PUBLIC FORUM.

Just a ticket?

Re ``Arnold won't be cited in collision'' (Jan. 12):

Tell me I read this wrong: the district attorney declines to cite the governor for driving a motorcycle without the proper license because it would have been ``just a traffic ticket.'' Perhaps the officer who cited me for an illegal right turn on red would like to reconsider.

After all, it was ``just a traffic ticket'' that cost me $186 and several wasted hours on a traffic school Web site. The governor's motorcycle incident was a nonevent until he declined to take responsibility, and the D.A., LAPD, DMV and Highway Patrol couldn't get it right either. Who's running the asylum?

- Linda LaCour

Chatsworth

Perez's solution

Re ``Affordable CSU tuition shouldn't be a fairy tale'' (Their Opinions, Jan. 12):

John Perez laments the fact that California public universities are much more expensive than they were 40 years ago. He asserts that Gov. Pat Brown should be emulated. Unfortunately, he seems to have no clue about fiscal matters. Under Brown, the state was spending about one-half of its current spending per capita. This is after adjusting for inflation.

The public university system was very inexpensive for students, and the University of California was admired around the world. California arguably also had the best infrastructure in the nation. Currently, even with double the money, the state now has neither. Perez's answer to all concerns is to send ever-increasing percentages of the state's production to Sacramento.

- Robert Behrens

Santa Clarita 

A little distortion

Re ``Writer admits blurring truth'' (Jan. 12):

As a freelance writer, I am appalled over the controversy over James Frey's memoir, ``A Million Little Pieces.'' Leave the man alone: he wrote a personal memoir of his life in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. A personal memoir is just that - taken from memory, and while some minor issues might be a little distorted, so what?

I don't see how turning this entire incident into the Spanish Inquisition is going to matter. It's not like Frey plagiarized J.K. Rowling or lifted passages from the Quran. It's a memoir and one man's personal account of overcoming his own demons. If it's a good read and helps people conquer their own demons, then the book has served its purpose. We should be more concerned as to why our U.S. troops aren't out of Iraq yet.

- Linda Simeone

Shadow Hills

Culture of lying

Re ``Writer admits blurring truth'' (Jan. 12):

With the Bush administration leading the way, our country is gradually accepting a culture of lying and that it's OK to lie as long as you can make money from it. I am appalled at the people defending James Frey's book of lies with excuses such as, so what if he lied, it's a great story and the publisher is standing by his work, even though there's proof he lied.

Now Frey is going make appearances on talk shows with more lies to say his lies were true. Lying to protect your lie appears to be the new American image.

- Claudia Reame

Valley Glen

Dixiecrat Republicans

Re ``Inconvenient truth'' and ``Foot in mouth'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 11):

Yes, it's true the Democrats fought the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But these ``Democrats'' were, in reality, former Dixiecrats, Democratic leftovers from the Old South. President Johnson knew his support of the act would lose him the South, and he was right.

After passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Dixiecrats became, for the most part, Republicans, and the Democrats' majority power in the South has been a thing of the past. We need to know our history; if we don't, the propaganda being spread by this administration will rewrite our history with lies and misinformation.

- Josie Nericcio

North Hollywood

Alternate headline

Re ``Judge refuses to bend'' (Jan. 12):

How about, ``Judge shows fitness for Supreme Court, displaying patient judicial temperament while swatting away inane questions from arrogant, bloviating, vastly intellectually inferior senatorial inquisitors?''

- Pauli Carnes

Woodland Hills