PUBLIC FORUM.

It's theft

Re ``Carted away'' (Jan. 9):

With all due respect, the thrust of that article on cart theft and the laws passed by the City Council are hitting the wrong target. Why is it that, purely for their convenience, people who will not steal a coin will casually walk away with and abandon shopping carts costing above $75 each? This is stealing, plain and simple. Why are supermarkets and others being held responsible for acts of thievery committed by their customers?

Shoplifting is prosecuted. Why is shopping-cart theft given a free pass? The loss of large numbers of shopping carts represents a loss that must be borne by the markets and, ultimately, by all their customers. A few well-publicized arrests for cart theft would be far more effective than forcing the markets to spend a great deal of money on anti-theft devices.

-- Joe Bott 

West Hills

Loading stations

Re ``Carted away (Jan. 9):

I am appalled that Councilman Tony Cardenas wants to spend $55,000 of L.A. taxpayers' money to retrieve carts as a courtesy to the lawbreakers who take them. No worries, mate. If you steal a cart and leave it someplace, the city will graciously pick it up for you -- no charge.

This is rewarding bad behavior. What we really need is a system in which carts can be rolled only a few feet to a stanchion-protected, 10-car loading area, and you load your car from there, as at European markets. If you don't have a car, most stores sell personal rolling carts.

-- Jacque Lamishaw

Winnetka

Shopping carts

Re ``Carted away (Jan. 9):

Here are a couple of alternatives to Councilman Tony Cardenas' proposal to rid the streets of abandoned shopping carts: Arrest those who take the carts off the store premises. Charge: stealing. A thief is prosecuted for trying to walk off with a $1.50 soda. Walking off with a $150 shopping cart has to be a bit more serious. The stores can get rid of the carts altogether, and the customers can bring their own -- less than $30 apiece at Target. Either choice is better than having to underwrite the cost of replacing stolen shopping carts.

I'd have no objections if the city and the private sector provided personal carts to needy shoppers.

-- Jim Emanuel

Thousand Oaks 

Health care access

Re ``Broad vision for care in state'' (Jan. 9):

Planned Parenthood applauds Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature for their efforts to increase health care access for all Californians. Their recent proposal focuses on vital preventive services, such as those provided by Planned Parenthood: family planning, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and prenatal care. This is sound financial and public health policy. For every dollar spent preventing unintended pregnancy, California saves more than $5 in future medical and social- services costs.

The comprehensive plan also recognizes that meaningful reform must include reimbursements that adequately cover the cost of caring for patients. As it stands, Medi-Cal payments to providers are among the lowest in the nation. Preventive health care services and fair reimbursement schemes keep Californians healthy and save us all money -- twice over.

-- Martha Swiller 

Executive Vice President

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles 

Bill is embarrassing

Re ``The fix is in for Gore, Dixie Chicks'' (Jan. 7):

Bill O'Reilly is at it again. Without discussing the merits of whether Al Gore's ``The Inconvenient Truth'' is actually worthy of receiving an Oscar or whether the Dixie Chicks really deserve a Grammy, O'Reilly pontificates that they will receive these awards merely because, rightly or wrongly, they are perceived as liberals.

Because O'Reilly considers anyone who doesn't agree with him to be a far-left, ignorant, muddled thinker and un-American, he consistently trashes the messengers, including much of the news media, rather than the message, no matter how valid it is. As a conservative, I consider O'Reilly an anathema to the conservative movement, just as the Dixie Chicks consider President George W. Bush an embarrassment to Texas.

-- Jack Allen

Pacific Palisades 

Good of the animals

Re ```Sermon' wrong on city Web site'' (Their Opinions, Jan. 3):

I would like to ask Daniel Guss if he would prefer an atheist to be in charge of the lives at the shelters. When people such as yourself continue to condemn the shelters to the public, the animals are the ones to suffer. If you are selling your house, do you point out only the bad things about your house -- the roof leaks; the water heater is shot -- or do you point out the good things about your house?

Do you think a man will take his family to our shelters when he thinks his children will see barrels of dead animals? Wise up, Guss. You are worse for the animals than Ed Boks ever can be with his sermans, because you are actually turning people away from adopting animals at our shelters. Your accusations are killing the animals in the shelter much more so than anything else.

-- Pat Dunaway

San Bernardino

Kennedy's courage

Whatever one may think of Ted Kennedy's politics, you have to admire his courage in saying, ``Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam.'' After all, it was the administration of his brother, John F. Kennedy, that first committed U.S. advisers and eventually soldiers to Vietnam's civil war -- a foreign civil war that resulted in the loss of more than 40,000 American lives.

It appears Sen. Kennedy is well-qualified in sounding the call against perpetuating ill-fated conflicts.

-- Stephen Wagner

Valencia

Past practice

Re ``Earmark bill'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 9):

Jennifer Rabuchin points out the Republicans' fiscal irresponsibility and belief that the Democrats will ``be honest'' now that they are in control of Congress. Before 1994 the Democrats had been in control of Congress for 40 years. During that time they produced deficits year after year after year, with one of the biggest reasons being the use of ``earmarks.''

Nancy Pelosi has secured her share of millions of dollars of earmarks for her own district. The Democrats just initiated and passed an anti-terror bill in which they didn't even bother to figure what the price tag would be. Also the ``pay-as-you-go'' bill is a dishonest means of a future tax increase. All this is simply a return to the failed and dishonest Democrat practices of the past.

-- Dana Franck

Glendale

Haves and have-nots

If the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a national health plan, this is why: The U.S. refuses to learn from other nations. Lobbyists control Congress. Drug and health insurance corporations refuse to give up their huge profits. Those profits block any changes.

The U.S. is so backward in many ways. The haves love it and don't care about the have-nots.

-- Ken Garrison

Rosamond

Liberal doom

Hard-working Americans pay close to 50 percent of their income to taxes, and that's the highest level in the history of this country.

Now with the tax-and-spend liberals in control, we are headed for complete disaster.

-- Kevin O'Connor

Santa Barbara

A winner ... sort of

Re ``It's not too late'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 8):

To answer Tony Giger's question: I received an award letter from Publishers Clearing House. (I still have it.) I was told I would be receiving my check soon. Not the big winner, but a winner all the same.

Well, I soon got a ``gold'' neck chain in the mail. I promptly returned it and asked: Where is my check? No response. That was about five years ago.

-- Nancy Williams

Newhall