PUBLIC FORUM FLYING THE FLAG.

Re ``It's Glendale vs. Old Glory in flag flap'' (Aug. 27).

Please, Kelly Khoury, move your gas station to Van Nuys. I would be happy to support your business. It's so nice to hear about an immigrant who becomes an American citizen and is proud and shows it.

On any given holiday, my apartment is the only building on Vanowen Street for miles that displays the American flag. I actually display it every day of the year. It has to do with my youth and growing up in the '40s and '50s, when a majority of households and government buildings would fly the American flag on holidays. Yes, in those days an employee of local government would raise the American flag, even on their day off. Not anymore.

If it were not for my friends, Miriam Jaffe from the Van Nuys Mayor's Office, the Department of Defense in Van Nuys and state and county, you would have no flags flying in Van Nuys and the Government Center at the Erwin Street Mall. My friends and my employer supply me with new flags year round.

So please, Glendale, get off Khoury's case and be glad you have a business owner willing to display his pride. Maybe he ought to play Kate Smith's ``God Bless America'' on the loudspeakers. That would really do it.

- Joel F. Pawlowski

Van Nuys

A misnomer 

I guess that Kelly Khoury, the flag-waver, is learning that the ``land of the free'' is a misnomer. For many years I was a dyed-in-the-wool patriot - until I realized that we are nothing more than a modified monarchy.

Speaking of Glendale, is there anyone out there who hasn't been pulled over at least once while driving in Glendale?

- Aric Leavitt

West Los Angeles 

It won't hurt

Joe Eszterhas doesn't get it. He has consistently aligned himself with the multinationals that have driven their own budgets beyond reality. This has led them to spend even more money on selling, at any price, a product that is designed often with the lowest common denominator in mind. Recent congressional studies show that the entertainment industry is just like big tobacco companies, marketing their unhealthy product to our children.

Eszterhas is concerned with Joe Leiberman because he dares to suggest a common-sense approach to the content that continues in the downhill spiral of bad taste. It may be time for Hollywood to turn to the example of its glorious past and embrace some self-control. It didn't hurt Hitchcock or Huston and it won't hurt the truly creative among us.

- Tim O'Brien 

Burbank

Not just the elderly

I agree that some tightening of regulations for older drivers may be necessary. But for every elderly driver who injures or kills, there are at least 10,000 uninsured, unlicensed drivers who do the same.

I wrote a letter to the editor recently about a 12-year-old son of a friend, killed by an unlicensed, uninsured driver who broke several laws but was not held because the boy did not die immediately, but did seven days later. The man disappeared.

I relayed this to a policeman friend who laughed and said that if they cracked down on every such driver, the jails would be overflowing and uncollected citations piled sky-high. Twenty percent of all car fatalities, according to a recent story in the Daily News, are caused by unlicensed, uninsured drivers. When is there going to be legislation by Tom Hayden or anyone else to handle that deadly debacle?

- Sonya Jason

Woodland Hills

Here's why

The presidential conventions are over, and we are glad - your reporters too, no doubt. One objection: The reporters did not make it clear why the people in the streets were protesting. There were only three ``beefs'':

Campaign finance reform: Citizens are willing to pay to put candidates in office but do not want them bought by monied interests.

End of the drug war: U.S. military out of Columbia; a realistic drug policy that decriminalizes but regulates drugs.

And poverty: a disgrace in the richest nation in the world (and a disgrace anywhere). How about the superrich paying their fair share of taxes and an end to corporate ``subsidy abuse''?

How about a new era with new industries, mindful of sustainable development, with affordable housing, adequate transportation, employment and universal health care? That's all the people in the streets wanted - and called for - in Seattle, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Why not?

- Laura Woolley Smith

Granada Hills

Show me the money

As a taxpayer, I ask what was the ``net'' result of having the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles? Before the DNC, all we heard from the mayor and his supporters was that it would be a windfall of $132 million for the city. Of course, we had to first give the DNC $3 million to $4 million.

Since the DNC was held, I have not heard how much we made or how much it cost us. If it was so easy to throw out a figure of $132 million before the DNC, why haven't we heard any figures since the DNC? I didn't make any money because we hosted it, and I don't know anyone that did.

If we did make the millions, I want to know where it is. Could it be at the Pantry?

- Hank Petroski

Granada Hills

Third parties

Is there any particular reason why coverage in the media (newspapers and TV and magazines) is devoted only to Republicans and Democrats and never any of the third-party candidates? Isn't this country supposed to be a democracy? And what about equal time? How are third parties supposed to get all their free publicity if the media do not cover them?

Also, none of the third parties asked for millions to hold their conventions, did they? Does that say something to anyone? Talk about government waste.

- Cathy Hardy

Arleta

Society's plague

David Schwartz criticizing the Daily News editorial on ``Pot wars'' (Aug, 30,) is the one who has ``missed the boat.'' I can only guess why he believes ``marijuana brings insight, comfort and inspiration to millions of intelligent, healthy, responsible and peaceful adults.''

Pot smokers I have known appear over-sedated and only under the illusion that they are acting intelligently. Illegal drug use is a plague on our society. Contrary to Schwartz's assertions, without the user, the ``countless incidences of crime and violence'' would not exist. The users must bear responsibility as co-conspirators in the murder and mayhem.

- Bill Hamburg 

Woodland Hills

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Photo:

Kelly Khoury has been told the 20 American flags he flies at his gas station violate a Glendale law and he must take them down.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News