PUBLIC FORUM.

A long goodbye

I can't believe how long it's taken to bury President Ford. If they plan their own funeral, what a showboat this humble Eagle Scout was. It's been a week already and they haven't buried him yet.

Then to top it off, Bush has declared Tuesday a day of mourning. Why did they make Tuesday the day for mourning and not Wednesday, the actual day Ford will finally be laid to rest in Michigan? Because this way they get four days off together. Unbelievable. Another day off with pay for the federal offices and courts on the trough ... and the U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail.

-- Marianne Castro Lawson

Granada Hills

Appropriately named

Webster's Dictionary defines ``ford'' as a shallow place in a body of water, as a stream, where crossing can be made without a boat. Interesting, like what Gerald Ford did for our country after Watergate.

-- Bob Ginn

Arcadia

War crimes?

Re ``Dictator meets gallows for Shiite killings'' (Dec. 30):

In reprisals for assassination attempts, Saddam's Royal Guard executed some 148 Shiites. With no justification whatsoever, we slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children, destroyed much of Iraqis infrastructure, water supplies, electrical sources, and even medical facilities.

Who is guilty of war crimes?

-- Fred Coble 

North Hills

Whose fault now?

Re ``Gas $3 in '07'' (Dec. 29):

Well, here we are just after the big midterm election of '06. And gas prices are going up. Before the election, this was because of President Bush and his great oil buddies. Remember, the president and the Republicans were going to drop the prices just before the big midterm to get votes.

Now that the election is over, there's this story on the front page, top of the fold, about $3 gas prices. Not one word about those big, bad Republicans and oil guys. Now the prices increased are because of refineries having to lowered their output for maintenance, because of clean-air laws, and the limited number of refineries in California. Whose fault is it now? Look in the mirror.

-- Doug Anderson

Simi Valley 

Moving on

Now that Saddam has been hanged, will there be a war crimes trial for the Bad Guy of 2006 -- George Bush? After all, he alone has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and even more Iraqis. So why not try Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, et al? It would be Nuremberg revisited -- and about time.

-- Frank J. Barron

Van Nuys

Not much solace

Re ``All the statistics'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 1):

The 3,000 milestone of casualties in this ill-conceived war will likely be pooh-poohed by a number of armchair warriors. Richard Desjardins, for example, offers irrelevant comparisons: ``How many people die while driving or on drugs or in gangs or domestic killings and so forth?'' He, like many before him, points out that even more Americans have been killed in other wars. Is that supposed to be a solace to the families and loved ones of the soldiers who make up the 3,000? And these are the people who claim they support the troops.

Now that the number of deaths in Iraq has surpassed that of the 9-11 dead, do they become proportionately less significant?

-- Kevin Dawson

Tujunga

Some perspective

Re ``Names in the News'' (Dec. 12):

I'm happy for Tiger Woods and his wife, who are expecting a child ``likely ... between the U.S. Open and British Open.'' This due-date perspective gave me my biggest laugh of 2006.

-- Jacque Lamishaw

Winnetka