PUBLIC FORUM SIGN OF RESPECT.

Councilman Nick Pacheco has realized his goal to have Studio City street signs lacking the required tilde over the ``n'' replaced. This dubious $6,801 project is the result of Pacheco's hyperbolic reasoning that a lack of a tilde demonstrates a lack of respect.

But the parameters of respect go far beyond mere orthography: Respect involves the individual's unequivocal esteeming of integrity, honesty and fair play. One just has to regard the flexing of political muscle by City Council President Alex Padilla when he replaced Hal Bernson, a pro-secessionist of the San Fernando Valley and 20-year member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, with Cindy Miscikowski, the recipient of Padilla's political favor and an anti-secessionist, to bring, by contrast, the definition of respect into sharp focus.

- Stephen Pettine

Canoga Park

Maybe $400

So Studio City needs tildes on some of its misspelled signs? Of course it does. But at what cost? The project figure of $6,800 to replace 115 street signs is unseemly, unacceptable. Are these our tax dollars at work?

Just suppose a Department of Transportation employee is furnished with a can of waterproof, color-appropriate spray paint, a ladder, a stencil of a tilde and is expected to paint 23 tildes on signs on each of five days. Let us suppose that the employee is paid $10 per hour for five eight-hour days. Total cost: $400. Makes better sense, doesn't it?

- Margery Grossman

Encino

Cheaper way

I have an idea to save us all $6,801 in taxpayers' money. I would recommend that the Department of Transportation not spend our taxpayer dollars by creating new street name signs. All they have to do is to create a stencil and then just use heat-resistant paint and paint the tildes on all of the 115 signs. That would save us all $6,801. Councilman Dennis Zine supports this idea and any other suggestions that could save our taxpayer monies.

- Sheree J. Adams 

Field deputy

Councilman Dennis Zine

Investing rebate

My income tax rebate arrived in the mail, all $77.15 of it. The fine print states that the rebate is based on taxable income. Because of various deductions and the fact that I am retired, my taxable income was such that I received 5 percent of my taxable income - or $77.15.

This sum is burning such a hole in my pocket that I have decided to donate it to my local Democratic club, the Democratic Alliance for Action. This donation, I hope, will help put someone in the White House who will avoid such foolishness as income tax rebates. Such freebies in an economic downturn only short-change us later on and reduce government's ability to fund prescription drug and other health programs that seniors and many low-income people desperately need.

- Sydell Stokes

Valencia

What a deal

What a deal. For a $300 rebate, I get: A campaign reform bill that was stopped. The trade deficit is higher. The administration wants Mexican trucks to travel across the border all the way to Wisconsin without the same driving standards, experience and safety rates as our country. Amnesty for millions of illegal aliens while law-abiding aliens are waiting, according to the law.

Our budget surplus is gone. Illegal overcharges of our utility power to the tune of over $1 billion. Did I miss anything?

- Martin Schiechl

West Hills

The best solution

Re ``NIMBYs in court'' (Editorial, Aug. 20):

I, too, think it is absolutely unbelievable that there could be so many misguided and ill-informed people in the Valley who wish to stifle progress. Have these NIMBYs driven our packed freeway system? Do they realize what it will be like in 10 years with the addition of tens of thousands of new residents? We desperately need an east-west transit system, and short of a subway or light rail line, this is the best solution.

If you don't like the convenience of living near a fast, reliable bus route to the subway station ... move.

- John Lynch 

Studio City

Occupied Palestine

Re Mona Charen's ``Palestinians' sheer hatred blocks peace'' (Opinion, Aug. 20):

Let me also ask you, what makes people resist and fight? Is it not a retaliation of a brutal and never-ending oppression? Wasn't that what the Americans fought for: to gain their independence? Wasn't that what the French fought for: against the brutal Nazi occupation in World War II? Don't the Palestinians have the same right to resist for freedom?

What drives a human being to bomb himself? Is it not oppression and the feeling of hopelessness, which is what the Palestinian people experience on a daily basis under Israeli occupation? As long as there is an oppression and occupation against the Palestinian people, the cycle of violence will continue.

- Elia Yousef Haddad

Arleta

Children sacrificed

As the intifada continues indefinitely, we see more and more children being sacrificed by their elders in the fight against the Israelis. Whether it is the suicide bomber, or children throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israelis while their elders watch from safe vantage positions. the point is that these so-called ``sacrificial lambs'' are good propaganda ploys in the eyes of the ones who are condemning the Israelis as child killers.

Sheik Abd Al-Salem Skheidm, along with other sheiks, urges gullible youths to sacrifice their lives, with the ``guarantee'' of paradise and 70 dark-eyed virgins as a reward. Why don't these holy men who preach for martyrdom show examples of their beliefs by strapping bombs on themselves? The answer is that these holy men do not believe what they preach.

- Sam Heinz

North Hollywood

Cell phone study flawed

Re ``Handheld or not, study calls cell phones risky'' (Aug. 17):

The Utah study is flawed. They used a computer twitch game to simulate driving, a joystick instead of a steering wheel, and red lights without a warning yellow. Of course, they couldn't find any difference between a handheld phone or hands-free phone, because everyone - repeat everyone - was ``driving'' with only one hand.

All the study did was show that if you play Space Invaders while talking, the Klingons will kill you quicker. Imagine you are driving your Ford Explorer and suddenly a tire explodes. You will roll over and die unless you control your vehicle. Would you rather have your cell phone in your right hand, your left hand, or both hands on the steering wheel?

- Douglas C. Kubler

Thousand Oaks

People first

Thank you for publishing two important columns in the Aug. 14 Opinion page: President George W. Bush shows sensitivity to the concerns of many, many people not only in America but over the world. Bruce Bialosky calls upon those opposed to the secession of several communities from the city of Los Angeles to allow the process to continue in a fair and open manner. Both men obviously put people first.

- Theodora Howell

West Hills

A light touch

Hitler was a good propagandist. Lenin/Stalin communists were masters. The subtly circulated half-truth gave birth to the oft-repeated sledgehammer lie of the socialist Nazi Party.

Zachary Charles (``What did you expect?'' Public Forum, Aug. 16) would do well to read the velvet of Richard Cohen or the more obvious propaganda of Jill Rachel Jacobs. Zachary should put away the sledgehammer and tell the truth.

- Charles Nippell

Reseda