PUBLIC FORUM VALLEY NEEDS A FLAG.

Re ``Backers of split ready to fight'' (July 27):

If this is indeed the case, what we need, then, is a flag. If we're now ready to walk the walk and talk the talk, lets have the Valley adopt a flag that people can start flying in their yards and on their cars, attached to the window as many recently did with the Lakers flag.

A San Fernando Valley flag will promote pride and determination in our movement. It will set us apart from the city of Los Angeles and serve to bring us together to navigate the tough road ahead. So how about it, Valley VOTE? Give us an official flag of secession.

- John Lynch 

Studio City

Fixing Social Security

Thomas Sowell's July 27 column shows he wants to get payroll taxes into the stock market. The market needs a boost and long-term Social Security needs reform, but his views are irresponsible. For decades, starting with Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, excess payroll taxes have been borrowed to help fund all government programs, offsetting the need for higher income taxes and federal debt.

In 2016, when payroll taxes will just cover benefit payments, Sowell only gives us options of cutting benefits or raising payroll taxes. Sowell can't think of a single government spending program in which funding can be reduced at all.

- Peter Zuehlke

Sherman Oaks

Day laborers protest

In your article, ``Day laborers protest city ordinance,'' the plight of ``jornaleros,'' as they call themselves, is set forth. They want ``better working conditions and elimination of ordinances banning them from seeking work on the streets.'' Excuse me, are these not laws enacted by citizens for their different localities?

This piece is totally sympathetic to these lawbreakers, presenting themselves as ``suffering pain and indignities none in this country should tolerate.'' Last time I looked, any citizen who does not abide by the law is not rewarded with ordinance changes.

- Barbara Mark

Valencia

A chance

Everyone seems to be putting down President George W. Bush for wanting to grant amnesty to the Mexican immigrants already in California. I don't see what the big deal is all about. They are the ones who are doing the jobs nobody wants, i.e., farm workers and janitors.

Those of you who came here from other countries, whether it be legally or illegally (that's besides the point), wanting a better life for you and your families, well, that's all they want, too. So why not give them a break and let them have a chance at a better life.

- Rebecca Butler

Sunland

Their vote, your money

Thanks to Republican state Sens. Maurice Johannessen of Redding and Dick Monteith of Modesto, who joined 26 Democrats, our sales tax will increase a quarter-cent starting in January. They need our money to continue expanding our state bureaucracy.

- Bill Zelenka

Granada Hills

May not look it

Re ``What if ...'' (Public Forum, July 27):

Jean Beerman must have slept through her civics class. Although it may not appear to be so, there are qualifications that must be met in order to be president of the United States. One of the qualifications is that he/she must be a natural born citizen of our country.

- Alexandra Lambert

Santa Clarita

Protecting who?

With Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman trying to make the new pollution rules she just announced look better than sliced bread, on the surface it seems that the Bush administration EPA is still vigilantly trying to protect our common environment.

We have to look a little deeper to find the real change: Although the EPA is still called the EPA, with the agency now in the political domination of the polluters themselves, those letters now stand for Environmental Pollution Agency.

- Martin Kotowski

Sherman Oaks

Treat them right

Re Syd Gernstein's ``HMO reform bill bad for your health'' (Opinion, July 25):

If the HMOs would do the right thing and treat their patients as they should, there would be no need for a patients' rights bill nor would there be cause for lawsuits.

- Tom Wilson

La Crescenta

Bake some cookies

Mona Charen, you might be able to handle that 50-pound water bottle if you spent some time at the gym. You might also find out that other women can handle that bottle alone. You might also find out that working with others to accomplish a task is not a bad thing. You might also find out that the 5-gallon bottles are available in smaller sizes.

So, because you are unable to handle this 5-gallon bottle by yourself, women are unable to serve in combat? Get with the new millennium, Mona. Wars are no longer fought with soldiers carrying 90 pounds of artillery shells over ``measured distances'' or marching 12.5 miles ``carrying 60 pounds of equipment followed by target practice,'' but you therefore conclude that women are incapable of service.

- Eric Ronald

Simi Valley

Soul awakened

In response to Josh Rivetz (Public Forum, July 19), I quote theologian and philosopher Franz Rosenzweig: ``... man can express himself in the act of love only after he has first become a soul awakened by God. It is only in being loved by God that the soul can make of its act of love more than a mere act, can make of it, that is, the fulfillment of a commandment to love.''

Is that such an absurd idea?

- Gary Inbinder

Woodland Hills

Keep it in mind

So the LAUSD is getting new digs to the tune of $74 million. So the schools don't have air conditioning, clean restrooms, gyms or hallways. So there aren't enough books to go around, yada, yada, yada.

Superintendent Roy Romer is out here because the voters in Colorado got fed up with his elitist, feel good, liberal spending that produced nothing. Remember that the next time a school bond issue is put before the voters.

- Ken Davis

Castaic

You're right

Re Susan Cornner's July 26 letter ``Donate rebate'' (Public Forum), wherein she recommends that we, the taxpayers, send our tax refunds to various liberal institutions, i.e., environmental groups, the American Civil Liberties Union:

She unintentionally makes the case for a larger refund and or lower taxation in general.

This would give every individual taxpayer a greater choice as to how to spend their tax dollars, rather than allowing the government bureaucracies to decide how best to dole out our confiscated income; whether it be donating to charities of our choice, personal investments, helping out a sick family member, etc. Keep us the good work, Cornner. Those of us on the right have had the same philosophy for quite some time.

- Michael Dabovich

Valencia

Cheney's energy plan

This week, Rep. Brad Sherman and others in the House will consider Vice President Dick Cheney's energy plan. Although deceptively billed as a balanced package, the measure is, in fact, full of giveaways to big energy companies, while lacking meaningful advances in energy efficiency and renewables.

Its provisions include: Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; a car and SUV fuel efficiency increase of less than 1 percent, which is smaller than automakers are already voluntarily doing; $13 billion in subsidies for coal, one of the biggest air polluters; and a $23 billion windfall for the oil industry, despite record profits and $2.7 billion in nuclear industry subsidies. Let's hope Sherman will see through the greenwash and oppose this terrible bill.

- Walter Fiedler

Reseda