PUBLIC FORUM.

Other watchwords

Re ``Mayor-elect Villaraigosa vows diversity will be his watchword'' (May 19):

So the new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, has chosen as his watchword ``diversity.'' Diversity? How about ``Responsibility''? Integrity? Accountability? Or just plain honesty? What has diversity ever done for Los Angeles? How is it going to help solve our growing problems with gangs, traffic, illegal immigration, education? I await an explanation from Mayor Villaraigosa.

- Gary Brandner

Northridge

$80 million election

Re ``Counties want state to foot bill'' (May 20):

The governor's proposed election must not be allowed to take place. The expenditure of $80 million is criminal. The state made a big mistake putting this man in office. Let's not make another one.

- Susan Kent

West Hills

Not my voice

R ``Clerics rip Arnold on immigration'' (May 19):

Bishop Gabino Zavala does not speak for me and he certainly does not understand American values if he thinks illegal immigrants are scapegoats for society's problems. They are society's problem and the good bishop should be doing his Christian duty and encouraging the enforcement of the laws of this state and this country, not spreading his agenda.

The Minutemen did a good job, Zavala, despite what you and your followers think. They showed that Americans are tired of being taken advantage of and preached to by the likes of you. And, if the government continues to ignore the laws of the land, then the people will take action.

- Ron Honthaner

Studio City

Funding education

Re ``Not enough'' (Editorial, May 19):

There are several reasons why the current funding for education is not enough: California still ranks at the bottom of the list for per capita spending on education. Being 48th on the list certainly is ``not enough.'' The governor has taken funds from the local governments as well as education to balance the budget. Yet he has increased the funding for the executive and legislative branches by almost 20 percent.

The proposed budget is larger than that of last year. What happened to reducing the size of government? The funding for the Office of Governor has risen 300 percent since he took office. That amounts to a $12 million increase in funding.

- Gene Kocis

Newbury Park

Governor's budget

Re ``Not enough'' (Editorial, May 19):

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2005-2006 budget is a good one. It is reasonable and will not require more taxes. The Democrats will not like it, because they are the same old tired party of tax and spend. The Democrats are still the party that almost bankrupted the state during the Gray Davis years.

Gosh, the Democrats need a reality check. The state cannot spend more money than it takes in. Thank goodness the governor in Sacramento has some common sense, because the Democrats certainly do not.

- Timothy Stanley 

Rosemead

Noisy jets

Re ``Mayor-elect vows to cut 'annoyance' factor'' (Their Opinions, May 19):

It is absolutely, beyond doubt, singularly, unquestionably, truthfully apparent that there are jets both landing and taking off at Van Nuys Airport that should be banned from any skies, anywhere, at any time. I wish to thank Jeff Sielaff for his grand and powerful and humorous and timely piece, honestly pointing out the horrendous noise some jets make over the homes in the San Fernando Valley.

That includes my home, several miles north of the airport. They aren't even flying low. They are at highish altitude. I also have complained to the airport staff with no satisfaction.

- Peter Kirby 

Granada Hills

Bureaucracy

Re ``Leadership is what this nation needs'' (Their Opinions, May 19):

This move from a results-oriented system to a ``staff-driven'' system occurs inevitably once vested interests become entrenched. The very success of a culture breeds a sense of entitlement that allows subgroups within it to become more concerned with their own survival and advancement than the well-being of the culture.

Look at medicine - essentially the office personnel have taken over the industry in the form of large insurance bureaucracies, or education, where the same thing has happened with the multiple layers of ``educrats'' who must justify their existence with ever-new studies, plans, theories, programs and acronyms. A civilization only has so much total available energy and resources. When too much of it goes to process rather than results, decline is inevitable.

- Thomas C. Crowl

Granada Hills

Iraqi dead

Re ``Does anybody care about Iraqi dead?'' (Their Opinions, May 19):

Jane Eisner keeps admitting that the Iraqi insurgents, not we, are to blame for the current slaughter there, then turning around and blaming us. For what? For dismantling the Baathist regime without being prepared to prevent this. Would she agree to leave that regime in power, which filled mass graves not with thousands of corpses but a million, used poison gas on civilians, governed by the torture chamber? Would she agree to our wiping out rebellious cities like Fallujah? (That's what it would have taken to nip the rebellion in the bud.)

We are not ``complicitous'' in the damage, just not ruthless enough to prevent it altogether. We care enough to risk the lives of our soldiers in resisting the evil.

- Louis Richter

Encino

First cause

The furor over Newsweek's use of an unverified ``source'' for its paragraph on the torturers throwing Qurans in the toilet in order to soften up prisoners seems misdirected. Had the Bush White House not created intelligence to fit their policy - as stated in the leaked Downing Street memo from British Intelligence - the American public would not have been hoodwinked into believing that we needed to invade Iraq. If we had not invaded Iraq, we would not be imprisoning Iraqis in Saddam Hussein's dreaded Abu Ghraib.

I think we need to look at the real culprits in this fiasco: Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, etc.

- Henry Van Zandt 

Hermosa Beach 

Not down and out

Re ``Personal fortune'' (Your Opinions, May 20):

There is a Social Security fund, but the money is funneled into a general fund so that the federal government can borrow from it and leave IOUs. The federal government never repays the money with interest. Our president and some of his Cabinet members have also invested in the oil industry.

The president is not broke. He gets a great paycheck and free living expenses at the expense of the American taxpayers. So, I would say that he isn't experiencing any hard times economically like some of the American public.

- Brynie Brackin

Pacoima

Bad manners policy

I was only 11 years old when the stock market crashed, and I grew up with the platitude ``Prosperity is just around the corner.'' I do believe that America was saved from revolution or a dictatorship by the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I have three sons and all are Republicans. When I expressed views that were contrary to theirs, I was called a communist. I love the United States, fought in World War II. I consider myself a patriot. I blame the present administration for establishing a policy of ``You are with me or you're a traitor.''

- David Pine

Northridge

Flawed proposition

Re ``San Francisco can have stem cell institute'' (Viewpoint, May 15):

I wonder how many Californians would have voted for Proposition 71 if the truth (including no accountability) had been exposed before the election? Shame on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for endorsing this extremely flawed (like his reform initiatives) and immoral proposition, which also added $6 billion to our state debt.

- Elaine Machiko O'Connell

Stevenson Ranch