PUBLIC FORUM.

Welcome home

Re ``Home, sweet home'' (Aug. 10):

How about some positive and uplifting news for a change? The shuttle landed perfectly and I was in awe as it touched down. The sonic boom was an amazing sound, and arising early to watch this era of history in the making was in itself all inspiring.

Welcome home, guys!

- Pamela Franklin

Granada Hills

Morality intact

Re ``Loss of religion destroying world's moral compass'' (Viewpoint, Aug. 7):

Bill O'Reilly thinks a lack of religion makes a person morally ambiguous or relativistic. He's wrong. Basically, all human beings have a moral sense developed through evolution. Only later did religion co-opt moral sentiments and codify them.

That is why a nonreligious person is as moral as one having a religion and, what is more, a lot less dangerous to others. I don't know what a person inhabiting this ``gray area'' he talks about would be like.

Perhaps he refers to the provisional nature of nonreligious, nonideological morality as ``gray'' contrasted with the absolutist, black or white thinking of the typically religious.

- Geri A. Mellgren-Kerwin

Burbank

In the way

Re ``Court bars redistricting initiative'' (Aug. 10):

The purpose of Proposition 77 was to take the politics out of the redistricting process. It's too bad that a partisan lawsuit has gotten in the way of the voters being able to voice their opinions on this important issue.

- Rusty Hammer

President and CEO 

Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

Choices dwindling 

Re ``Unocal wed to Chevron'' (Business, Aug. 11):

With the acquisition of Unocal by Chevron, the gobbling up and taking over of less powerful companies is a thriving business that receives little or no opposition by the American people.

We complain about monopolistic practices, yet we continue to simply lie down and allow ourselves to be raped by these giants. As the choices for Americans dwindle, so does the free enterprise system. Monopolies are alive and well and nobody has guts enough to challenge the antitrust violations and the sheer thievery taking place.

Price increases have nothing to do with ``refinery problems.'' The companies raise prices to whatever level they wish, simply because they can. Unless, and until, we, as a nation, revolt against these games, there is no end in sight.

- Carolyn Whitehead

Canyon Country

Caring folks

Re ``People truly care'' (Aug. 10):

Two assumptions we believe to be true - people care about people and people want to help - were reaffirmed these last couple of weeks resulting from this article.

The response has been heartwarming, to say the least, and I know new friends have been made. We are very grateful to the Los Angeles Daily News for headlining our story, which has breathed new life into our food bank.

Elected officials, young folks, seniors and companies alike have been tremendously generous.

Every day brings new opportunities and the news coverage and the resulting response will ensure needy, hungry and hurting folks will receive food items through the summer.

- Will Hernandez

Director of the Valley Food Bank

North Hollywood

No e-ticket

Re ``14 freeway signs offer traffic info'' (Aug. 9):

I believe the officials who decided to inform us via freeway signs of the amount of time it takes to get somewhere have never been on the freeway once a notice is posted on one of these signs. They delay traffic! Anyone who travels on the freeway that passes one of these signs knows this. Immediately passing one of these signs, traffic speeds increase.

Everybody is familiar with the term rubber-necking. People slow down to read these signs, creating slower traffic. An Amber alert is a perfect example. This I don't mind, since it's for a good cause.

We all know it takes forever to get somewhere in Los Angeles. The freeways are not an ``e-ticket ride'' at Disney, where we are politely informed about a slight delay before taking the ride.

- Warren Lendall

Sherman Oaks

Just one reason

I just returned from Kansas, where people ask, ``How can you live in Los Angeles?'' I'll tell you how.

Yesterday our dog was hit and killed by a truck. The driver stopped to help him and so did four other people. One person called a pet ambulance, another called the number on my dog's tag, and one caught our other dog, who was with him.

When I got there and was extremely distraught, a wonderful lady followed me home to make sure I was safe. There were five people on Tampa Avenue on Aug. 11 who made a big difference in my life and our dog's final moments. Thank you to all of them.

- Carrie De Young

Northridge

Point overlooked

Re ``Twisting the truth about dropping the A-bomb'' (Aug. 11:)

Thomas Sowell makes excellent points in his article, but there's another point to be made. When discussing the morality of Allied actions during World War II, it's important to remember that the Axis powers started it.

Why should the Allies have refrained from a war-shortening course of action when it was the Axis who were the aggressors? Why should more Allied servicemen have died so Axis civilians would live?

It makes no sense. This is a point that people on both sides of the debate over the use of the A-bomb overlook.

- Josh Rivetz

Northridge

No big deal

Re ``DWP strike threat'' (Aug. 11):

Julie Butcher, general manager of the city's SEIU Local 347 union, says ``a lot of her members feel insulted'' that the DWP's IBEW Local 18 negotiated a better salary deal with the city than she could (``Union strikes back,'' Aug. 10). Tough luck. Maybe she should hire Brian D'Arcy away from the DWP union to do her bargaining next time.

Butcher is in the second year of a three-year contract. Her members will get an average 3.13-percent increase over the next two years, at which time her contract will be renegotiated.

The DWP union members get 3.25 percent for each of the next five years, which is only 12 cents more than the SEIU workers for each hundred dollars of salary earned.

Julie should stop whining. What's the big deal?

- Walter N. Prince

Northridge

Other kind of help

Re ``Immigrants deserve help, not persecution'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 8):

Perhaps Mexico shouldn't encourage illegal immigration. The more poor Mexico can dump into the U.S., the fewer this corrupt government has to deal with. But doesn't the U.S. have its share of citizens who are still not up to par economically and have limited opportunity, as your articles on ``Watts: 40 years later'' (Viewpoint, Aug. 7) point out?

Address the real problem. Make Mexico's government accountable for its poor instead of ignoring them because of corruption. Latino organizations should be exposing this for the sake of the people who are in a desperate state. Perhaps then they wouldn't have to risk their lives.

- John Gonzalez

Saugus

Where are the marshals?

Re ``West Nile is confirmed in Valley'' (Aug. 11):

As a player at Hansen Dam golf course almost weekly, I have noticed for a long time many areas of standing water and mosquitoes.

The folks who run the place seem to look the other way. Even the ball washers could be a problem source. One can smell them as you approach, meaning they have not been serviced or changed in a long time, allowing the water to go stagnant.

There are supposed to be marshals out on the course. But hasn't one noticed this standing-water situation?

- Walter Esser

Van Nuys

Slow movers

Re ``Hybrids on fast track to HOV lane'' (Aug. 11):

If the bill required car-pool lane users to drive at the legal speed limit (except in the case of traffic congestion) the new law would be 100 percent effective. I applaud clean air and fuel conservation but car-pool-lane speeds will undoubtedly now be slower.

We have all been ``blocked'' at one time or another behind three or four cars traveling abreast at 10 to 20 miles per hour below the speed limit.

Undoubtedly, this idea is trying to create a safer condition or better fuel economy, but ultimately it will create bottlenecks and congestion.

Hybrids - keep your speeds up.

- Ron Spindler

Encino