PUBLIC FORUM LEARNED OUR LESSON.

Re ``Charter high schools bad for district - Romer'' (April 23):

Superintendent Roy Romer's address on the Granada Hills charter petition was a stroll down memory lane. Concerns of white flight and the need for our money were his first concerns.

It was like attending the anti-secession press conference of the so-called Latino Leaders of the Valley and the comments made by Magic Johnson. Time has come to respond to those who play the race card; each time it is used as a defense to keep us down. We can no longer take swimming lessons from someone who is drowning.

- David R. Hernandez

Valley Village

Downtown control

Re ``Charter high schools bad for district - Romer'' (April 23):

Although he condemns charter school petitions in the Valley because large blocks of white children (Granada Hills, 43 percent, and El Camino Real, 50.6 percent) attend, Romer says he's not racist. After all, he explains, these schools are among his highest-scoring.

No, Romer isn't opposed to Valley charter schools because a plurality of white kids attend. That's the ruse that works on some people all the time. Like other downtown politicians, he just wants to assure that Valley tax moneys are disbursed by downtown administrators, not by those at our local Valley schools. That's the simple, unfortunate, short-sighted black and white of it.

- Tom Brigham

Woodland Hills

Advantages of Prop. 13

I was glad to read the April 24 editorial ``Undermining Prop. 13,'' since you list the efforts of the people and groups anxious to chip away at Proposition 13. I would like to see another editorial that gives the advantages of having Proposition 13 today.

For example, all property owners pay a lot less tax now than they would if it wasn't the law. Furthermore, it limits the yearly increase in the tax, which had no limit prior to the passage of Proposition 13. A common complaint is that the tax is unfair since the old-timers pay less tax. Yes, but when the old-timer sells his house, he is paying a large tax on the amount he receives from the sale based upon the appreciated value.

- Graham Campbell

Calabasas

Veterans' pensions

Richard Day (Your Opinions, April 24) says it like it is. I am an Air Force retiree with 21 years of service, two tours in Vietnam and 100 percent disabled by the VA. My retirement pay is lost and I only receive my VA pension and a very modest Social Security check. If I still had kids at home, it would be tough to make it in this economy.

I didn't make a career out of the military for the pay, believe me - $78 a month was my starting pay and my retirement pay after 21 years would have been $1,200 a month. Concurrent receipt would finally make it possible to afford a house instead of apartments. All disabled military retirees are in the same boat and that is so unfair.

- Wallace B. Elms

Reseda

Bratton responds

Re ``Chief rotates LAPD leaders'' (April 24):

Crime has not soared within the Devonshire Area and I believe it is irresponsible to unnecessarily place fear in the minds of the Devonshire community because of that statement. Devonshire is currently even with the number of violent crimes in the area when compared to the year 2002. The area is currently experiencing a modest 5 percent increase in property crimes. Those property crimes have consistently been decreasing over the last two months. I should also point out that the Devonshire area was one of the few areas throughout the city which experienced a decrease in crime in 2002.

Soaring crime is not the reason for assigning a commander to the Devonshire Area, but rather because the chief of police wants a commander assigned to the busiest area in each of the four geographic bureaus.

- William J. Bratton

Chief of Police

Los Angeles Police Department

Cutting school libraries

On May 2, Los Angeles Unified School District board members will be voting on whether to cut library aides. Our neighborhood libraries are under reconstruction, which leaves no place for the children to check out books. I have been a library aide for many years and our school library site is the center of the school.

We serve the parents as well as the students. Promoting literacy has been one of our strong points - parents reading to their child and the child reading to the parent. With this cut, our library will be unmanned and it doesn't seem fair to the students. Superintendent Roy Romer can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants, but wants to cut the school libraries. Is there something wrong with this picture?

- Lynda Feldman

North Hollywood

Casualties

While the public focus is on Iraq, the Bush administration is quietly passing a new bill through Congress making the gun industry the only one in the U.S. exempt from lawsuits. Sept. 11, 2001, cost America almost 3,000 lives. According to the Bureau of Statistics, 32,436 Americans lost their lives to guns in 1997, the latest year for which reports are available.

At that rate, we have lost 51,357 Americans to guns since 9-11, in addition to about 101,661 wounded. Our government rightfully spends billions to bring terrorists to justice for the 9-11 loss but at the same time actively works against protecting its citizens from an annual loss of life 11 times greater. Where is the American sense of moral outrage against this hypocrisy?

- James Matthews

Westlake Village

Saluting Bob Hope

I hope all our high-priced, big-mouth entertainers were watching the other night when the salute to Bob Hope was aired on NBC. He was praised for his support of our troops no matter where they were or for what reason. It's sad they are so quick to bad-mouth anything our government does that doesn't suit them or their ideas.

Yes, it's freedom of speech, a right that all soldiers of yesterday and today fight for. Our soldiers are away from home, fighting for our freedoms, and up they pop with garbage coming from their mouth. Which of our noble entertainers of today has the guts and decency to stand up and give them a little support, a little laughter and a little piece of home like the greatest entertainer of all time did year after year?

- Stephanie Brownell

Chatsworth

Not a Newt fan

Newt Gingrich, the disgraced and disgraceful right-wing former speaker of the House, has crawled out of the hole to which he was relegated by his own party. He is taking on Colin Powell, who is the only voice of reason in the current administration.

Gingrich, one of the most despised men in the U.S., vs. Colin Powell, one of the most admired, is tantamount to the United States vs. Grenada, or Panama or Iraq.

- Zachary Charles

Burbank

What we are doing

Re ``Now they're protesting'' (Your Opinions, April 24):

I have noticed a lot of people think that now, since the fighting part of the war is over, we should take all our troops out of Iraq.

Well, if you actually paid attention to President Bush's speeches, we have promised that we will help build the country into a better one. That's what we are doing. We are not fighting. We are repairing damages.

- Jacob Sweany

Mission Hills

Making his point

Marie Dailey seems to find Bill O'Reilly's commentaries and programs somewhat offensive and sarcastic (Your Opinions, April 21). If that's the case, then O'Reilly's doing it right.

Any commentator who is able to awaken his audience enough to feel an emotion, be it anger or cheering, is making his point. And thinking people don't follow the other sheep; they think about all that's said and written and then make their own decision. I'm delighted that O'Reilly has a column in the Daily News.

- Terri Andrews

Castaic

Just name-calling

In his rush to defame all things liberal, James Glass (Your Opinions, April 24) picks up the last line from Adam Carl's letter (Your Opinions, April 23) and ignores his main point: Why does Thomas Sowell so often engage in simple-minded liberal-bashing?

Such name-calling, whether of liberals or conservatives, is intellectual laziness, and given professor Sowell's education, I expect better of him. Instead, he should try actually choosing a topic, discuss the issues, and present the reasons for supporting the conservative point of view. If he cannot, perhaps the Daily News can find a better columnist to represent the conservative view.

- Tim Ehrlich

Canyon Country