PUBLIC FORUM.Doing a job well Re ``Topanga Fire: What went right'' (Oct. 1): It is simply amazing how well the ``mutual aid'' program for California's firefighters is working out. They come from everywhere, quietly do their job and then return to their own communities without a word. We do not miss the political actions of the politicians making speeches and looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. photo ops. My hat is off to the fire personnel and the other emergency personnel doing a job well. Are these the people that our governor calls ``special interest?'' Their special interest is working for the interests of the people who need them. - Ira Kaplan Woodland Hills This is L.A. Re ``Topanga Fire: What went right'' (Oct. 1): Toto, I don't think we're in New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded anymore. This is L.A. and the LAFD LAFD Los Angeles Fire Department LAFD Los Alamos Fire Department LAFD London Association of Funeral Directors (UK) . Thousands of acres, hours and hours of fighting the blaze and three homes and one injury. C'mon. Give it up for the Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), also known as the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distinguish it from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles. and all the other departments who assisted! They are America's finest. - Tim Culhane Woodland Hills Inter-agency system Did you ever wonder how it is possible to bring together within a few hours 3,000 personnel from many different agencies working together effectively on a 20,000-acre incident? That system is called the Incident Command System that was developed by an inter-agency program in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . Originally designed for use in wildfires, ICS (1) (Internet Connection Sharing) A Windows feature that enables two or more computers to share one Internet connection. First introduced in Windows 98 Second Edition, sharing is accomplished with network address translation (NAT), which is the common method. has now become the standard for all jurisdictions and emergency-response disciplines in the country for any type of incident. A component of that system is unified command A command with a broad continuing mission under a single commander and composed of significant assigned components of two or more Military Departments that is established and so designated by the President, through the Secretary of Defense with the advice and assistance of the Chairman of , which ensures that each agency with incident jurisdiction has a say in developing objectives and a single overall incident action plan. - Terence Haney West Hills Agriculture program Re ``Grant High cutting agriculture program'' (Sept. 29): I was plant manager at Grant High School from 1982 to 1989. In those years, just about every principal threatened to close the program. Doc Wainwright always had a fight on his hands. The sad thing is that the program was one of the most successful programs I ever saw in the 25 years I spent with the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) . Wainwright has a magical ability to get along with the kids and can get through to them. Even the most hard-core types. I've seen kids do a 180- degree turnaround under Doc. This is one of the reasons that the LAUSD is such a dismal failure. They abandon successful programs in favor of those that have political clout. The kids just don't seem to matter anymore. I feel sorry for the kids. - James P. Biddle Quartz Hill Building for fire Re ``At 'war' with fire'' (Sept. 30): Just as with New Orleans, a city built eight feet below sea level with inadequate levees and sea walls, we here in Southern California build homes surrounded by more than adequate fuel for wind-driven annual fires. These fires are not surprising anyone. These are annual conditions. So the question lies wherein: Why do our ``city planners and leaders'' continue to allow housing construction in these areas, but don't enforce large firebreak fire·break n. A strip of cleared or plowed land used to stop the spread of a fire. Also called fireguard. firebreak Noun a strip of open land in a forest to stop the advance of a fire areas to be built by the developers? This should be standard procedure. These breaks must be monitored just as graffiti is. Wake up, Los Angeles! It's quite obvious. - Richard Detanna Granada Hills Sense of modesty Re ``Pinups lift G.I.'s spirits'' (Sept. 27): We Americans are so ignorant sometimes. Hmmmmmmm let me see ... My husband (or boyfriend) is away in Iraq with the National Guard, how can I comfort him? I know, I'll lose all self-respect and sense of modesty, take a risque ris·qué adj. Suggestive of or bordering on indelicacy or impropriety. [French, from past participle of risquer, to risk, from risque, risk; see risk.] Adj. picture of myself and send it overseas to him and his buddies to salivate sal·i·vate v. 1. To secrete or produce saliva. 2. To produce excessive salivation in. over. Our soldiers do not need any more help to be unfaithful to their spouses or loved ones, especially when so far away from home when temptations are strongest. (Nor should they have to worry about their spouse at home allowing someone to take intimate shots of them for the front page of a local newspaper.) How about a fabulous ``I love and miss you'' care package? - Joann Saraceno Glendale Stealth religion Re ```Intelligent design' not taught'' (Sept. 29): Bravo for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. So-called ``intelligent design'' is merely a stealth name for creationism creationism or creation science, belief in the biblical account of the creation of the world as described in Genesis, a characteristic especially of fundamentalist Protestantism (see fundamentalism). , which the U.S. Supreme Court has already banned from public schools on grounds that it is religion, not science. ID proponents are fundamentalist Christians who desperately oppose evolution because it lays the lie to their mythological beliefs. - Michael D. Harris Reseda Maybe a trade-off Re ```Intelligent design' not taught'' (Sept. 29): If push comes to shove, ``intelligent design'' should be taught in our school classrooms. A fair trade-off would be to have every church pay a scientist to come to their place of worship Noun 1. place of worship - any building where congregations gather for prayer house of God, house of prayer, house of worship bethel - a house of worship (especially one for sailors) and teach their flock that God is nothing but a man-made theory. The scientist could then point out that humans ``doing something'' instead of praying for it is more productive. And if we fairly taxed all religions, we could fulfill Christ's orders to feed the hungry, heal the sick and take care of the poor. Wait a minute. That would make Christ out to be a commie com·mie also Com·mie n. Informal A Communist. [Short for Communist.] commie Noun pl -mies Adjective . Never mind. - Dick Denne Toluca Lake Best for elephants Re ``L.A. Zoo needs to give its elephants a break'' (Their Opinions, Sept. 28): It is absurd that the city of Los Angeles
This city is being selfish when it comes to the well-being of these animals. What is best for these animals is to send them to a sanctuary, which is what some zoos are now doing. At a sanctuary they have hundreds of acres in which to roam, not two. Hopefully the mayor will do what is best for them and not do what is best for the city. - Tia Triplett Los Angeles Wal-Mart works Re ``Wal-Mart prepared'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 28): Go Wal-Mart. Where do we sign up to support Wal-Mart - other than traveling miles to shop at their store because the unions won't let them come to our neighborhoods? I'm for WEMA WEMA Wisconsin Educational Media Association WEMA Wisconsin Emergency Management Association WEMA Western Electronics Manufacturers Association WEMA Wilderness Emergency Medical Aid WEMA Wallops Exchange and Morale Association (Wal-Mart Emergency Management Agency). - Ruth Fairrington Los Angeles Heinous criminal Re ``She's a scapegoat'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 29): Art Haendiges is completely mistaken. Lynndie England is not a scapegoat. Lynndie England is a heinous criminal, a torturer, who should have been sentenced to death. Therefore, in order for our military to regain a semblance of honor she should be executed in military fashion, which I understand is by firing squad. Note I said semblance of honor, and not the real thing. Our military and country lost all honor, irretrievably ir·re·triev·a·ble adj. Difficult or impossible to retrieve or recover: Once the ring fell down the drain, it was irretrievable. ir , with Mei Lai long ago. - Kathryn Durfee Agoura Deadlier disaster As America is transfixed by Katrina's and Rita's horrible devastation, avian influenza avian influenza: see influenza. is growing into a global epidemic deadlier than the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people. The deadly virus originated in Asia's poultry farms and has already spread to Russia and Europe. Millions of Americans will succumb, once the virus mutates Mutates Undergoes a spontaneous change in the make-up of genes or chromosomes. Mentioned in: Antiretroviral Drugs to allow transmission among humans. Raising animals for food also increases the risk of many chronic diseases that kill 1.3 million Americans annually. It funds pollution of waterways by animal waste, destruction of wildlife habitats, and abuse of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses. - William Davidson Woodland Hills |
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