PUBLIC FORUM WHERE WERE THEY?

I agree with the views expressed in the Oct. 18 editorial. It's amazing that a Catholic cardinal and a Baptist preacher/politician can do more to solve the city's transportation problems in three days than the mayor and City Council can in five weeks.

Where the hell were they? I will support any bond measure that enlarges rapid transit subway or light rail in Los Angeles. I will not support it with any participation of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

- Roger Remick

Studio City

Parents know best

Proposition 38 will give low-income parents power, $4,000 worth of power to educate their own children, the way they believe is best. Our school- system officials say: Parents don't know what is best for their own children. But we do.

The big-money bureaucrats are showing TV commercials saying that the alternative schools will have unqualified teachers, poor curriculum, bad facilities, etc., which will produce poorly educated children.

What? Our schools are doing a great job now? I say, power to the parents. Yes, you big-money education bureaucrats, parents are smart enough to spend the $4,000 voucher at a school that is the best for their own children.

- Ella Jensen

El Cerritos

They want more

I would like to recommend a ``no'' vote on all bond measures. And, twice on Proposition 39. Aren't we all tired of hearing about all of the ``oversight commissions'' and checks and balances on every new attack on our property taxes? What that really means is: Since we have lied to you and misappropriated the funds from previous bond measures, we are now forced to sell you on the fact that we will really use your money right this time.

And now they want more money for the police stations and fire stations which were never built on previously approved bonds (Measure F), and of course, to reduce the required two-thirds majority for school bonds under Proposition 39. Please vote no, no, no.

- Mike Rosenberg

Valley Village

Blatant attempt

Where will this blatant attempt to circumvent Proposition 13 end? Proposition 39 is another ploy to remove the property tax limit of 1 percent, and if renters are indifferent to this matter, they are sadly mistaken if they think it doesn't affect them. Where do they think their landlord gets the money to pay his property tax?

Two governors endorse Proposition 39. That fact alone should tell the tale. Everyone who pays rent or mortgage payments benefits from the 1 percent property tax limit mandated by Proposition 13. Don't be suckered in by the school-issue plot and destroy what serves you best.

- Tom Souther

North Hills

Don't do it

I am certain that Mark Armour (Public Forum, Oct. 20), who rightly complains that Andy Zar is only voting for extra credit (and for Al Gore yet), will join with me in calling for everyone who plans to vote for George W because he is ``folksy,'' ``a real nice guy,'' ``someone who would be fun to party with,'' ``a real handsome fellow,'' to please stay home Nov. 7 as well.

Voting with this criteria surely cannot be any more shallow than those who thought Gore was cool because he was on MTV.

- Steve Hobson

West Hills

Population intoxication 

Re ``Region rockets in population'' (Oct. 20):

So committed are they to squeeze us in tighter, that they will even convince us to drink our own toilet water. Now . . . all we need is some scientific evidence that it's OK. And of course we let them do it to us . . . again.

An increase in population only benefits rich developers, politicians and some businesspeople. The rest of us pay the price of strained resources, a deteriorated environment, increased traffic and pollution.

Hurrah for their progress.

- Bernard Doucet

Chatsworth

Latest whine

I've noticed a recent spate of letters to the Public Forum taking potshots at Jackie Goldberg. This latest whine is about the poor Boy Scouts losing public funds because of their discriminatory practices. I'm sure the legal strategists and heads of the Scouts anticipated this kind of response when they pushed their quest to practice institutional homophobia into the courts.

Goldberg is known as the kind of woman who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and jump into the battle - especially when it's one for human rights. I'm glad she's there to do it.

- Jaime C. Jameson

North Hollywood

A dangerous notion

Re Joyce Flynn's letter (Public Forum, Oct. 17) about the RU-486 abortion pill and a fetus' right to be born:

A quaint, but dangerous notion - given today's heavily overpopulated and overpolluted world. Apparently, she's forgotten about the right to be born of those millions of Third World children dying of disease, malnutrition and starvation. Children not born don't die of disease, malnutrition and starvation.

Joyce should think more about the rights of today's and future generations to a quality of life, not on the right of an insensate fetus, the size of a grain of sand, to be born. It's a pity that Joyce and other sanctity of fetus believers won't be around to see an Earth devastated by the result of overpopulation and overpollution.

- S. Lawrence Mak

Burbank

Consequences

The vapid article by Samantha Kimmel (Viewpoint, Oct. 22) about one frightened 13-year-old girl giving birth to a baby with no assistance does not justify millions of babies being aborted because they are a ``mistake'' or inconvenience.

As a social worker and probation officer in the 1970s when ``free sex'' was the rage, I counseled hundreds of pregnant teen-agers. Many opted to have abortions and I learned something that is seldom mentioned: that within a year many of these same girls again become pregnant and decided to keep their babies. What they were doing, one staff psychiatrist explained, was trying to restore the life they had destroyed.

Girls must be told that there are serious consequences to early sexual activities and that an abortion is not as easy or risk-free as they are led to believe.

- Sonya Jason

Woodland Hills

Really intrusive

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney decry a too-big government and so do I. Yet I can think of nothing more intrusive on government's part than sticking its nose into my body, my health care, my relationship with my doctor, and my entire future financially and psychologically vis-a-vis the abortion issue.

- Arline Mathews

Chatsworth

Natural gas cars

Cathy Hardy pointed out (Public Forum, Oct. 17), that electrical generating capacity is required to charge (i.e. refuel) electrically powered automobiles. She pointed out that electrical power shortages existed over much of our country last summer, leaving little spare power to recharge vehicles. This is particularly true in Southern California.

She also mentioned using vehicles fueled by natural gas. No problem, technically, because internal combustion engines, fueled by natural gas, have been in use for 100 years or so. However, do we have the gas supplies and infrastructure required to refuel millions of motorized vehicles every week? No, we don't.

- James H. Steger

Camarillo

Olympic etiquette

Do you suppose it might be possible for someone on the American Olympics staff to take five minutes and write up a book for the athletes about basic etiquette and courtesy - in particular, perhaps just a sentence or two about flag respect? It was appalling to see how few of the athletes had a clue about the fact that one is supposed to put one's hand across one's heart while the national anthem plays unless one is in the military and, if in the military, to present and hold a salute until the playing is finished.

It's a small thing, but you know, it's just indicative of the lackadaisical attitude of society in general and that no one bothers - or cares - to teach these things anymore.

- Rita Ratcliffe

Van Nuys