PUBLIC FORUM.

What evidence?

Re ``Iran's letter to Bush dismissed'' (May 9):

The Bush administration has dismissed Iran's attempt to neutralize relations with the U.S. just as they dismissed the evidence that Iraq had no WMDs. Iran, who is surrounded by U.S.-friendly nuclear nations, has not violated any terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it signed, unlike India, Pakistan and Israel, who did not sign the treaty and now have WMDs.

Yet, Bush remains confrontational with Iran and embraces the other three. Iran in its 250-year history has not gone outside its borders to attack another nation. Unfortunately, because of the Bushes, for instance (remember Panama and Iraq), the U.S. cannot say the same. Bush chooses to crank up the rhetoric and not trust anything the Iranian president says. What evidence is there that he is any more believable?

-- Philip Wilt

Van Nuys

Adjust prior year

Re ``Cooking the books'' (Editorials, May 10):

In the business community when there is a change in the way data is accounted for or analyzed, the only honest way to present year-to-year comparisons is to revise the data for the prior year to the new structure.

That is what the Los Angeles Police Department should do with its crime stats for year-to-year comparisons. If they use a new aggregating procedure or drop certain crimes from one category and add them to another, then for their year-to-year comparison, they should adjust the prior year data to the same standard, and then compute the year-to-year changes. A little good, objective analysis never hurt clarity or understanding.

-- Robert L. Rodine

Sherman Oaks

Level of discourse

Re ``Ranting and raging'' (Your Opinions, May 4):

Eileen O'Neil, I read the letters and I totally saw the opposite of what you saw. Where people should be outraged and angry, I saw light-hearted jokes at the expense of the illegal aliens. What does not speak well of our communities and country is this total disregard for truth and common sense.

What does not speak well for America is a group of non-American illegals demanding rights that are not theirs to demand. Our government has failed the American people. We have taxation without representation. Build the darn wall and then we can talk worker program. And no one is trying to push our problems on illegals' backs, so wise up. Only new diseases, hospitals going belly up and worker wages going down should be thrown on their backs.

-- Walter Starkey

Sylmar

Oozing compassion

Re ``Exit-exam injunction likely'' (May 9):

Undoubtedly, this same judge will one day rule against employers' hiring practices for ``discriminating'' against those high school graduates who cannot speak English or were too poor to be able to learn. I don't know who is dumber, the judge, the uneducated graduates or us because so few of us recognize how ignorant this judge's sticky sweet, ``aren't I compassionate'' ruling is.

This ruling condemns those ``poor'' and those who ``cannot speak English'' to a future of false hope pinned to a useless diploma that has no value. If they cannot read, cannot write, cannot perform basic math and have no learned ability to organize their thought process, what value does their diploma have? I cannot use them here in my company.

-- Patrick Weir

Chatsworth

So fishy 

Re ``Bush fishes for best answer'' (May 8):

So, W's best moment, in the first five years of his presidency, is not about the economy, not a foreign policy initiative, not a major overhaul of education, not a sweeping reform of health issues, not an impact on the environment, not even a ``victory in Iraq.'' No, it's a fish.

I hope whoever writes the history textbooks for middle- or high-school students keeps it simple and gets it right: a 71/2-pound fish. That's the whole legacy, and that's the ugly truth. Unfortunately for us, by the next time he's asked the question, and believe me, he will be asked that question by one of his press stooges, his crew will have a neat, vacuous, sound-bite answer prepared. Why does that sound so, so, so fishy?

-- Bob Levine

Granada Hills

Not Labor Day 

Re ``Think before writing'' (Your Opinions, May 8):

I appreciate Jeannie Billings' clarification regarding the comments written after the ``Day Without Immigrants'' in this paper. I must correct two statements she wrote in her note. First, Ms. Billings says, ``May 1 is Labor Day in most Latin American countries.'' No, May 1 is not Labor Day in other places; it is Workers Day (big difference).

Secondly, May 1, as Workers Day, is celebrated all over the world. No, just some countries. The irony here is that May 1 (International Workers Day) began being celebrated in the world as a result of the Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago, Ill. But the USA is the only country in the world not celebrating it. Instead, we celebrate labor (not the workers), and on another date.

-- Jorge A. Pavon

Sherman Oaks

Prove you can vote

Re ``Register, then vote'' (Your Opinions, May 8):

Our ``honor system'' of registering voters desperately needs a redo. Proof of citizenship should be the most basic requirement. Citizens and citizens only have the right and the duty to vote and influence how this country is run.

Noncitizens should be encouraged to follow the legal steps necessary to obtain citizenship in the United States of America and thus earn the right to the many benefits such citizenship offers.

-- Ruth Watson

West Hills

Gasoline pricing

If ``perception is reality,'' I submit that the oil crisis can be mitigated by displaying the price of gasoline in liters, not gallons. True, Americans haven't embraced the metric system since voluntary conversion was suggested 30 years ago. Even so, imagine the thrill of passing gas stations with numbers like 85 cents proudly posted for a liter of high-test. How very 1970s.

Sure, the bill for filling up the family SUV would still top $95. But our exuberance about the perceived gas price could throw even more fuel on the blazing stock market. With summer coming, the time is now to convert to the metric system for gasoline pricing and remind us of happy days.

-- Tony Stanol

Calabasas

Abandoned

I have had the same abandoned car parked on the side of my house for 30 days. I have called every day to the 800-ABANDON number. But nothing is being done. The excuse is that parking enforcement is backed up. There are now several beer bottles littered around the area due to this car being there.

Mr. Mayor, if there is such a backlog of abandoned cars, why are you leaving town promoting L.A. as the best place to be? Our quality of life is deteriorating every day. Maybe if I got the press out to my area to take pictures, you just might do something. Please get your priorities in order. We don't need a football team or more trees ... just better services to improve our quality of life. Then the rest will come.

-- Lou Grinbaum

Reseda

TV program contents

Ever since my grown children were small, parents have been wailing about the contents of television for children and teens. Now, watching what one set of my grandchildren watches, I see it has gotten worse.

Everyone who cares what the behaviors and values of the next generation will be should stop lamenting this and phone the stations. Sometimes cartoons have very moral ideas presented as well as good information and good characters. Start with a compliment and then complain about the worst aspects of what has been shown.

-- Bette Simons

Sherman Oaks