PUBLIC FORUM WATER RATE HIKE.Re ``11 percent water rate hike advances'' (April 28): Our City Council, what a joke. A few months ago they were indicating no way were they going to allow an 11 percent increase in the water rate, a snow job to make people think they were going to do something for them. This article indicates they are ready to OK it. The rate increase is expected to bring in $24 million. With a 10 percent utility tax rate, this will give the city another $240,000 to probably waste on their already bloated salaries. Of course with their high salaries this increase will be a drop in the bucket for them. When was the last time they did something for their constituents? - Joe McMillin West Hills Earth to Hahn Re ``Hahn airs Hahn Air is an airline based in Dreieich, near Frankfurt, Germany. It operates domestic and international scheduled services to and from many countries, in either codeshare or wet lease scenarios. Hahn Air also operates executive charter services. qualifications'' (April 29): I was amused a·muse tr.v. a·mused, a·mus·ing, a·mus·es 1. To occupy in an agreeable, pleasing, or entertaining fashion. 2. at page 3 of the April 29 Daily News quoting Mayor Jimmy Hahn stating that ``I think the best way to get re-elected is to do the job I've been doing - making L.A. safer, seeing more housing built, fixing the streets and filling the potholes and providing the service.'' Turn the page and in bold letters is stated ``Area roads worse in nation for second year.'' A report released Wednesday said L.A. motorists drive on some of worst freeways and roads in the country and have paid an additional $750 a year for wear and tear on their vehicles. What planet has the mayor been on in the last few years. - Frank Jacobs Sylmar Women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and Re ``Abortion-rights supporters rally in D.C.'' (April 26): After seeing the recent pro-choice rally in Washington, I suppose that the logical extension of the trumpeted women's ``reproductive rights'' is that a female fetus fetus, term used to describe the unborn offspring in the uterus of vertebrate animals after the embryonic stage (see embryo). In humans, the fetal stage begins seven to eight weeks after fertilization of the egg, when the embryo assumes the basic shape of the newborn should not be eligible for abortion, since it would violate her own ``reproductive rights Reproductive rights or procreative liberty is what supporters view as human rights in areas of sexual reproduction. Advocates of reproductive rights support the right to control one's reproductive functions, such as the rights to reproduce (such as opposition to forced .'' I have no idea what this means for the male fetus. I must agree with the main issue: in our modern society women must have reproductive rights - the right to choose (or not choose) to have unprotected sex Unprotected sex refers to any act of sexual intercourse in which the participants use no form of barrier contraception. Sexually transmitted infections Specifically, unprotected sex . That is the place to exercise their ``rights'' before there is any question of a third party (the fetus). - John Green Northridge Nothing like it Re ``Fiesta Broadway'' (Your Opinions, April 28): I think Ben Wright has ``been wrong.'' Fiesta Broadway did not celebrate Cinco de Mayo Cinco de Mayo (Spanish; “Fifth of May”) Mexican holiday commemorating the Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862. The French army, better-equipped and far larger than the Mexican army, had been sent by Napoleon III to conquer Mexico. . It was a pre-celebration party. Cinco de Mayo is nothing like the Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. . It does not celebrate the ``birth of a nation.'' The actual Cinco de Mayo celebration is yet to come, (cinco - 5, Mayo - May). It simply celebrates one foreign nation's defeat of invaders from another foreign nation. Neither of which concern our country. Neither of which deserve my tax dollars to be spent on the celebrations. I've never seen any news stories about those events being celebrated in Mexico. Do they celebrate it there? Using tax money? And do we really need to start naming our streets after some other country's celebration? If so, let's call it Oktoberfest Avenue. - Jerry Schwartz Granada Hills Take a hike Re ``Fiesta Broadway'' (Your Opinions, April 28): Poor Ben Wright had to travel all the way downtown for the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. How can he compare this holiday with the Fourth of July - what country does he think he lives in? Do they celebrate Bastille Day Bastille Day July 14; French national holiday celebrating the fall of the Bastille prison (1789). [Fr. Hist.: NCE, 245] See : Independence Bastille Day in Italy, Spain and Germany, France's bordering countries? If he wants a major celebration for this holiday, take a trip across the border and participate there - that's Mexican soil. - Lois Rochetti West Hills Wasn't Bush The Daily News headline reads, ``Bush-Kerry at war over military service'' (April 27), but nowhere in the article is there evidence of the Bush camp making this an issue. Kerry is in hot water with the media about various contradictory statements made concerning his 1971 war protests. His well-rehearsed response to these inquiries is that the Republicans are attacking him, but in truth it is the news media who, liberal as they may be, are not fond of being lied to. - Nancy Payson Encino See no evil How ironic is it that we are sending loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl to Iraq to fight and die for Iraqi freedoms when right here at home our government is successfully censoring censoring in epidemiology, a loss of information from a study, whether by subjects dropping out of the study or because of infrequent measurement. what we see and hear? Heaven forbid Americans are shown the realities of this misdirected war by publishing images of our loved ones coming home in coffins. These images are powerful and can change public opinion about the war. It's no wonder the Bush administration wants to keep them from our eyes. These are our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. Now there's talk of a draft. I wonder how quickly Bush would send his own daughters into battle. - Mark Quon Woodland Hills What's next? Re ``Is beach smoking ban going overboard?'' (Their Opinions, April 22): It seems there is nothing more important these days than taking away the civil liberties of the smoker smoker A person who smokes tobacco, almost always understood to be cigarettes Ratio of ♂:♀ smokers Philippines64/19, China61/7, Saudi Arabia53/2, Russia50/12 . As a smoker I sit and wonder, what's next? I say, since there is a consensus to make California a smoke-free state, stop playing games and enforce it already. Nothing more can be done that hasn't happened already. Hey, if cigarette butts are more important than the stench of waste at Dockweiler Beach or the growing rate of homelessness in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. , I say, more power to you. I just think this ``smoking thing'' is a little played out and the ``bandwagon'' has overstayed its welcome. - Rhonda Champion Reseda Doesn't matter I simply find it amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. that the City Council desires to ban smoking on all beaches. Don't they have far more important things to occupy their time? If they extend that thinking then they should include all the discordant dis·cor·dant adj. 1. Not being in accord; conflicting. 2. Disagreeable in sound; harsh or dissonant. dis·cor sounds coming from the wide assortment of radios and boom boxes as well. Music it is not! And as for the poor smoker, well they pay enough taxes on each pack that that fact alone ought to exonerate them, period. Sorry, but the City Council negates the assumption that smokers do not have any common sense in discarding their finished cigarettes. Please, City Council members, deal with issues that matter. - Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Bertucelli Sherman Oaks A new concept So the war in Iraq is not going as fast or smooth as some would like. They favor pulling our troops out immediately since Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. is no longer in power. Did you make your children cook their own meals as soon as they could hold their own spoons? Democracy is a new concept for many of these people, and they need to be guided into it slowly and properly. There are going to be conflicts and times of trial. Look in your own neighborhood; when was the last incident of gang violence, robbery, rape, etc.? Just yesterday? Wake up, grow up and get real, folks. This is not an hourlong hour·long or hour-long adj. Lasting an hour: an hourlong television episode. Adj. 1. episode of ``Law & Order.'' Things are not going to get summed up in 15-minute segments. - Roberta Rothwell Palmdale Costly error Re ``The best reason'' (Your Opinions, April 27): It's good to know Judith Lucas thinks re-electing Bush to irritate Democrats is more important than unemployment, inflation, health care and American soldiers dying on foreign soil. Republicans are flibbertigibbets - and that is costly, not priceless. - Susan Metzger Reseda Listen up, MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. As I was traveling along Reseda Boulevard, I noticed that those brown benches at the MTA bus stops have been replaced by bright, god-awful yellow benches. Listen up, MTA. Put my money to good use, such as providing 24-hour bus service all over the Valley, not those yellow eyesores. We need more bus services, not new benches. - Sophia Carter North Hills |
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