PUBLIC FORUM.

Boast about what?

Re ``Garcettis take heat over plan'' (Aug. 9):

I as a taxpayer find it utterly deplorable that Eric Garcetti and his colleagues are even contemplating term limits when the work in their district is hardly done. This morning, I nearly tripped and cracked my head open on the sidewalk (corner of Wilshire and Western), which is not only utterly cracked but harbors a disgusting odor from a lack of cleaning. Transients sleep and urinate on the sidewalks by the Western Rapid 757 bus on a daily basis. Where is the city when we need it to repave and replace the sidewalks?

Furthermore, the 757 bus ride down Western to Wilshire is bumpy and erratic. The entire street should be repaved. Then Garcetti can boast about his accomplishments the last six years as a councilman.

-- Brian J. Goldenfeld

Woodland Hills

Debating last century

Re ``Lawmakers hit stack of state bills'' (Aug. 8):

Monday, while our Sacramento lawmakers debated a 90-year-old Armenian grudge, a 75-year-old Mexican-American grudge and a bill to protect people who enjoy poking foreign objects into their eyes, a Chevy Suburban, stuffed full of 22 alleged illegal immigrants, flipped over, killing nine people and injuring another 12.

Is it going to take another hundred years for these idiots to address our current problems? We're in the middle of an illegal invasion; people are dying. The Southwestern states are being trampled. Our laws, our services, our rights as citizens continue to erode daily, while our highly paid legislators debate the last century. They should join Gray Davis on the trash heap.

-- Michael Guetzow

Woodland Hills

Voters turn her out

To the constituents of Cynthia McKinney's Georgia congressional district, I say bravo. I can't tell you how much I will appreciate her fading into the obscurity she so richly deserves. She is arrogant, rude, drops the race card at the drop of a hat, has no talent, and was an embarrassment to Democrats, liberals and women in general. Thanks to the savvy voters of her district, we no longer have to hear her insane rants.

Welcome to our world, Cynthia, where you will have to get a job, no one except your few friends will care about your opinion, the invitations to the black-tie events will dry up, and you will finally disappear into the obscurity of your own making.

-- Craig S. Hawley

Reseda

What happened?

I was raised in the 1950s and I can remember all sorts of people making deals -- everything from the corner store allowing customers to charge milk, bread and lunch meat until payday, to my dad lending a neighbor $500 to start a trucking company. It all started to fall apart when we had to legislate hate. We actually had to make rules outlawing hate.

Now we are trying to legislate ethics. What a shame that we have to make rules in an attempt to make people honest. The greater shame is that those rules will be made with loopholes. It is only a matter of time until we draw up some rules governing our hygiene ... how often we should wash, how many sheets of paper to use after No. 2 and, of course, that always annoying nose blowing.

-- Bill Merriman

Tujunga

Finally, answers

Re ``LAUSD arrogance'' (Our Opinions, Aug. 7):

LAUSD has ignored my requests for public information for over a decade. It has not even acknowledged official board complaints I filed last April.

Thanks to the public meeting the Daily News sponsored Thursday night at Valley College, I got information I sought from Roy Romer two years ago.

-- Irena Szewiola

North Hills

Definitely related

Re ``The world is a stage'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 8):

Ross Yerkes' last paragraph, ``Jewish opposers helped make `The Passion of the Christ' a box-office giant and it made themselves look bad in the eyes of the public.''

Would any of the public who thought the Jewish people looked bad please step forward. Gibson and his ``old father,'' as Yerkes wrote, are definitely related. The old man doesn't believe there was a Holocaust and, unfortunately, his son thinks he is G-d.

-- Nina Mintzer

Reseda

Seeing the truth

I just hope the American people are seeing the truth about Israel and who the real terrorists are. For years, I have been saying that our double standards are causing frustration in the Middle East. Israel wants to be the superpower and will go to any lengths to achieve that goal, no matter how many innocent people die.

Also, as far as kidnapping, the Mossad has been crossing borders for years doing just that. Lastly, just watch, the American people are going to end up picking up the tab for Israel's devastation of Lebanon. It's time to wake up.

-- Alex Bey

Los Angeles 

What about Madonna?

What do Mel Gibson and Madonna have in common? Nothing. Gibson, reputedly a moral and decent fellow, gets drunk, utters admittedly unacceptable anti-Semitic remarks, is clearly remorseful, yet gets crucified relentlessly by all the media.

Madonna, the anti-virgin, once again blatantly, willfully and unapologetically desecrates the cross, our most sacred Christian symbol, yet the media scarcely mentions her vulgar affront. Where is the outrage? Is there an insidious agenda at play here? You do the math.

-- Vic LeBreton

West Hills

Politics of performing

Re ``Over-the-hill hippies'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 7):

I know how your reader feels. For some groups, mixing politics with performing is the only way for them to sell enough tickets. I see the Not- So-Dixie Chicks are in the news again for starting a concert by entering to the tune of ``Hail to the Chief.''

If not for their anti-Bush rhetoric, their music and careers would be in the trash heap where they belong.

-- John Kurt

Reseda

Willing to learn

Re ``Over-the-hill hippies'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 7):

In answer to Jeff Clarke, some of us may be over-the-hill, but not hippies. I was a hawk in those days. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have always used their music and concerts to promote their agenda.

They have continued to live with their beliefs and made no secret of their program on the Freedom Tour. Didn't you read about the program in this paper a week before the show? If you are so offended by negative references to the president, this is not where you should have been. I thought they were right-on. I'm still not a hippie, just willing to learn.

-- Carol Smith

Chatsworth

Leave no voter behind

Congress recently extended the Voting Rights Act that will ensure equal rights to all voters. Unfortunately, California voters will never have equal rights at the voting booth until there's equality on the drive to the voting booth. So long as there's a free-flowing diamond lane rewarding a few motorists while the vast majority are left behind in gridlock, equal voting rights will remain a fantasy.

Gov. Schwarzenegger, open the diamond lane on Nov. 7 so that every registered voter has an equal opportunity on his or her drive to the polling stations. Then leave them open.

-- Robert L. Rosebrock

Brentwood

Russian revenge

Twenty-five years ago, Ronald Reagan began his first presidential term. Scholars have historically credited him with ending the ``Evil Empire.''

Also 25 years ago, a cable network began -- MTV. Could it be that while Reagan was viewing old Westerns, Gorbachev slipped this teenager brain-numbing MTV entertainment on us?

-- Bob Ginn

Arcadia