PUBLIC FORUM.

Not about Rice

Re ``Boxer bashes Rice'' (Jan. 19):

Sen. Barbara Boxer's behavior at the Senate confirmation hearings on Condoleezza Rice was appalling. She was disrespectful, condescending, fallacious and downright rude. I am sure leftist liberals delighted in that kind of behavior. Their hatred for President George W. Bush is so great and blinding that they personally disparage anyone associated with him, and they can no longer engage in civil debate of ideas.

When it was Boxer's turn to ask questions, she went on her soapbox for more than 15 minutes, twisting quotes out of context, before ever getting to a question. This was obviously not about vetting Rice, without a doubt the most qualified and brilliant woman in the country, but about Boxer's getting her anti-Bush vitriol televised for her fans.

- Pat Knepley

Calabasas

Such venom

Re ``Boxer bashes Rice'' (Jan. 19):

Watching the confirmation hearings for Condoleezza Rice, I was horrified to hear Sen. Barbara Boxer spew such venom and continuous attacks in her questioning and never to let Rice finish a sentence.

I understand the necessity for these hearings and noticed that most senators were dignified with their questions and allowed time for response. Actually, the response to a question is of equal importance and shows the character of the individual.

- Pamela Franklin

Granada Hills

Boxer's mission

Re ``Boxer bashes Rice'' (Jan. 19):

Regarding Sen. Barbara Boxer's diatribe against Condoleezza Rice, it must be stated that Boxer's loyalty to her mission - to discredit any and all of the president's appointees - overwhelmed her sense of decency, respect and fair play.

- Beverly Triggs

Granada Hills

About to burst

Re ``Boxer bashes Rice'' (Jan. 19):

If the House and the Senate were compared with the human body, and if individual representatives and senators represented the various organs, I submit that Sen. Barbara Boxer would be the appendix, a useless appendage. And, if the hearings for confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state are any example of this particular organ's condition, it would appear that she is seriously inflamed and about to burst, with the potential to poison the body politic.

And, as a personal aside, I wonder: Did she pay someone to do that to her hair?

- Daniel f. Taylor

Tujunga

What we need

Re ``Just 5 more cops'' (Jan. 18):

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel came up with an idea to put more police officers in our neighborhoods without cutting city services or raising taxes. She has created a fund, put $500,000 in it and proposed an additional $20 million worth of ideas - all within 90 days. That $20 million will pay for 200 new police officers.

Maybe 200 isn't the 3,000 that the Los Angeles Police Department needs, but it is a big step in the right direction. In fact, the new North Valley police station, opening soon, will need 300 officers. Greuel's proposal alone gets us two-thirds of the way there. This is exactly the type of leaders we need at City Hall: those willing to think outside the box.

- Ken Gerston

Sherman Oaks

And yet, it isn't

Re ``Arnold proposes record spending'' (Jan. 18):

In the new belt-tightened, austerity-driven, sky-is-falling, hold-onto- your-hat budget that was just announced, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has saved us once again. The cuts are a wonder to behold - oops, I mean a wonder to find.

The deck chairs have been slickly realigned, ta-dah. Please notice in the last sentence of the official announcement that the budget has gone up by almost 4.2 percent, more than the inflation rate - nearly a $5 billion increase. For you historians, $5 billion was the entire state budget when Ronald Reagan was governor. Many of you will think this is an increase but, no, it really isn't. Why? Because government officials say so.

- Bob Driscoll

Woodland Hills

Leading questions

Re ``Jim Crow laws seem incredible to young'' (Jan. 17):

In your front-page story, English and humanities teacher Jennifer Harrison is described as starting her lesson from the children's own experience with racism, ethnic bigotry, economic-class consciousness, and other discrimination. According to your writer, this is important because the Los Angeles Unified School District has a predominant majority of ``minority'' students.

Far be it from me to suggest that a form of reverse racism is at work here, but one must admit that stacking the deck by beginning a ``lesson'' with such inflammatory questions can easily lead impressionable students further toward ``victimhood'' when these questions - or experiences - may not have previously existed.

- Richard Bilek

Thousand Oaks

Spirit of giving

Re ``Don't expect thanks'' (Their Opinions, Jan. 18):

Expecting a thank-you for our giving for tsunami relief is not giving at all. True giving is from the heart and expects nothing in return. When giving is with the head, there are always expectations. This kind of giving reflects the thinking of conservatism - that is, it's all about ``me.'' A payoff is what the world of capitalism is all about.

Making it a competition and keeping track of what others give, as cited by Thomas Friedman, diminishes giving. The sure route to disappointment has always been via expectations. The great commission of Christianity is to ``go into all the world'' and it is threatening to other world religions. When aid is accompanied by missionaries, it may well be accepted with suspicion.

- Philip Wilt

Van Nuys

Regional airport

In his Jan. 17 letter, Donald Nyre made some patently false claims suggesting a new airport is needed in Orange County. The airport plans, rejected by the voters, and environmental impact reports showed that thousands of homes would lie under the proposed flight paths. The runways didn't meet Federal Aviation Administration standards for strength, width, separation and slope, and the planned daily flight volume would cause serious airspace problems for nearby John Wayne and Long Beach airports.

The John Wayne Airport is designed to handle more than double its current customers - that is, to handle about 20 million annual passengers - to meet long-term growth in local passenger demand and also to meet cargo demand at a tiny fraction of the cost of a new airport at El Toro.

- Michael Smith

Mission Viejo

Not counting on it

Re ``Everybody secure'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 13):

Susie Thompson of Saugus believes Social Security can be saved by moving all federal employees out of their current retirement plans. It was done during the Clinton administration. New employees to U.S. civil service are only eligible to enroll in the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS, which is a combination of Social Security and the Thrift Savings Plan, similar to a 401(k).

Employees with the old civil service retirement system were given the option of remaining in that system or changing to FERS. Under FERS, an employee may contribute up to 10 percent of before-tax income to the Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, with the government matching up to 5 percent. If the employee elects not to contribute to the TSP, the government will contribute 1 percent regardless. But you won't find many of the FERS employees counting on Social Security. Their security is in the TSP.

- Timothy Savage

Palmdale

Agenda and deceptions

In a television interview on Monday with Tom Brokaw of NBC News, President George W. Bush said that his inaugural address would focus on uniting the country after the November elections.

Don't bother, Mr. Bush. Your agenda and deceptions are what divide us. No pleasant-sounding words and phrases can overcome these most fundamental fissures.

- Kaye Fissinger

West Hills