PUBLIC FORUM VALLEY IMPROVEMENTS.

I had to laugh as I was reading the story ``Neighbors calling in big guns'' (Sept. 9). It talks about the six-month Neighborhood Prosecution Program sponsored by the city attorney. Supposedly, this program is credited with cleaning up parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Where was this program three years ago? Every day we are hearing about some great, new way the city of Los Angeles is doing good in our Valley. For years, the Valley citizens have felt forgotten and neglected. It is amazing how talk of secession seems to wake up our officials at City Hall. Each time I hear about a Valley ``improvement,'' it only serves to solidify my vote in favor of Valley secession.

- Judith Alban

Northridge

So can we

I appreciate the good coverage of the Valley secession movement. I have been a resident of the San Fernando Valley since 1930, and my family had a citrus ranch next to the San Fernando Mission.

We have also been members of the San Fernando Valley Historical Society and have seen the need for a separate city in the Valley for the purpose of economy, simpler government and easier handling of our needs. The city of San Fernando has kept a successfully run government and I know the Valley can have the same benefits.

- James Nicholson

Granada Hills

Who votes for bonds

Please let me educate Patrick Weir (Public Forum, Sept. 12) on property taxes. Impound accounts are only required when you buy (and pay) property taxes. Bond measures pass because of rent control, not homeowner apathy. The population is 60 percent renters.

Rent control allows renters to gladly vote for every bond measure knowing they won't have to pay their fair share. Only in a free market would renters be forced to vote with their wallets, instead of mine. Renters' voting power could ``bond us'' out of our houses. We are forever the minority; we are doomed to be at the mercy of renters until rent control is abolished. The only fair market is a free market.

- Michael Granata

Woodland Hills

New cathedral

Harlan Campbell criticizes the money used to build the new church and asks, ``What will the poor people of the City of the Angels have to make them joyful, too?'' (Public Forum, Sept. 9).

I've read in the Daily News that a couple of very rich donors gave many millions to help to build this cathedral. As for the rest of the money, only donors, that is, Catholics, have the right to complain.

- Olga del Campo

North Hollywood

We needed it

Where were all these critics and protesters who complain about the cost of the new cathedral when the Staples Center was built, and it cost more than the cathedral? Much more.

The Lakers and Kings did not need a new arena, but the people of Los Angeles did need a new cathedral.

- Scott Buchanan

Van Nuys

Early childhood care

Re ``First 5 L.A., an investment in children's future'' (Sept. 12):

I salute Rob Reiner and Zev Yaroslavsky for their vision regarding the urgent need for universal early childhood education and care. As they point out, most families in L.A. can't afford to send their children to quality preschools at $5,000 to $10,000 a year. Head Start and welfare programs serve low-income families, but many middle-income families can't afford high-quality child care. They're caught in the middle - economic survival and too-high income to qualify for assistance.

With 65 percent of mothers with children under 6 in the work force, the need for universal ECEC is critical.

- Edie Hoffmann

Northridge

If anything happened

Re ``Our example'' (Public Forum, Sept. 12):

Stop and think: At the signs or signals of any kind of danger, the president of the United States is the commander in chief and must be in the forefront. Our vice president is taken to a safe shelter in case something happens to the president. He is next in command to be sworn in as president, which would be done immediately if anything happened.

- Theresa C. Piscitello

West Hills

Their duty

I think it's amusing, although sad, how the Bush-Cheney bashers criticize the vice president as being ``cowardly'' when he is escorted to an undisclosed secure area during a terrorist alert. Or how about the criticism of the president during the first hours of the 9-11 attack a year ago as being ``afraid'' to return to Washington?

Is it possible that these people don't know that the Secret Service is responsible at all times for the safety of our leaders, and in times of eminent danger they will orchestrate any procedure required to protect the line of authority and command?

- John. F. Turner

Granada Hills

Just lucky

We are soooo lucky. We just happened to elect as our president the only person in the entire world who is intelligent enough to recognize the eminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

- Darryl Dickey

Northridge

It depends

There are about 3,000 surgical abortions a day in this country (plus an unknown number of nonsurgical early abortions by some forms of birth control, morning-after pills, etc.).

Uncle Sam has two bumper stickers on his car, on one side: ``3,000 in one day - we will never forget.'' But on the other side: ``3,000 every day - we will never acknowledge.'' Should God bless America?

- Joe O'Brien 

Panorama City

Awarded, not won

In the Sept. 12 Daily News, one of your headline writers referred to recipients of the Medal of Honor as ``winners.'' Believe me there is no competition, no rivalry, no desire to ``win'' that award, just as there is no desire for any combat serviceman to ``win'' any award on the field of battle.

As a veteran, I can tell you that when any serviceman goes into a combat situation, he has two objectives. The first objective is to complete his part of the mission as planned, and the second is to sleep in his own bunk upon completion of the mission. The ignorance shown by the Daily News headline writer is an insult to every man or woman who has ever earned an award on the battlefield.

- Ben Wright

North Hills

Remembrance Day

I think that we should have a national holiday titled ``Remembrance Day.'' And it should be on Sept. 11 each year. This terrible tragedy seems to have touched people all over the world and, seeing how people are affected on this first anniversary, I feel that it brings people of all cultures together. And what is wrong with that?

One of our greatest presidents once said, ``This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. And, that governments of the people, for the people, and by the people, shall never perish from the earth.''

- Frank Kauzlaric

North Hollywood

Run on his record

Now that the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that the fraud verdict against Bill Simon's company was completely unsupported by the facts, Gray Davis has lost his best chance at winning the election.

Now Gray Davis will have to run on the issues. Schools are struggling. Beaches are polluted. The budget is a joke. And Davis is raking in $80,000 a day in campaign contributions while selling out to special interests. Davis can't defend his record, and now he can't smear Bill Simon's.

- Mike Abney

Laguna Beach