PUBLIC FORUM.

No passing the buck

Re ``Risk proposal raises questions'' (Dec. 13):

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo wants outside legal counsel to defend the city against the Tennie Pierce lawsuit so that he can say ``I told you so'' when the costs become outrageous. After all, that's the most expensive way to get it done and he can blame someone else if they lose.

His office is already well versed in that case. Instead of spending the next several months passing knowledge and information along to new attorneys, his office should continue the case and give outside attorneys his new cases. If our city attorney can't find the time, we need to replace him with someone who will. This is not the time for him to hide under his desk; this case is what his job is all about and he shouldn't be allowed pass the buck.

-- Scott Yollis

Granada Hills

Racism

Re ``Racial clashes surge in Valley'' (Dec. 14):

Racism starts in the home, gestates and then manifests eventually as a social reality. We must look carefully at what constitutes such racism. Racism -- the word -- is not used in Sue Doyle's article -- but it should very well have been -- because that's what it seems to me her article is about ... a particular brand: Hispanic racism toward blacks.

These young people are obviously blind -- these young people who comprise these racist gangs. But, we won't put the cart before the horse. How are their parents -- the society -- responsible for shaping their racism and exposing them to such venom -- which they so obviously have absorbed? Clearly, the problem must be looked at fundamentally before it can be solved.

-- Jesse Harris 

West Hollywood 

They give and give

Re ``Hotel fires 12 before `living wage launch''' (Dec. 13):

How hypocritical of the City Council to be outraged over the Century Corridor Hotel firing a dozen workers before the new ``living wage'' law took effect. The same City Council which illegally snuck in an addendum to a recent ballot issue giving them another four years in office at $170,000 salary per annum. Isn't it wonderful that the council members are really interested in the working people?

-- Frank J. Barron

Van Nuys

Antidepressants 

Re ``New warning on antidepressants'' (Dec. 14):

Is anyone surprised that people on antidepressants have suicidal thoughts or commit suicide? An antidepressant deadens a person's ability to experience both the sorrows and the joys of life.

And if a person feels dead, he begins to think maybe he should be dead. Without the emotions of life, life becomes not much worth living.

-- Randall Wise

Glendale

Valley deserves better

Re ``Really fix it'' (Dec. 14):

Busways, like the Orange Line, are frowned upon by transit experts precisely because of their inherent ``cheapness.'' Asphalt wears down quickly compared to steel rail, and with those large Metro Liners, repaving will be a regular affair. And to think there is interest in spending $100 million to build an extension of an inferior busway along Canoga Avenue that will get you downtown in 90 minutes.

For only $60 million, you can double-track Metrolink from Van Nuys to Chatsworth and provide 15- to 30-minute service to Orange County and back. All of this can be done in as little as five years with rail infrastructure that lasts. The Valley deserves a rail investment that will access Bob Hope Airport and downtown in less than 30 minutes.

-- Numan B. Parada

The Transit Coalition

Sylmar

No benefit busing

Re ``Schools'`diversity' aim silly'' (Their Opinion, Dec. 14):

I seldom agree with Thomas Sowell, but it is time we stop disrupting our children's lives. It is important for our children's well being, as well as our own, that an understanding of community be learned. Instead, we fragment their lives by sending them away from their community and cramming them into someone's notion of what might be good for them.

Speculators say there are benefits from busing; I see no benefit. I see children separated from community, afterschool activities if available, friends, family; wasting hours on buses. In this endeavor we waste the lives of our children.

-- R. Douglas Walden

Palmdale

Smokers' wrongs

Re ``Smokers' rights'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 10):

David Hamblen finds public smoking bans to be an unfair intrusion on his rights. He says his habit ``keeps him safe and calm,'' but it causes nonsmokers danger and annoyance. If he wants to stink personally and yellow up the paint in his own house, and if he has medical insurance to pay for his future smoking-related diseases without tapping my tax dollars, he has my blessings.

But he does not have the right to stink up my clothes and lungs as I am forced to walk through his asphyxiating stench in public. Many nonsmoking drivers are even bothered by smokers inside cars ahead on the road. Smoking should be banned everywhere except in private residences. It absolutely must be banned near the entrances to buildings.

-- Charles L. Murray

Moorpark

Iraq conundrum

The old expression, ``got a tiger by the tail'' applies to the Iraq conundrum. In this case we have two tigers by the tail who are not only trying to bite the holder of the tails but kill each other. By adding more personnel, we are not accomplishing the goal of keeping Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other -- and Americans along the way. Letting them fight it out may result in an end which we do not prefer -- namely a theocracy like Iran.

The Baker-Hamilton report is the best analysis of the situation and yet it is far from the ``Mission Accomplished'' banner waved from our aircraft carrier a couple of years ago. Does Vietnam ring a bell?

-- Sol Taylor

Sherman Oaks

A matter of honor 

Given all of the rational analysis of the Bush-Cheney fiasco, the picture is bleak and getting bleaker. Bush bet his spot in history on this neocon fiasco -- at the cost of the lives of thousands of innocent and duped individuals.

Eventually the Middle East will hate the U.S. so much it would not be surprising if one day our access to their oil does not carry a surcharge. Only if Bush and Cheney were to form a mutual firing squad do we hope to atone for the madness they have conned an otherwise decent nation into pursuing.

-- Bill Pratt

Northridge

Do-it-yourself man

I just wanted to say ``Thank you'' to Harold Longanecker for bringing back the Christmas decorations to Reseda, and let him know I smiled when I saw them. Longanecker saw something that needed to be done, and took it upon himself to do it. Well done.

Also, thanks to Dennis McCarthy for letting everyone know who is responsible for the decorations, and for all of the other ``Good News'' stories that he brings to all of us.

-- Nancy Hollyman

Lake Balboa

Party of principles

Re ``Illness could tilt power back to GOP'' (Dec. 15):

I don't think it unrealistic to suggest that the Republican Party, which bills itself as ``the party of principle,'' gets a chance to prove it by ``walking the walk'' as well as ``talking the talk.''

South Dakota's Republican governor, Mike Rounds, may have to name a replacement for Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, if Johnson is unable to return to the Senate due to health reasons. The people of South Dakota spoke when they elected Sen. Johnson. A truly principled Republican governor would send another Democrat to the Senate. We'll see.

-- David M. Galfond

Palmdale