PUBLIC FORUM.

Reiner's tax

Re ``Reiner plan: Hike taxes for preschool'' (April 19):

Now Rob Reiner wants another tax on Californians for preschool. He abetted in the misuse of the 50-cents-a-pack cigarette tax and tried prior to the last election for a tax to raise $6 billion for ``education'' on the backs of commercial property owners. Reiner cites the infamous ``Bush tax cuts'' that gave every wealthy American $77,000 back (admittedly including himself).

Before ever speaking out again, Reiner must tell us: Does he pay the $77,000 each April to our government and why is he silent and absent on the proper use of the 50-cent cigarette tax? If he does not answer these specifics now, he is a mere bully camera hog and anelitist phony.

- Betty Arenson

Valencia

New pope

Re ``Picking up the Cross'' (April 20):

Have we lost our minds? Why all this adulation heaped on the new pope by non-Catholics when he believes that only he and his followers can enter the ``Kingdom of Heaven.'' For the rest of us, it's eternal damnation.

- Richard Stiles

Santa Clarita

Unrealistic expectations

Re ``Pope's legacy'' (Your Opinions, April 20):

A reader wrote about the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI and how some Catholics will have a problem with his conservatism. Perhaps those pick-and-choose Catholics should seek out other religions more suited to their lifestyles. Their expectations that the church should conform to their view of Catholicism is unrealistic. If it did so, it would no longer be the the Holy Roman Catholic Church but the Church of Anything Goes.

- Lawrence A. Calabro

Northridge

Misunderstanding

Martha Burk's ``Women $till Playing Catch-up at Work'' (April 18), is so chock-full of tasteless ingredients, the only recipe it fills is the one for her own Agenda Pudding. Come on, Martha, it's bunk that you are peddling, plain and simple.

There is no significant pay gap between women and men where their jobs, seniority, education, and other ingredients that count are the same. Several years ago, Marilyn vos Savant wrote in Parade Magazine, ``the widely quoted statement - women, on average, earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men - is a complete misunderstanding and the wage gap between the sexes actually may be tiny.'' Martha, you can take that to the bank.

- Ron Guilbert

Tarzana

Nursing homes

Re ``Long-term care'' (Your Opinions, April 17):

While there are good nursing homes in California, a number are under investigation by the attorney general for Medi-Cal fraud. Others have been given Class A and Class B citations for failing to take care of their residents in a conscientious and caring manner.

There is a crisis of care in nursing homes. Just ask the ombudsmen as well as the decent employees in nursing homes who reported the bad ones to the Department of Health Services. DHS information is public knowledge. The public has good reason to have negative feelings about nursing homes and they should until all nursing homes and their operators are held accountable for bad care.

- Eden Rosen

Burbank

Rights violations

Re ``Securing the LAUSD'' (Our Opinions, April 20):

It is always interesting to see where the blame falls when there is a problem that concerns our society. The fear of foot patrols by the school police is not caused by students. Or teachers. It is caused by those responsible for the rules - the American Civil Liberties Union. Metal detectors, backpack searches, and so on are considered to be a violation of the students rights.

So till the rights of students to kill each other are changed, there will continue to be tragedy and death. Don't blame the police, teachers, or parents. They exercise their rights that the ACLU allows them, which are very limited.

- Greg Beckman Sr.

North Hollywood

Neighborhood Councils

Re ``Not my priority'' (Your Opinions, April 20):

I have been involved with the Sylmar Neighborhood Council for over two years. I can assure Pauline Tallent that our neighborhood council is a very hard-working group of volunteers who have accomplished a great deal in a short time for our community.

As to ``authority'' being given to the neighborhood councils, that authority is what allows our neighborhood council to help the community to correct many wrongs that have been done because the city of Los Angeles did not have correct information about our community when some decisions were made.

- Doris Jacobs

Sylmar

Testing limits

My fellow students and I worry about pop quizzes, about the heaps of homework in our backpacks, or about big curriculum tests awaiting us. Now we have a whole new kind of nuisance - state-mandated standardized tests. It seems as though every other week there is some new test the state is mandating to make sure we really understand the curriculum.

There are tests issued for English, math, science and even physical education. But how much can we learn while these tests are breathing down our necks? Not only do these tests stress us out, they take time away from our already constricted schedule. We barely have time to cover the material - to have these tests take precious days out of our year is lunacy.

- HaNuel Pak

Los Angeles

School challenge

As a former teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District for 33 years, I have the answer for the schools who are still part of LAUSD. Become a charter school. Take over and run your school and make all the decisions to make your school one that can function properly. As a teacher at Granada Hills Charter High School, I have seen what can be accomplished when the necessary monies come directly to the school and are not siphoned off by the downtown offices.

Take the bull by the horns, step up to the plate and take charge of your school. It is a challenge, but one that pays off.

- Stephanie Schwartz

Canyon Country

Hurting the right

Tom DeLay, the quintessential Joe McCarthy clone, claims that Democrats are targeting him in an effort to damage the conservative agenda. Well, duh.

No one has done more to damage the GOP (God on Parade) agenda since the icon of the right wing, Joe McCarthy, than tedious Tom DeLay, the ``Sultan of Sleaze.''

- Zachary A. Charles

Burbank

Not free trade

Americans should be very disturbed about the Bush administration's plans to have the U.S. join the Free Trade Area of the Americas in December. The FTAA is designed to unite all Western Hemisphere nations (except Cuba) into the same kind of sovereignty-destroying arrangement that is costing the European Union nations their independence.

The FTAA is falsely labeled ``free trade.'' Like the NAFTA agreement, it has hundreds of pages of regulations that stifle free trade. Furthermore, it will allow many more illegal immigrants to enter our country, send more jobs overseas, and eventually destroy our independence. It is time to start protesting now.

- Ed Ventresca

Canyon Country

Funny words

Arnold said ``Close the borders.'' Those are funny words coming from a guy who wasn't even born in America.

- David Navarro

Encino