PUBLIC FORUM GAS PRICES.

Re ``Record gas prices'' (March 2):

Most people don't realize that the government buys up and stockpiles oil, keeping reserves. When our government decided to go to war and use hundreds of thousands of barrels of fuel for ships, fighter and bomber planes, helicopters, tanks, trucks, etc. leaving a depleted reserve, we have shortages. The government then has to restock its reserves, leaving less fuel available on the market, leaving us vulnerable to supply and demand, making prices go up.

Record gas prices aren't just about lack of refineries or too many SUVs, it's also about the price of war. This is just another thing on the list of follies our president has done in the name of WMD.

- Don Carlisle

Thousand Oaks 

More and less

It appears that the electorate has thrown billions more into that black hole called Los Angeles Unified School District via the passage of Proposition 55 and Measure R. It wasn't enough that the funds from Prop. BB were mismanaged and unaccounted for, now billions more are to be added.

It appears the more money we throw into the school system the less the kids learn. Could it be that it's not money that's needed but concerned and interested parents? As usual, it will be the property owner who will bear the burden. Renters, take heed. Your landlord is sure to pass on the additional tax to you via an increase. No one escapes the cost of incompetence in government.

- L.A. Calabro

Northridge

Just wait

Re ``LAUSD set to begin using billions'' (March 4):

Roy Romer must be running to the bank, now that the idiot voters have handed him $16 billion. The LAUSD cronies won't be able to spend it fast enough to build more Belmont Learning Centers. All you home and apartment dwellers should be proud now that you've added $75 a year to your tax bills.

The rest of you, (the ones that didn't vote), keep quiet. Just wait and see how fast a new school gets built in a neighborhood near you. Yeah, right. P.T. Barnum was right after all.

- Jim Rowe 

Chatsworth

And the pool?

Re ``Spendthrift City Hall'' (Feb. 29):

It's so nice to see that in this time of fiscal crises at the federal, state and local levels, the City Council members were able to find enough money to increase the ``treasure'' for their little ``fiefdoms,'' thus ensuring further mismanagement and irresponsibility for us peasants. A classic example of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

By the way, Councilman Smith - How's the Northridge Park pool coming along?

- David Kritzer

Mission Hills

Accentuate the positive

Re ``Walk to work in our footsteps'' (Their Opinions, March 2):

I am sorry that American companies are sending jobs out of the country. But I am very pleased that the people in India who are working for the American companies are learning to speak clear English without the accent.

If they can do it there, why cannot we do it here in America? There are so many calls I receive, or that I make, where the people I try to talk to cannot speak understandable English. We need the standard English to be used and not abused.

- Betty Jenkins

Chatsworth

A political ploy

Re ``Multiple rebuttals'' (Your Opinions, March 3):

Gregg Frazer missed my point. Of course, it's the gays who are pushing for the same rights which heterosexuals have. Unfortunately, considering the high divorce rate, gay relationships might be better off not being able to get married. Maybe we should ban marriage for everyone to achieve equal protection under the law.

My point was that Bush's calling for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was just a political ploy to divert the heterosexual Joes and Judys from not considering their terrible financial plight when they vote for president in 2004. And Bush wanted to use this issue to get the 4 million evangelical Christians, who didn't vote for him in 2000, to vote for him this year. Hmm. Why didn't they in 2000?

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

A bad trade

Re ``Dump wants to cut down 510 oak trees'' (Feb. 12):

Each mature oak provides moisture to the San Fernando Valley's air by transpiration. Oaks grow very slowly, and new oaks have less leaf area. Do the oaks left of the 6,400 oaks replacing the 3,200 mature oaks in the 1990s produce the moisture of the original grove?

The proposed trade-off of 1,020 nursery-grown oaks for 510 more mature oaks is dishonest. Replacing $510 with 1,020 dimes ($102) wouldn't be fair even with interest. If Sunshine Canyon Dump (Allied Waste, formerly Browning-Ferris) replaced each removed oak with 10 seedlings, it might be fair. Allied Waste cares more about the bottom line of their income ledger than about trees.

- Michael Aron Weinberg

Reseda

Let it go

Re ``Mixed emotions'' (Your Opinions, March. 1):

David S. Eicher states: ``To me, marriage is a couple with the capability of having a family.'' So I guess women or men who are sterile from chemotherapy, victims of ovarian cancer, or people who just can't have or don't want children shouldn't be allowed to marry either.

If everyone would just mind their own business, none of this would make any difference.

- Tom Hodges

Reseda

DWP responds

Re ``Wastewater plan criticized'' (Feb. 27):

Water recycling is a program we are strongly embracing that represents a proven and environmentally beneficial source of additional water. The watering of the Angeles National Golf Course is just one example of how the LADWP is using recycled water for irrigational purposes and reducing water demand. This project enables the department to conserve its potable water supplies, while enabling a drought-proof, locally available water supply to be used for keeping the lawns lush and green.

There has also been no shift from our plan to focus the use of recycled water for irrigational or industrial purposes. Water will not be served for potable use. Nor will the treated water be used to recharge groundwater supplies. It will also not harm the quality of the local groundwater table.

- Frank Salas

Acting General Manager

Department of Water and Power

What would Jesus do?

I wonder if Mel Gibson, who loves Jesus so much that he wants the world to witness Jesus' pain and suffering on the cross, is planning to do as Jesus would and donate the profit from the film to feeding the hungry, clothing the poor and building shelters for the homeless?

- Tobi Ruth Love

Thousand Oaks

A time is coming

Saint Mel (Gibson)? How ridiculous. People have been arguing about the Bible for thousands of years, even though there is not a shred of scientific proof that the entire premise of Christianity is true.

The almost hysterical reaction to ``The Passion of the Christ'' fuels the self-hypnosis of Christian teaching. Until people are willing to take the responsibility of their own lives, the false promises of organized religion offer the easy way out. The time will come when a vastly superior life form will be revealed in our universe, and the myths of religion and the simple-minded, and completely implausible story of Creation, will finally be debunked.

- Harlan Campbell

Tujunga

True heroes

True military heroes do not brag of their combat experience and don't go around blowing their own horn or get someone to blow it for them, if you catch my drift.

- Richard Burgess

West Hills