PUBLIC FORUM DECLINING TO FIGHT.

Re ``Supervisors to negotiate over county seal'' (June 2):

I knew from the get-go that our wimpy county supervisors would not fight the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the cross on the Los Angeles County seal. They will spend millions to change it, but not fight it. If somebody doesn't fight the ACLU, they will soon be making all the laws for this country. I think it is time for term limits for these wimp supervisors.

- Joe A. McMillin

West Hill

County seal

Re ``Supervisors to negotiate over county seal'' (June 2):

The decision by Los Angeles County Supervisors to remove the cross from the county seal is wrong. First, let me say that I am not a Christian. I am a Wiccan, and the cross on our seal is not offensive to me in any way. Having lived in California most of my adult life, I understand the importance of the missions to our history and culture.

The cross on the seal is not an establishment of religion, but a symbol of our rich past. Let me remind the ACLU that they have more important things to do, such as the erosion of our civil liberties. And let me also remind the supervisors that they are suppose to bend to our will, not that of the ACLU.

- John Lauria

Granada Hills

Frivolous lawsuit

Re ``Court allows suit to proceed'' (May 30):

In Saturday's paper, you had a little blurb about the Federal Court of Appeal allowing the people from the shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center to go ahead with their lawsuit against the gun manufacturers. That is by far the biggest piece of idiotic stupidity that we have heard of.

Next thing will be the auto manufacturers being sued if someone runs a red light and kills someone, or if a person is driving under the influence, kills someone or maims them then we will sue the liquor industry. When will the courts and the judges wake up and smell the roses and dismiss the stupid, frivolous lawsuits?

- Bernard E. Beiner

Granada Hills

Solving school costs

There is a simple solution to the school costs. Only educate the children to the eighth grade, then make minimum wage $20 per hour. Earn a living wage with grade-school education. Since all the technical jobs are being outsourced to India and other Asian countries, why waste our time teaching advanced education? Flipping burgers is all we need to know how to do from now on - until this country goes down the drain.

- Don Cordell

Lancaster

UTLA responds

The Daily News is wrong to portray the current debate over LAUSD minidistricts as a showdown between Superintendent Roy Romer and me. The issue is whether scarce resources should be directed into classrooms or to pampering a gold-plated bureaucracy determined to retain its perks.

If you ran Los Angeles schools, what choice would you make? Cutting an administration that devours more than 10 percent of the total $12.3 billion budget, or restoring $50 for supplies taken from each pupil, keeping nurses and counselors, and not increasing class sizes in our schools?

The School Board should be praised for resisting Romer's earlier calls for wholesale cuts in student services. The previous Board majority trusted dire budget forecasts that later proved inaccurate and lost public support by increasing class sizes. Smaller class sizes - not more bureaucrats - are the main reason test scores are improving.

Instead of exploring different approaches with the current board to cut the mini-districts, Romer kept reorganizing plans he already commissioned under cover. That's no way to protect a legacy or provide for the future of our 735,000 students.

- John Perez

President

United Teachers of Los Angeles

Praising Nixon

Re ``View From the Valley'' (May 28):

Patrick O'Connor's vicious cartoon deprecating President Richard Nixon was a new low in journalism. Who can forget the Yom Kippur War of October 1973? The surprise attack on Israel was so devastating and overwhelming that there were very realistic concerns that this was the end of the State of Israel. President Nixon, acting virtually alone, defying the ``conventional wisdom'' of all those around him (including Kissinger), made a forthright decision: that Israel would not be destroyed on his watch.

I do not even want to think of what would have happened if George McGovern were in the White House in 1973. As a Zionist, I cry out in anger against those who would desecrate the memory of President Richard Milhous Nixon.

- Rabbi Louis J. Feldman

Van Nuys

Vietnam escalation

Re ``Liberals stay the course'' (Your Opinions, June 1):

Regarding Gary Miller's letter stating Republican Ike Eisenhower started the Vietnam War, where did he get his facts? Eisenhower may have pledged U.S. support of Diem government in '54, but there is a huge difference between pledging support and an all-out declaration of war.

Kennedy began military build-up in '61, and in August of '64, it was Democrat Lyndon Johnson who declared war as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The first American combat troops arrived in Vietnam in March of '65. Here we have two Democratic presidents who escalated then declared war.

- Denice Beal

Granada Hills

District budget cuts

The only way teachers can receive a pay raise in LAUSD nowadays is by leaving their classrooms and working in the local district or downtown. They get an additional bonus for leaving. No standardized tests to worry about. No papers to grade. No administrator or parent breathing downs their necks. No Red Teams to fear.

Cutting jobs off-site will not change what is wrong in the district. The power structure needs to be turned upside down. Reward teachers for sticking with the most challenging job in the district, teaching students, not for leaving students behind. The local districts and Beaudry Building should work with schools, not dictate to them. School should be about enriching students' lives, not off-site educators' pockets.

- ed LeVine

Chatsworth High School

Memorial very late

Regarding ``WWII Memorial dedicated'' (May 30), the words ``about time'' should've been added. It was not only with pride that I read the article, but also with shame. I felt ashamed of our politicians, and ashamed of my fellow Americans for having sat on their hands for 60 years before honoring that brave generation of 15 million that served in World War II, returned home and without fanfare resumed their lives.

I felt anger and shame that a group of whining, self-pitying, finger-pointing Vietnam veterans were the first to be honored with a memorial years ago. Its not that those Vietnam vets didn't deserve one, but before the World War II vets? I don't think so.

- Jason Miranda-Levi

Northridge

Creepage is right

Re ``Bill of Rights'' (Your Opinions, May 28):

Robert Stein writes that ``the ACLU exists to protect the Bill of Rights.'' Which amendments? The ACLU has shown their lack of support for the Second Amendment on many occasions, so I don't agree with that statement. He also states that ``creepage in small increments leads to greater abuses.'' I definitely agree, and this is exactly the point the NRA, the Gun Owners of America, the California Rifle and Pistol Association and their members make regarding gun control.

The ACLU should protect the entire Bill of Rights for the people.

- Russell C. Kepler

Tujunga

Governor's budget

We will turn 200,000 students away from community colleges this year. Raise tuition. How does this help poverty-level wannabe students? Bump another 10,000-plus wannabe students with high school graduates that will not have to pay tuition.

The governor's budget misses the mark. Results will include more job outsourcing, increased welfare roles, increased prison populations (at a cost of $30,000 a year per person). We the taxpayers will get to pay for this folly in the end. (If we can find a job.)

- Meredith Pearcy

Canoga Park