PUBLIC FORUM SEAL IT AWAY.

Re ``Seal quietly changed in county hall,'' Dec. 18:

In response to the ongoing brouhaha regarding the changes to the Los Angeles County seal, why not do away with governmental seals completely? As I understand it, the notion of a seal to designate a governmental body dates back to the Middle Ages. Such a design was utilized - stamped in wax to close a folded missive, generally delivered by horse-driven messenger - to confirm the sender's authenticity.

Governmental seals serve no purpose today. Our tax dollars could be put to much better use on gallons of whitewash than to redesign an already antiquated county seal, simply to remove an unwanted religious symbol.

- Thomas R. Atkins

Sherman Oaks

Sealed their fate

Time will tell whether our anti-electorate Los Angeles County supervisors have sealed their political fate. Hopefully the voters will reinstate the seal and cross out the supervisors.

Meanwhile, Saturday's front page shows exactly why Los Angeles is drowning in lawsuits and disability claims. County worker Dan Locklair apparently has no concept of ladder safety. Like his supervisors, he's an accident just waiting to happen. That sound you hear is millions of dollars being flushed down the toilet.

- Michael Guetzow

Woodland Hills

Where the money is ...

Re ``LAUSD cuts rushed to halt rating change,'' Dec. 15:

``I'm really disappointed,'' Marlene Canter says, ``we don't know where we're going to get the money'' to balance the school district's books.

Here's how: Start by downsizing your lifestyle by reducing your high salaries and give it back to the students and teachers! Administrators always think of the executive salaries first, then fund everything else. This should be reversed. How can we educate when our money is mismanaged? The school board and executives do not need high salaries - schools need the money more.

Ask yourself, why do so many children say ``I can't do my homework because the school can't afford extra books and my parents can't afford to buy the books''? Here's where our money belongs!

- Kris Baader

Valencia

Evil empire

Saddam Hussein has been called an evil man because he killed so many of his own Iraqi citizens. When will the U.S. be called evil for killing Iraqi people? The number of Iraqis that the U.S. has killed is getting very close to the number Saddam has murdered. When will we become the Evil Empire for killing innocent men, women and children? What if the Iraqis came to the U.S. and insisted we that reform and have their kind of government? I am very sure that most people here would rise up and become insurgents.

- Marjorie Eisenberg

West Hills

Call them terrorists

Re ``Iraq election officials executed; bombs kill 61'' (Dec. 20):

John F. Burns characterizes the terrorists who killed 61 people in Najaf and Karbala as ``insurgents.'' I realize the left would like to assert, a la Noam Chomsky, that ``one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,'' in order to make moral equivalence of the U.S. efforts against terrorism and the terrorists themselves. But, as usual, reality continues to expose that bit of sophistry for what it is. Whereas an insurgent is a ``person who revolts against a civil authority or an established government,'' a terrorist is someone who targets innocents and noncombatants in an effort at intimidating a government into acceding to his demands. Insofar that most reasonable people can appreciate the difference, why can't Burns?

- Michael G. Miller

Los Angeles

Maintain and sustain

Re ``Tip of the sprawl'' (Our Opinions, Dec. 19):

I take issue with the comment posed in your Sunday editorial regarding real-estate development in Southern California. You state, ``There's no reasonable way to stop growth. Nor should it be stopped. The alternative to grow is decay.''

Sorry, the alternative to growth is not decay. The sensible alternative is to ``maintain and sustain.'' Why does that concept seem to elude so many pro-growth right-wingers?

- Sylvia Lewis Gunniing

Thousand Oaks

Timely shame

Re ``President gets second Time title'' (Dec. 20):

Time magazine's selection of George W. Bush only serves to underscore its own lack of political and moral courage in 2001, when it failed to adhere to its own standards for ``Person of the Year,'' namely the person who has done the most noteworthy thing during the year, for good or for evil.

Regardless of how outraged Time's readership would have been in 2001, without question the man who had done the most noteworthy thing, for good or for evil, was Osama bin Laden. But by buckling under to public sympathies and naming Rudy Giuliani as ``Person of the Year,'' Time lost the right to claim that the award is not meant to be laudatory.

Given this fact, Time should hang its head in shame for its choice of the war criminal and mass murderer George W. Bush. This title should instead have been awarded collectively to the Iraqi people, who are fighting against overwhelming odds and at tremendous disadvantage to keep their land from being ravished by Bush in his never-ending quest for ever more petrol loot, conquest and Lebensraum.

- Ronald O. Richards

Los Angeles

Cathedral tragedy

There is nothing worse than mental illness, except living or working with someone afflicted with it. This week's suicide of the Crystal Cathedral's music director was a bomb waiting to explode. The television said he was bipolar. The Daily News said that it was believed an argument with another employee set him off. He certainly wasn't homeless. Wasn't he taking medication? Didn't he exhibit any signs before going off the deep end, shooting the place up and killing himself, or were his cries for help ignored? We may never know the answers out of respect to his family.

Too bad. Carl appeared to be a good man.

- Maxine Flam

North Hollywood

Trump them

Re ``Bills kept ringing up , despite warning'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 16):

If two private-sector trash collectors were to continually misuse their cell phones while on and off duty despite warnings not do so, as two Los Angeles Sanitation Department employees did this past summer, they would have been given the Donald Trump treatment:

``You're fired,'' period.

- Everett P. Harrington

Glendale

Asleep at the switch

Re ``Municipal malfeasance'' (Our Opinions, Dec. 7):

We know from recent news that there is corruption in all levels of government. The city of Los Angeles, the Davis administration, the U.N. oil- for-food program, runaway illegal immigration are just a few examples of corruption in our governments. And corruption is not new.

My biggest surprise is that the public is surprised. The founders of our country put the voters in charge. It is the voters who are asleep at the wheel and not meeting their civic responsibilities to keep government small and manageable. Choose leaders who will serve the public, and not because they are Democrats or Republicans.

- Walter Hall

Stevenson Ranch

A Christmas story

Something I learned when I lived off the coast of Mazatlan, on the Isle De La Pedra, is this story:

Aspire to fame? Think of Elvis Presley.

Aspire to wealth? Think of Howard Hughes.

Aspire to power? Think of Richard Nixon.

Think about these things, and realize that Christmas is Christ's birthday and, guess what? You have arrived! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

- James Hamilton Moore

Burbank