PUBLIC FORUM PRODUCT RECOGNITION.

The Nov. 29 Daily News carried the heading ``Betrayed Again'' and an article about ``LAUSD bond bungling leaves $600 million shortfall.'' The article went on to say that among other things these millions were wasted because of poor management and lack of proper controls involving hundreds of projects.

Articles like this regarding LAUSD and the bungling city of L.A. management personnel are published daily. Has it ever occurred to anyone that these poor managers are the product of the L.A. school system?

- Doris Goodwin

North Hills

No, thanks

Re ``Take our bureaucrat ... please,'' (Opinion, Dec. 5):

Rich Tosches' column about Jim Mullen, another useless out-of-touch bureaucrat from Colorado headed for the paycheck trough in Southern California is something that needs review with great concern.

Is it not Colorado that has given us Roy Romer, who like Jim Mullen has a penchant for mismanagement and arrogance? At least this time we have been warned.

- John N. Engels

Northridge

Palestinians are paying

Why should the Palestinians pay for crimes committed by Germans? Why is there no outcry that multibillions spent by America on the state of Israel represent a gross violation of the separation of church and state? Justice might have been better served by carving a Jewish state out of, say, Bavaria. It would have involved tremendous dislocations, but there was plenty of that already going on, ask any East Prussian.

Saddest of all is that a Jewish state as protection for Jews around the world was made obsolete and pointless by nuclear weapons before Israel was even born. Why must peace continually be threatened by a manifest absurdity?

- Henry S. Mercado

Encino

Not proud of it

Well now President George Bush, who was elected by the United States Supreme Court, is indirectly telling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to go after Yasser Arafat and punish him for the suicidal attacks against Israeli civilians.

Our beloved president is telling the side that has the airplanes, heavy artillery, tanks, etc, to attack and crush the side that defends itself with rocks, sling shots, a few rifles, and, yes, the young Palestinians who die in order to protect their people from a country that has received billions of dollars from us for years. Never in history has one small country received so much free money from another country as Israel has received from us. Is this whole scenario something we Americans can be proud of?

- John F. Mendez

Los Angeles 

Make an effort

Yasser Arafat has been quoted as saying about the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ``he doesn't want me to succeed.'' Don't you have to do something before you can succeed?

- E. Goodwein

Van Nuys

Disenfranchised people

President Bush is freezing Hamas assets? When will a distinction be made between terrorism and the expression of the legitimate aspirations of a disenfranchised people?

Israel ought to be able to speak to that, inasmuch as one of its first statesmen was the well-known terrorist Menachem Begin.

- Jean K. Glasser

Van Nuys

Breeding ground

In his Dec. 6 Public Forum letter, Everrett P. Harrington misses the point. The Palestinian Authority is a breeding ground for terrorism, and the Israelis are very capable of controlling or eliminating these pests.

Further, after Sept. 11 it should be clear to any objective observer that the destruction of Israel is only a mediate goal of such groups as al- Qaida, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel is our front-line defense in the Middle East against the spreading plague of terrorism, and it's in our own best interest to support her.

- Gary Inbinder

Woodland Hills

A mere notion

Mike Leviton's letter (Public Forum, Nov. 28) indicates just how woefully uneducated Americans have become on our Constitution. Separation of church and state is a mere notion. It is an out-of-context sentence fragment from a letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Church, advising them on a matter they raised. The entire erroneous argument of separation derives from that one line.

Reading the Founding Fathers' words will afford anyone a good understanding of their inherent feelings that this was a republic founded on Christian morals - those are their words - not notions. There was no intention of any walls being built. They gave us a government based on our freedoms granted by our creator, not government, to practice religion in all its forms in a completely free atmosphere.

- John K. Taylor

Woodland Hills

We're praying

In reply to Stuart Bechman (``One nation, period,'' Opinion, Nov. 26) and other atheists, I have a message from Christians, Jews, Muslims and all Americans who have God in their hearts. You can intellectualize all you want, but you're pretty darned lucky to have us praying for this wonderful country. You, as with the terrorists, do not recognize the awesome power of prayer. But never fear. Like it or not, we will protect you.

- Vicki Wagner

Sherman Oaks

Presidential cloning

I read that G.W. Bush opposes cloning, in all forms. To take this stand when you are the parent of twins, who happen to be clones of each other (no more, no less), is too absurd for words. But it illustrates the Bush brain process well.

- Thomas E. Braun

Palmdale

That's entertainment

I'm in full agreement with Kathy Lombardo's letter, ``Burnett Special,'' (Public Forum, Dec. 4).

I would also add that the reason so many viewers tuned in is that they knew they didn't have to listen to the disgusting innuendos and low-brow language that is now used in the very poorly cast and poorly written garbage that pervades all of today's entertainment.

- Carl Wagner

Lancaster

In the dark

Imagine my surprise this morning when I went out to pick up my Daily News. The lawn lamp at the top of my steps down to the main sidewalk was among the missing. All that was left was the wires sticking up in the air. Apparently, I made a Yuletide donation in the price range of $125 to someone I do not know. I would like to wish them a happy holiday season, but I guess I already have.

I am over 80, on oxygen, a widow, conserving electricity, recycling everything possible. To say I am on a fixed income is a very true statement. This does not allow me many extras such as replacing my belongings that someone takes away. Guess it's all right for me to fall all the way to the city sidewalk.

- Mary Elizabeth Brown

Burbank

Kitty care

In ``Hitchhiking Kitty, '' (NewsLite, Nov. 30), the cat was found in the engine of a student's car after it got away from the owner at a rest stop. Here is a perfect example of why, whenever transporting animals, they need to be contained, either on a leash, in a crate or a carrier. If this cat had been in a carrier, rather than possibly loose in the car, this probably never would have happened.

This cat is lucky. It could have been lost, severely injured or even killed. Also, cats are known to crawl up in car engines in order to keep warm. When the engines are started, the cats are often mutilated or decapitated. In order to avoid this from happening, I knock on the hood of my car in the cold weather before starting the engine.

- Marion H. Winkler 

Sherman Oaks