PUBLIC FORUM TRAFFIC SOLUTION.

Re ``Commutes eat up more time in L.A.'' (Nov.20):

The problem is that too many people do not understand the simple solution. Slower traffic, keep right. On our streets and freeways, some people do not keep right regardless of what speed they want or can travel. Changing lanes is the only way to get around the lane bandits who will not keep right. If they are going to turn left in 10 or 12 miles, why bother to get to the right? The signs on the freeways that state ``slower traffic keep right'' are very small and mounted on the left side of the freeway where the people that should be obeying them will never see them.

These people are obstructing traffic and if a few tickets were issued, the word would get out and traffic would probably pick up by 15 percent to 20 percent.

I followed two very large trucks down Oxnard Street. They were side by side and fully loaded. The maximum speed each truck could achieve was about 15 miles per hour. They were not trying to create a problem, they just did not know any better. Our population is not getting smarter. So someone has to make the nonthinkers understand. Common sense doesn't seem to be working.

- Gene Hardy 

Valley Glen

Prioritizing purchases

LAUSD administrative management should take the time with its innovative ``banked days'' (ha, ha) to learn how a real corporation prioritizes what's really important. At $20 a square foot for carpeting, you know that students, teachers and LAUSD parents are way down on the list of what counts.

Why did a storage corporation have to donate a desk, bookshelves and file cabinets so that our new assistant principal would have somewhere to work? The district always seems to turn a deaf ear to the true needs of where education truly is implemented: in the classrooms and the working facility.

Our school has many 50-year-old desks and chairs. Carpeting would be in our wildest dreams.

Tell us something new. Nothing changes with the LAUSD. It's the same old abuses that have permeated this school system for decades.

- Linda Faherty Mann

Simi Valley 

The real fanatic

Almost everyone believes that Osama bin Laden is a fanatic in his dislike of America: the bombing of two American embassies, the USS Cole, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

But bin Laden is a piker compared with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Taliban, and, for all practical purposes, the leader of the Afghanistan nation.

This man, in his fanatic attempt not to turn over bin Laden to the authorities, has let innocent people die, his Taliban group suffer defeat and surrender, and has let his own rule slip away. Now that's fanaticism.

- J. Nicassio

Valencia

Nerve to testify

I marvel at the audacity of Sheriff Lee Baca. To have the nerve to testify before the House Intelligence Committee when his department no longer has an intelligence unit is an insult.

Approximately four months ago, before the events of Sept. 11, he dismantled the Special Investigations Unit that had been recognized by police departments throughout the United States as one of the finest and well-respected intelligence units. His reason was ``there is no terrorism in L.A. County'' (maybe there wasn't any because there was a unit in place to keep tabs on them). The unit he eliminated was comprised of experienced investigators, surveillance teams, analysts and interpreters who were part of the ATOC during the 1984 Olympics - a unit which had been in existence since the Pitchess and Block eras.

Now he wants to hire a token 16 investigators with none of the support mechanisms needed to operate effectively. What's the point? It will take years for confidences to be rebuilt.

- Kathleen A. Pitt

Canyon Country

Puzzled

Re ``Religion has a place in our schools'' (Nov. 20):

Christian activists like Jennifer Marshall and the Family Research Council present a puzzle for fellow believers, myself among them. Their incessant pressure to revive public and school prayer not only tampers with the Constitution, but the Word of God. ``Pray in secret to your Father in Heaven who hears in secret'' was the specific instruction of the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ. I never hear this discussed by either side in this dispute.

- Boyd Britton

North Hollywood

Let the public say

As the author of the motion to change term limits, I take issue with your editorial that suggests new council members are seeking ``lifetime job security'' by supporting a motion to remove the term cap.

Term limits have been in place for eight years in the Los Angeles City Council. It is now obvious to constituents and elected officials that a large turnover on the council can lead to less efficiency in government and poor choices by inexperienced legislators. Enough time has passed for voters to decide whether they made the best decision in 1993 when they chose term limits for lawmakers.

My fourth and final term will end in 2003. Changing the law will not impact me. But whether one is new to the council or a veteran, we owe it to our constituents to let them determine whether they want to continue putting a cap on how long we serve.

Ninety-nine percent of the time my views are in sync with your editorial opinions, but in this case I'm convinced that it is not self-serving to let the voters decide whether they want to continue or end term limits. It is time for us to step aside and let the public tell us what it wants.

- Nate Holden 

Council member

10th District

The big lie

Chris Weinkopf's Nov. 18 commentary on former NOW L.A. President Tammy Bruce's book ``The New Thought Police'' seeks to perpetuate the big lie that ``the left,'' whatever that is these days, controls the nation's ``establishment media'' and effectively squelches all conservative voices. As proof, he offers this bit of Brucean logic: The fact that Larry Flynt ``thrives'' while Laura Schlessinger ``struggles.''

That's pretty funny, Chris. Is it possible that Flynt thrives because more people want to leaf through Hustler porn than watch the harridan-like Schlessinger on TV? Nah, it's all because the liberals run the media. But what about Fox News, Chris? Why don't they give Dr. Laura her own show? Maybe Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes are secret lefties. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Really, Chris, you owe all of us left-leaners a profound debt of gratitude. Who would conservatives and self-serving gadflies like Bruce have to blame for their screw-ups if you didn't have us handy?

- Stephen Lemons

Burbank

Not my mayor

Re ``Hahn's forces to fight split'' (Nov. 16):

It is clear that in the San Fernando Valley there are those who favor secession and those who don't. But whatever the view of any of us here, I hope that we can agree that Mayor James Hahn has shown himself not to be our mayor. He certainly has the right to have an opinion about secession, even to espouse his views publicly. But to use the power and trust of his position as mayor to form a political anti-secession organization smacks of a conflict of interest, and certainly of a disinterest in our right to have thoughts and feelings. At a time when he should be wooing us who think of establishing our own life, he joins those who are trying to strong-arm us with their threats of lawsuits and withheld resources. An abused spouse may stay in a marriage, but that doesn't make it a good marriage. If it is time for this ungainly and mismanaged entity to split, I hope those in authority will consider the elegant simplicity of mitosis. In nature, what results is equal, better and harmonious. I recognize that there must be a battle over this issue. But surely there is someone else than our elected leader to head the forces arrayed against our right to freely decide.

- Samuel Graham

Tujunga

Mind their own business

I have always been against the overdevelopment of the Southland. Just look at Santa Clarita (Stucco Valley) or the west and north San Fernando Valley.

When I saw your front-page article showing Martin Sheen and Rob Reiner at a rally opposing the Ahmanson Ranch development, it has caused me to rethink my opinion since I have always been against anything these two liberals have stood for. Why can't these two actors just stay out of politics?

- Louis Thompson

Woodland Hills