PUBLIC FORUM HE'S GOT TO GO.

It is time to get rid of Alan Greenspan and get interest rates lower. He claims that he is trying to avoid inflation, but he is using the wrong tactics. Inflation is caused if the government prints or otherwise creates excess money to pay for government expenditures that are greater than incoming money. Greenspan is keeping interest rates high to prevent excessive health of the economy. He is liable to send us into a depression.

If interest rates were kept low, the economy would not grow to suicidal levels. Supply and demand effects would limit growth rates eventually.

I lived through the Great Depression. It was not nice.

- Joseph P. Gleason

Woodland Hills

Railroaded

Now that the witch hunt is over and the officers in the Rampart ``scandal'' have been released, the citizens should demand accountability from the city officials as to how many ``dirty'' cops are actually going to be charged. The people who should be charged are the officials who railroaded these four officers to trial, and the public should demand accountability for their actions.

How do we know that all the cases that have been dismissed, costing taxpayers millions, were in fact justified? Or was it a knee-jerk reaction, hurrying to place the blame on police officers? These police officers were innocent, and thank God for Judge Jacqueline Connor for doing her job.

- Chris Biller

Moorpark

Who controls it?

Re ``Paying the cost'' (Public Forum, Dec. 24):

Meiling Dai wrote, ``If the Valley does secede, DWP will charge residents 15 percent higher water rates.'' What Dai fails to realize is that the water passes through the Valley before going to Los Angeles. Perhaps we might get a discount for letting the water continue to flow into the city. Wonder what the cost of diverting the water would cost the city Department of Water and Power just to spite the Valley?

- Gary Pesselt

Winnetka

Make them richer

Instead of double-decker freeways to flatten our heads and, of course, make the auto industry and oil companies richer, why not upgrade our public transportation system at a fraction of the cost? Because the new freeways would make the car industry and oil companies richer? Gosh, sorry to be so naive.

- R. Presson

Hollywood

Doesn't add up

Utility costs soar. Home cost and rents increase. Service costs? Up. Inflation - no change? Drat this modern math.

- Paul Lohmann 

Panorama City

Honest intent

Re David Holland's Public Forum letter Dec. 25:

The honest intent of the voters was established Nov. 7. The legitimate votes were counted, and George W. Bush was the victor. Sorry, there is no way that Al Gore could have won an honest, impartial hand recount under the standards that were in place on Nov. 7.

The votes aren't there. When you have Democratic operatives using magnifying glasses to examine chads while trying to divine the will of the voter, the integrity of the recount becomes flawed beyond acceptability. If the Democrats had not been stopped, they would have continued changing standards and recounting until they got what they wanted - by any means.

- James L. Bradbury

Simi Valley 

It just happens

Roger Waters of Valencia (Public Forum, Dec. 3) makes a false claim that accidents don't happen with good equipment, conditioning and experience. What perfect planet does he live on? Accidents happen all the time. That's why they are called accidents. I suggest that when his inevitable accident happens away from home, he better not call or accept medical aid from a fire department. He should call Arnold Schwarzenegger for help and a ride home.

- Larry Mazur Jr.

West Hills

LAUSD art programs

Your editorial, ``Bah, humbug to LAUSD'' (Dec. 12), regarding the Los Angeles Unified School District's coming to terms with Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union on a tentative contract, states that the district should make more use of its money by funding formerly slashed programs such as arts education. While there are different opinions about how best to spend the state's surplus funds, I want to clarify a misperception held by you and a number of your readers that arts education is being ignored by the LAUSD.

In July 1999, I proposed and the board adopted a 10-year strategic plan to rebuild the arts program as an essential element in the core curriculum of this district. In fact, the board has made financial commitments the last three years that have propelled the LAUSD to the forefront of school districts in the state and nation in arts education. The district's plan, as well as our promise, is to give young people greater access to music, visual arts, dance and theater throughout their years in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Every elementary school in the district has a traveling music teacher and funding for instructional materials. Since the passage of the 10-year plan, nearly 100 elementary schools have become prototype sites where teachers receive extra training in how to teach the arts as a separate subject, as well as how to integrate the arts more effectively into the teaching of other core subjects: reading, math, the social sciences, etc. Helping the new local districts expand that program to more schools is among our goals this coming year.

- Valerie Fields

Board member

LAUSD

Hope they're proud

I found the article ``Study reveals teen-agers' sexual practices'' (Dec. 19) very disturbing. Not for the fact that young people are behaving - somewhat - sexually normally. But for their conclusions that certain sexual activity does not count as sex. It seems this idea was explained to us by our president.

So the president and all of his supporters, who are writing a page of his legacy, can be proud of the fact that he may have caused many young people to perceive oral sex as something other than sex.

- B.A. Accosta

Tujunga

Barney McNulty

Re ``Barney McNulty, 77, cue card creator, dies'' (Dec. 20):

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Barney McNulty. As he did for so many others, Barney gave me my first job in the television industry working as a cue card guy. What I learned from him about the television industry, while I worked first-hand with writers, talent, producers and directors, I've carried with me and used through 25 years as a college instructor in the field of radio-television.

He was a great guy and a great teacher who had a long-lasting effect on everyone who came in contact with him. He was a unique human being and will be missed.

- Les Wieder

Moorpark College 

What's next?

Thank you, Daily News, for having the courage to take a stand. The Belmont School travesty affects all of us. If the mayor, the superintendent of schools and the Proposition BB Citizens Oversight Committee can get away with Belmont, the question is begged: What is next?

The superintendent of schools should be fired, and the mayor and his oversight committee flunkies should be run out of town on a rail.

- Dan DeVere

Palmdale

We need to wake up

Re the action taken by the Los Angeles City Council against the Boy Scouts of America:

Absolutely unbelievable. It is one thing to say I will not be a part of an organization that does not hold my values. It is completely different, however, to say that a private organization that doesn't hold my values should be booted from my city. That is bigotry and intolerance.

The action taken by the council borders on religious persecution. The Boy Scouts simply hold the same values as those who first stamped ``In God We Trust'' on our money and penned the words ``one nation under God'' in our pledge of allegiance. And for that we punish them? Angelenos seriously need to wake up, take note of what the likes of Jackie Goldberg are doing to their city and take action before it's too late.

- Kim Gentry

Santa Clarita