PUBLIC FORUM.

Freeing the MTA 

Re ``Free at last'' (Our Opinions, Oct. 26):

The MTA bus system has improved a great deal in four years. As a former bus rider, I know how it felt to endure the long half-hour to forty-five minute waits to get on a bus, the crowded streets, and the compact and uncomfortable bus rides. Now MTA has provided Los Angeles with a New York-type feel with the underground trains, and now the new Red Line, which dodges traffic altogether.

I have to say that I must agree that with the MTA being free from all the court action, it allows them to make the morning and afternoon commute for Angelenos a less-stressful ordeal. The final improvement that must be made is to enforce more safety requirements to prevent accidents.

-- Stanley Wilkerson

Northridge

Hospital homeless

Re ``Hospital discharges patient to Skid Row'' (Oct. 25):

Where do hospitals discharge patients? To their home, right? What if you're homeless? Where does the hospital discharge a patient that has no address, no relatives? When a homeless person is injured, are they to stay in the hospital indefinitely?

Hospitals are strapped for room. The number of trauma centers and emergency-room hospitals are shrinking every year. The homeless receive care that in many cases is absorbed by the hospital. The homeless are transported to where they came from, also many times at the cost of the hospital. In the case of the homeless, that very well may be the rescue mission, or one of the many rescue missions in the area. The hospital did the correct thing.

-- Tim Powell

Mission Hills

Valley tour

Re ``Valley tourism effort is stalled'' (Oct. 26):

The Valley would make a great tourist destination. A bus could transport the group through Pacoima, showing off the virtually endless rows of taco houses, auto repair shops and check cashing places. Then maybe a trip down Reseda Boulevard to view a drive-through coffeehouse shaped like a big mug.

The grand finale, a cruise down Ventura Boulevard to supply a photo op of hundreds of cars crawling like large snails polluting the already dingy air on the 101 Freeway. The overcrowded freeway could symbolically give new meaning to the phrase ``tourist trap.''

-- Kyle Laurent

Newhall

Singling out ad

Re ``Council members shy away from Prop. R mailer'' (Oct. 25):

I was eagerly anticipating my chance to read the ``misleading'' political mail from the Prop. R campaign that the Daily News has covered so extensively over the past few days. When I read the piece in question, I did feel misled and manipulated -- not by the contents of a political mail piece, but by the Daily News.

Singling out this one ad in light of all the other political trash that we see and hear every day is misleading. Passing off your editorial bias against this proposition in the form of news articles is manipulative. The worst that can be said is the campaign's backers are attempting to stress one component over another -- in this case, City Hall lobbying reform over limiting council members to three terms. Big deal.

-- Bradley Blick

Woodland Hills

Attack training

Re ``Schools drop attack training'' (Briefly, Oct. 26):

I disagree with the Fort Worth school district that dropped the attack training provided by Robin Browne, an instructor for Response Options, a security company.

After reading several accounts in the Daily News whereby victims of attempted abductions and rapes have escaped by resisting their attackers, I found the school district's action myopic. As I recall, every attack on a school, by an armed perpetrator, has led to casualties. I encourage more school districts to take a more proactive approach.

-- Max S. Duran

Acton

New and fresh?

Re ``Obama own man on Iraq'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 25):

Richard Cohen claims that Barack Obama will carry no baggage on Iraq into his bid for the presidency. While Obama was against the war during his run for the Senate, to state that this man can lay claim to being fresh and different than Kerry, Edwards, Biden, Dodd or Clinton is ridiculous.

If Cohen were to investigate Obama's voting record while in the Senate but two years, he would find Barack in lock step with the aforementioned Democratic presidential hopefuls. It is difficult to see how Cohen can ``cheer'' such similarity as new and fresh.

-- Bill Moak

Simi Valley 

Nature of the threat

Re ``Permanent war'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 27):

Henry Wilson's claim that ``Before 1983, there were no terrorist attacks against the United States or any American facilities anywhere in the world'' is simply wrong. Perhaps he wasn't alive during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979? Nor does his claim that after President Reagan brought our troops out of Lebanon, the attacks ceased until the Gulf War match historical facts. The residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, would strongly disagree, along with the relatives of all those passengers killed when terrorists bombed a 747 in midair.

The Islamic radicals have been at war with the West for many decades. Sadly, too many people ignore that fact, nor do they understand the true nature of the threat to Western civilization.

-- Steve McCombs

Chatsworth

About everything?

Re ``Off the fence'' (Your Opinions, Oct. 26):

The writer wrote: ``Knowing how our ex-president lied about everything, I realized that he must be lying about the advantages in voting for Proposition 87.''

He lied about ``everything''? He did indeed lie about betraying his marriage and having sex with a consenting age female intern, but did he lie about sending America into an illegal war on the threat of ``weapons of mass destruction'' at our children's throats? Did he lie to the middle class and give a tax cut to Big Oil corporations who are reaping huge profits and enabling Exxon/Mobil's CEOs to have $400 million retirement packages? Vote yes on Prop. 87 and help end Big Oil's control on your life.

-- Howard Barr

Burbank

U.S.-Mexico fence

Today I read with great sadness that President Bush signed the bill to build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Two thoughts come to mind; first, for all his administration did after Katrina, he could have bought more to complete the U.S. New Orleans fence. And two, God help us if we ever really desperately need the help of our Mexican neighbors in the future.

-- Llorens Pembrook

Sherman Oaks

Rebutting Clinton

Why doesn't someone in the GOP rebut Clinton's ad about Proposition 87, with the fact that Brazil has a law requiring all gas stations in Brazil to carry all three fuels: gas, alcohol and diesel. In California there is no law and at the rate we do things in America it will be years. Right now a lot of vehicles can use alcohol, but it is almost impossible to find and when you need fuel it is now, not 15 to 100 miles later.

-- Andrew Glover

Arleta

Torture Act

Some of the local news is bashing Rep. Elton Gallegly for voting for the Military Commissions Act governing the treatment of terrorism detainees. Let's call it the Torture Act. I was a soldier's wife for almost 30 years and these so-called tortures sound like a day in the infantry. Is America becoming so ``Oprafied'' and wussified that we are incapable of defending ourselves? Has political correctness become more important than victory?

Thank God, our fathers were made of sterner stuff than the namby-pamby cowards afoot today.

-- Jana Boostrom

Ventura