PUBLIC FORUM BUILD MEMORIAL PARK.

It would seem that most politicians appear determined to see the World Trade Center towers rebuilt. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn stated he would like the towers to soar to a height exceeding the original design. Surely I am not alone when I question why.

The employees at the trade center had but two options for escape during this catastrophic event: walk down thousands of steps in stairways filled with smoke and debris or take elevators that probably were rendered inoperable immediately after the initial impact.

The image of those many victims who were forced to jump to their deaths are seared into our memories forever.

Out of respect and sorrow for the thousands who died in this tragedy, replacing the towers with a memorial park would be the right thing to do.

- Barbara Awerkamp

Valley Glen

Feinstein appalling

I am shocked and appalled to hear that U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., believes that fanatic terrorists will only use commercial airplanes to bring mass destruction to America. She and others in her party are venomously against a missile-defense system to protect America. I guess she believes a slap on the wrist will show the bad guys how angry America has been the last eight years with a breakdown in our military, intelligence and FBI. Everyone in the world knows Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other fanatic countries are developing germ, biological and atomic missiles that soon could penetrate middle America with destruction thousands of times worse than that at the World Trade Center.

Of course those countries, as well as China and Russia, do not want America to be able to protect itself from such disaster. Let's be smart for once and make America safe for Americans.

- Byron Schmidt

Pacoima

United with whom?

Boeing must lay off 30,000 employees. United Airlines faced bankruptcy if the Congress did not act to bail out the airline industry. United Airlines orders 30 jets at a cost of $600 million from France. What is wrong with this scenario?

As far as this taxpayer is concerned, this is no different from out-and-out theft from the public treasury. Why should we feel so sorry for an industry that does not have one concern in the world for the people of the United States and the economic chaos we are all experiencing? United's concerns are strictly corporate.

If jets were ordered at all, they should have been from Boeing or another American firm that so desperately needs the business. Where does United get the unmitigated gall to cry about poverty to the Congress of the United States in the face of one of the worst disasters in history?

Everyone's back is against the wall. If my business fails, who will bail me out? Who are worse: the terrorists we stand united against now or the economic terrorists of our own megacorporations, who could not care less about the well-being of the people of this nation?

- Mike Rubell

North Hills

Thank you

Regarding the horrible aftermath of Sept. 11:

I wanted to thank the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

I work at the Van Nuys Federal Building at the Erwin Street Mall, which is the home of many government offices, both local and federal. At about 8 a.m. on Sept. 11, the Sheriff's Department took control of the mall and secured all the buildings, including the Post Office and the Federal Building, while the Los Angeles Police Department deployed officers elsewhere. The two protective agencies effectively coordinated what department would monitor what areas of Van Nuys and Los Angeles County.

I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. These departments do not get enough kudos when they perform their jobs.

- Joel F. Pawlowski

Van Nuys

I send my prayers

While reading the story about Martha Arnold (``Gold Star moms will visit site of sons' death,'' Sept. 30) I was taken back to that day in early January 1969 at Cu Chi when a booby trap exploded in the mess hall of D Co. 554th Engr. Bn. (Const.) at the start of the noon meal. I was 100 yards away from the blast site, outside the B Co. 554th mess hall waiting to eat lunch. The explosion scared the hell out of me.

Two female civilian kitchen workers smuggled the plastic explosive and the detonator for the bomb onto the Cu Chi base camp in their bras, built the bomb out of a large food can filled with sharp objects and hooked a trip wire from the detonator to a food tray. An unsuspecting soldier pulled the tray with the trip wire from the rack. It was my only personal contact with terrorism on a small scale.

For years I lived with survivor's guilt over the incident, thinking I could have died instead of Patrick Golliher and others on that sunny January day. I came to grips with it about 10 years ago.

Patrick and the other men who died in Vietnam in the 554th are memorialized at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, the home of the 554th. The Viet Cong had it in for us, but they couldn't put us out of business.

Please tell Martha that she is courageous for wanting to go to Cu Chi. I have not been able to do that. I send my prayers to her to carry during her journey.

- Dave Folck

B Co., 554th Engr. Bn. (Const.)

Cu Chi/Lai Khe, Vietnam

Mission Hills

Corporate welfare again

I am furious that my tax money is being thrown away on corporate welfare again.

The reason people are no longer flying isn't because they are afraid. It's because they are sick and tired of being treated like a bunch of cattle.

The airlines have been screwing over the flying public ever since they started their hub system. This system benefits only the airlines, not the customers.

Their service is all but nonexistent. Their planes are so filthy one would think one was flying on a fourth-world airline.

This industry has brought on its own demise, and I see no reason for the American taxpayer to bail out the jerks.

Clean up your planes and give the flying public some decent service, and we will start flying again.

- Vinton M. Lampton

Agua Dulce

LAUSD doesn't get it

One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realize that the entire Los Angeles Unified School District hierarchy simply does not get it. Superintendent Roy Romer questioned inspector Don Mullinax's ability to ``second-guess the expertise of staff and high-paid consultants,'' as stated in a recent Daily News article. Romer needs to realize that, just because somebody is paid a high sum of money, it does not mean that person is an expert. We the people have seen this to be true quite often among LAUSD officials.

LAUSD is notorious for throwing large sums of money where it shouldn't be thrown. Examples of LAUSD officials' happy-go-lucky spending practices include the all-too-familiar Belmont project and large pay raises for an administrative staff already top-heavy throughout the district. They now feel it is a good thing to spend about $160 million on the Beaudry building.

It is indeed within the scope of Mullinax's duties to question the Beaudry building project. He was hired as an inspector, and he is being just that.

If past performance is any indicator, the LAUSD folks will find some way of hush-hushing this whole thing and sweeping Mullinax and his inspectors under the carpet, never to be heard from again. That would be a shame.

- Carolyn Whitehead

Canyon Country