PUBLIC FORUM MAYOR'S DEFICIT.

Re ``City budget sees red'' (Dec. 13):

Perhaps the mayor's surplus of cash would not have eroded if he had not been paying organized labor off with juicy contracts and union-only contracts for work on publicly funded construction contracts. It is time for Mayor Hahn (and any of the other mayoral candidates, for that matter) to wake up and do what is right for all of the people in the city.

Stop union-only dominance on construction projects such as schools and the new LAX projects. Eliminate the Project Labor Agreements and Project Stabilization agreements that only fatten labor unions and not workers or the public.

- Gavin Spector

Van Nuys

Justice

Re ``Death for Peterson'' (Dec. 14):

Scott Peterson aside, our jails are overloaded with death penalty cases. Let's start doing the job the courts (juries) have mandated. We have made sure as best we can that certain people should have their lives taken, we should send these rascals to the ``other side'' as quickly as possible and let God perform the justice lacking in our system.

Life in prison for the perpetrator is not justice. Justice is what God provides. While only God can provide justice, only the victim can choose to forgive the murderous act against him, and he is on the ``other side.'' So, get the perp over there as quickly as possible. But what if we kill an innocent, you ask? Then God, who is just, will ensure the innocent has lost nothing in the quest for salvation.

- Bob Sharp

Arleta

Second opinion

Re ``Council OKs LAX master plan'' (Dec. 8):

Would you undergo major surgery before receiving a second opinion? Apparently that is the course that the Los Angeles City Council will take on Tuesday when it makes its final vote on Mayor Hahn's $11 billion LAX Master Plan. The city of Los Angeles hired Rand to do a security study on the LAX Master Plan, but the city will not get the results until spring 2005 - many months after the vote.

Perhaps the city does not want to see the same conclusions that Rand made in a 2003 report that Alternative D ``would not help limit damage caused by small bombs'' and that the proposed People Mover ``could become a tempting target for terrorists?'' Political expediency is being put before good planning practices.

- Robert Acherman

Los Angeles 

Common denominator 

Re ``Troops demand armor'' (Dec. 9):

Spc. Thomas Wilson from the 278th Regimental Combat Team asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, ``Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?'' Rumsfeld replied, ``You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have.''

It seems that the American people and her army have something in common. I consistently wonder to myself why we have to dig through garbage to find honest politicians. Answer: I guess you run a democracy with the politicians you have, not the politicians you might want or even vote to have.

- Bradley J. Kayl

North Hollywood

Don't say that

Re ``Troops demand armor'' (Dec. 9):

How dare Donald Rumsfeld tell that soldier who asked why they had to ride in vehicles without armor, ``You go to war with the army you have, not the one you want.'' That's what you say in 1941 when you are attacked at Pearl Harbor. That's what you say when you get up off the floor to fight for your life in a war in which you are attacked first. It's not what you say when you go into a voluntary, unnecessary war that you started, with an invasion date that you set.

- Robert Phipps

Burbank

Deputies' pay

Re ``Moonlighting payday'' (Editorials, Dec. 9):

I am tired of reading another editorial in the Daily News about how the L.A. County sheriff's deputies want a pay raise and that this is an outrage to everyone. These men and women have not had a work contract for two years. Everyone talks about the high cost of living, but these men and women have had the same salary for two years. No token 3 percent raise on the annual review, nothing. The amount of time they spend working each day shouldn't matter, they work the same 40 hours a week that everyone else works.

Where are all the letters about the corporate world moms and dads that want to work flex hours to lighten their daily work schedule? Everyone thinks that is so great that they get to stay at home more with their kids. Our men and women just want the same.

- Cathy Campbell

Canyon Country

Death of Desarie

Re ``Supervisors want inquiry in girl's death'' (Dec. 8):

Thank goodness criminal charges will be sought against the social worker who returned Desarie Saravia to her abusive parents. He or she is as liable for her death as if they stabbed her.

The little girl kicked and screamed when she was put back with her mother and her boyfriend, plus she had bruises on her and was visibly mistreated. Shouldn't this have been a red flag? What's the matter with these social workers who return children to abusive situations only to have them killed? I hope this social worker is prosecuted and jailed and is never allowed to return to the job. We owe that to Desarie, who never had a chance.

- Barbara Thunell

Canoga Park

Failing up

Ken Lloyd's Dec. 13 employment Q&A business column about ``Failing up,'' i.e., employees being promoted when they have done a terrible job, has provided an answer to a question about which I have been wondering.

He states, ``In some cases, people also fail and prevail because they 'have the goods' on somebody important.'' Now I understand why Condoleezza Rice is being promoted to secretary of state despite her multiple failures as national security adviser before and after the 9-11 attacks.

- Lloyd Sent

Studio City

Blair and Bush

The other day C-SPAN2 carried a lengthy showing of a British parliamentary proceeding. For over an hour, Tony Blair and strident opposition went ``at it.'' Back and forth it went with groans and hisses at his supremely articulated positions (about Iraq). He didn't wilt or cower.

The next day Mr. Tuff-Talk strutted into Canada, and for fear of being heckled, turned tail and ducked out. One can only wonder what a sad thing it would be to see Bush thrust into the give-and-take of truly open discussion. But no, we, the great ``democracy,'' get Bush on Cheney's lap and a Cabinet full of tuning forks.

- Bill Pratt

Northridge

All are implicated 

We Americans must strongly exercise our sympathetic imagination concerning the war in Iraq. The mainstream media fails to describe the destruction of Iraq and its people, but when we catch sight of U.S. weapons in action, we should try to ``walk a mile in the moccasins'' of an ordinary Iraqi woman, man or child.

Imagine their anger and suffering. In their place, how would we be able to care for our families with hopelessly dirty water in such unspeakable conditions? Think of the cluster bombs killing or blowing the arms and faces off children who happen to pick them up in play. The media fails us, and the government lies. But we do have ways of knowing what is really happening. We are all implicated in war crimes if we do not use our hearts and minds to stop this war.

- Marion Leeman

Ojai