PUBLIC FORUM REDISTRICTING.

Re ``Arnold can make hay on redistricting issue'' (Their Opinions, Dec. 10):

Daniel Weintraub should realize that there's no such thing as fair redistricting. Everyone has biases. The only solution would be for California to have clean elections, as in Arizona. That would bring more competition in the races and take away some of the special interests' powers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is just as much a loser as Gray Davis. His cutting waste was good, but you have to tax the big corporations and speculative property owners to stop the billions of dollars in shortfalls every year. Schwarzenegger's plan to borrow $929 million to cover state pension obligations is just as illegal as Davis' similar plan. Both Democrats and Republicans have failed California. It's time for new ideas from different parties.

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

Lottery money

Whenever I read of another school monetary shortage such as ``Valley parents feel betrayed on bonds'' (Dec. 9), I think of the state lottery most of us Los Angeles voters approved in the belief that it would aid our public schools by adding money to the coffers. Instead of supplementing the budget, it has allowed the school officials to deduct the same amount given by the lottery, using it for their own interests.

Let us investigate the lottery money that is given to the schools and not subtract the like amount from the budget.

- Marilyn Bigman

West Hills

Free stuff, forever

Our schools throughout California have not turned out the superior students we pay for with our outrageous taxes. Our health care system is in a state of disaster and crumbling as I write. Many ask why, but many more are not willing to accept the answer to both of these problems, and the reasons are political.

The answer is clearly illegal immigration. People come here, mostly from Mexico, to get free health care by using our emergency rooms for their primary care and our public schools to get a free education. If they are caught at the border they are turned around, but if they are caught in L.A., they get free stuff forever. Only in Los Angeles.

- Michael C. Hines

West Hills

Releasing church files

Re ``Church records release blocked'' (Dec. 11):

The actions of Judge Fromholz are most regrettable in not allowing the proffers to be made public. Even more regretful is the Catholic Church has been fighting for two years against the release of ``full personnel'' files.

Here is where Cardinal Roger Mahony could stand up for the victims who are bringing the lawsuits and ``do the right thing.'' The Holy Scriptures teach that ``the authorities that exist have been established by God.'' The leaders of the Church know what they are to do.

- Kenneth Grissom

La Crescenta

Busway squeeze

Re ``Busway squeeze'' (Dec. 11):

It would be easy for the two buses on the Orange Line to pass one another if we were to eliminate the driver's side mirrors, each measuring 10 inches long. When you think of it, of what possible use is such a mirror anyway to a driver who is using a dedicated lane on a restricted two-lane busway?

- Mike Wiener

Encino

Ruiz responds

In a Dec. 10 editorial, (``Everything's political''), you stated I accused the mayor of using commission appointments as a political tool. I never said that. I did say I gave the job 100 percent, and I was surprised by my removal, since I had just been reappointed for a five-year term.

The ``political tool'' statement came from many of the Council members, community activist and neighborhood council leaders.

- Cynthia M. Ruiz

Los Angeles

Try raising salaries

Re ``Teacher shortage looming'' (Dec. 8):

One possible cure to avert future teacher shortages would be to increase teacher salaries so that they are commensurate with the ever-increasing level of education required to teach. Raise qualifications, raise salaries.

We'll likely attract more qualified people, and maybe even find people who know that they should use ``lose'' in the phrase ``the district expects to loose 11,846 teachers.''

- Ken Lee

Lake Balboa

Don't believe it

Recent reports detailing the sexual abuse of female Air Force Academy cadets at the hands of their male counterparts only serves to underscore what everyone else has long known: Heterosexuals should not be allowed to serve in the United States military. Yes, yes, we'll hear the same old objections from the same old bleeding-heart liberals to the effect that heterosexuals have ``always'' been in the United States military and many have served honorably, yada, yada, yada. Cry me a river, pal.

Recent events in Colorado Springs have made it abundantly clear that allowing heterosexuals to serve is bad for military discipline, corrosive to unit cohesion, and weakens the fighting spirit of our men and women in uniform. Don't ask, don't tell? Don't believe it.

- Ronald O. Richards

Los Angeles

Shoot the messenger

Within hours of the news that Tennessee National Guardsman Tom Wilson and other soldiers had conferred with a (gasp) embedded reporter before asking Rumsfeld some tough questions at a normally safely staged rah-rah session, the right-wing spin machine was working overtime. Fox News led with it, and by today that hapless reporter and maybe even the guardsmen will have been reduced to a Hollywood-loving, tree-hugging, gay-marriage-supporting, anti-religious, anti-family values, liberal elitist.

Forget the fact that the other troops cheered as Rumsfeld squirmed. Trashing the messenger has served this administration well, and in the words of P.T. Barnum, ``There's a sucker born every minute.'' In today's world, there appears to be millions of them.

- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

Pain and regret

Re ``Just the facts'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 8):

Abstinence is not a ``belief,'' Josh Rivetz; it is a behavior. Teachers should teach the facts, but the fact is abstinence is the only 100 percent sure way to prevent unwanted pregnancy, STDs and sexually related parasites.

Teaching kids to use condoms gives them a false sense of security because although condoms ``may'' prevent pregnancy they will do nothing to stop one from getting STDs like herpes or venereal warts. To set aside ``whether it is right or wrong for teenagers to have sex'' is in itself wrong, because, in fact, it is against the law for minors to have sex, period. Teaching abstinence is the best way for kids to avoid a life of pain and regret.

- James T. Streeter

North Hollywood

Neither glorify

Re ``Things to avoid'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 5):

Advising against reading the Bible to avoid ``immorality, degrading humor, and dysfunctional relationships'' is missing the whole point. Scripture records these types of events to neither glorify nor exalt this kind of behavior (as done currently in many TV programs), but to be a warning to those who will listen.

Reading the accounts of the consequences of such behavior in the Bible renders this evident. And we see the results of these same warnings going unheeded on the news every night. Bible ``bashing'' is simply an attempt to rationalize and excuse particular kinds of behavior. And as Shakespeare wrote, ``the devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.''

- Nancy Tujetsch

Castaic