PUBLIC FORUM FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Re ``Davis: Raise taxes'' (Dec. 18):

I see where our governor's answer is more taxation for his and the Legislature's shopping spree. One of his solutions is to boost the fees paid by students at our universities. Perhaps this is part of the answer, but there are other options. One would be the straightening of the priorities of the chancellor, board of regents, university presidents and university senates.

I speak from experience with California State University, Northridge, and from attending a Board of Regents meeting. Millions of dollars are spent by our university system on relations with foreign governments, universities and students, at the expense of the California taxpayer. It's time for the taxpayer to take back our universities from the anti-American, multicultural propagandists who run them and end the short-changing of our kids to benefit students sent here by questionable governments.

- Michael Hannin

Oxnard

L.A. bureaucrats

Wow. L.A. bureaucrats get 4 percent raises, retroactive for 18 months, no less. Our federal bureaucrats gave themselves the same generous treatment. Those of us on Social Security get a whopping 1.4 percent retroactive to next Jan. 1.

It is apparent that bureaucrats at all levels know how to take care of themselves no matter how bleak the financial outlook. At the expense of everyday folks, I might add.

- John Pierson 

Thousand Oaks 

Keep harping

``Vehicular excess'' (Editorial, Dec. 17):

OK, you've told us, the public, that we've taken the problem of vehicular excess lying down. Haven't you, too? How often have you exposed this matter, except for recent comments in your paper? If you think the public has been so lax, then tell us what we can do. It's a cinch that it's almost impossible to vote these greedy bureaucrats out of office since practically no one votes anymore. So what's the answer? One editorial won't do it.

Keep harping on it. Maybe that will get us, the public, off our butts so we won't keep lying down.

- Earl Horwitz

North Hills

Taxes at work

I have just watched my tax dollars at work. My neighbor had a large branch break from a tree in the recent high winds. He was able to drag it out of his yard and deposit it in front of his property. The city just came here to remove it. It took three city trucks (one for a supervisor) and six men 45 minutes to remove ``the branch.'' Unbelievable.

- Gwen G. Allen

Sylmar

Just found it

Re ``L.A. gives big pay hikes'' (Dec. 18):

Our City Council must have gotten off its derriere and found a closetful of money to give out 4 percent raises. That's $6 million a year more to shell out in fat paychecks. Yes, the potholes, broken sidewalks and street lights will still be there. The best part of this is reading that our City Council says it's only a 4 percent cost-of-living raise, if that isn't a joke.

The people who are on Social Security are lucky if they get a 0.05 percent increase. As we were told, the city is so strapped for money that it is stopping free lunches for seniors. Ask any senior whether we should deprive our city managers of a raise - the poor guys are having a hard time keeping up that front and meeting their bills, because you can't live on only $200,000 a year.

- Benjamin Laufer

Sherman Oaks

Disgusted

My blood boils when I read about politicians who give themselves pay raises and expensive perks. How can we stop them? Who voted for all of those greedy people?

I worked for 30 years for a major firm and I have to worry about getting my pension. I am disgusted!

- Iren Reming

West Hills

Universal health system

Re Kelli McCallister's ``Pay it yourself'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 19):

Nowhere does Kimit Muston say he is for or against socialized medicine, nor does he say that the European model is a notable failure. He did say, ``The Europeans have socialized medicine with long lines and high taxes, not like our for-profit system with long lines and high costs, where the only people interested in low prices are the ones paying ...''

Since high-quality health care is the hallmark of a civilized nation, we should cease demonizing ``socialized medicine,'' emerge from the Dark Ages and establish a first-class universal health system that puts us on a par with the rest of the industrialized world. For that we must jettison the health insurance bureaucracy and expand the Medicare framework to include all of us. The present system is collapsing of its own weight.

- Jan Holle

North Hollywood

Rolling health hazard 

These vendors who rove through our neighborhoods unlicensed - the food never inspected - must be hunted down and eliminated by authorities. Such improper sellers of food are a public-health risk that need not be tolerated. Those who buy from the vendors litter the streets with the residue of their purchases. Paper wrappers, corn cobs on sticks in the gutter and sidewalk. A health hazard, unsanitary. The germs of the human mouth all over that cob.

Without access to a restroom, the sidewalk vendors urinate and defecate on side streets in the open air. This is the case in my neighborhood. Afterward, those same vendors handle food for their customers. It's a matter of sanitation and the public health. The very real need to put a stop to these filthy activities must override any other considerations.

- Ronald Rushton

North Hollywood

Seems to be working

I am 96 years of age and have paid into the Social Security fund for many years so that when I retired I would have an income to live on and not become destitute. I am now drawing on my Social Security pension and the fund seems to be working fine.

Certain people in Washington don't like that. Being money-hungry types and seeing all that money belonging to the fund that they can't get at, they have thought of a gimmick to get to the money. They want to have the fund privatized. With more people doing jobs around cash, there's a chance some of it may become loose and find its way into politicians' pockets. These people don't like to see things running well, and safe, because it excludes them and their sticky fingers.

- Stanley Smith 

Arleta

Greatest economy

Re ``Where's U.S. going fiscally?'' (Money & Careers, Dec. 16):

I was amazed by the quote from Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, commenting on the recent appointment of Steve Friedman by President Bush and negative comments from the conservative community about Friedman. Norquist stated that the negative comments were inappropriate because Friedman now supports tax cuts, though he ``did have a lot of bad friends, he has associated with a known tax increaser.''

The goofy friend Friedman had was Robert Rubin, the former Secretary of the Treasury who brought us the greatest economy under President Clinton in the history of the U.S. What has the Bush administration brought in comparison? Two million jobs lost in the past two years and the lowest business investment in more than 40 years. Thank goodness for those goofy friends of Friedman.

- Victor Jacobovitz

Los Angeles

No comparison

Israel Harel (Your Opinions, Dec. 2) claims he was right when he told his wife: ``You will see how the violent crime rate will go up in L.A. just like it did in the U.K. or any other place that was limiting legal ownership of guns.''

Britain initially passed its rather draconian gun laws more than 80 years ago, so how can it be compared with L.A? Besides, as long as one is mentally healthy and not a convicted criminal it's still relatively easy to legally purchase a gun in L.A.

- Fred Thomas

Santa Susana