Aug 20):

Gov. Gray Davis and his band of merry men come up with yet another fail-safe (in political terms, won't hurt us at the polls) way of helping to cover their inept behinds in terms of the current budget crisis. If Davis and the men of Sacramento are so concerned about smoking being a health risk to those who smoke, as well as a tax burden to those who don't, might I suggest that we increase the tax to $1,000 a pack?

Think (in political terms of course) of the savings in health costs to the average nonsmoking taxpayer. When you're done there Sir Robin, er Gray, how 'bout a $500 tax on anything ``double bacon, with cheese.''

- John Rowe 

Simi Valley 

The audacity

Re ``Legislators collect $5 million over Prop. 34 cap'' (Aug. 14):

I cannot believe the audacity of our elected politicians. First Proposition 187 now Proposition 34. The voters approved campaign finance reform, yet the Fair Political Practices Commission decided that campaign committees formed prior to that passage can continue to raise money in unlimited amounts.

Abiding by that rule of thumb (although voters are being given different digits) I no longer have to wear a seat belt when in my car nor a helmet when riding my motorcycle since I was licensed to drive before those laws were passed. Another thing, Gray Davis or Bill Simon? Who else have you got?

- Doug Seagraves

Sylmar

Ideal memorial

Richard Cohen in his Aug. 14 Opinion column had some suggestions about the Holocaust and Black Heritage memorials on the Capital Mall. So do I. No armed Jew ever walked into a gas chamber and no armed black ever put on chains. Ergo, the ideal monument for both causes is a modern minute-man, a featureless citizen, in civies, with an AR-15 at the ready.

That's what the Second Article of the bill of Rights is all about, the right to keep and bear arms, to hold the bad guys at bay. Monuments should emphasize the mechanism that brought about freedom, not the tragedy that occurred in its absence. Victory, not defeat. Viva the armed citizen.

- William O. Felsman

Woodland Hills

No historical evidence

Re ``For love of God, Assembly needs to avoid hypocrisy'' (Opinion, Aug. 19):

While I personally agree whole heartedly with Assemblyman Tim Leslie's values, I must repudiate his assertion our country was founded on a ``bedrock belief'' in a supreme being. There is no historical evidence to support that allegation. Of course, without the God Assemblyman Leslie and I believe in, values are indeed nothing more than passing fancies. However, the atheist would immediately argue a humanistic basis for his values. Other religions would argue a nature basis for theirs. Notice how many differing values we could unearth, ad infinitum.

Sadly, the California Assembly is correct in its resolution language. When will people in government stop insisting there is some kind of national consensus of morality and values? This delusion will only lead us to ruin.

- K.C. Durfee

Agoura

The next enemy

Jerry Lane repeats the conventional wisdom regarding the atomic attacks on Japan, that they saved a million American lives that would have been lost in the invasion (Public Forum, Aug. 19). The vantage point of history leads many to suspect that the attacks were aimed more at the Soviet leadership than at the Japanese, who might have been starved into surrender with a blockade, especially after the Russian invasion of Manchuria.

By August 1945, American political and military leaders were already focusing on their next enemy.

- Morris Schorr

Woodland Hills

Cost of business

Why are interest rates on credit cards still so high when all other interest rates are way down? Could it be the credit card companies are making big donations to all the politicians? Hush ... how could I make such a statement?

- Marjorie Eisenberg

West Hills