PUBLIC FORUM.

Is he suggesting...?

Re ``Deep Throat breaks silence'' (June 1):

I am astounded that Charles Colson, chief counsel to then President Richard Nixon, would state in regard to W. Mark Felt that ``he had the trust of America's leaders, and to think that he betrayed that trust is hard for me to fathom.''

This, in spite of Colson's religious conversion subsequent to serving a prison sentence due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Regardless of Felt's motive (some say he was paying back Nixon for not naming him to be FBI director after the death of J. Edgar Hoover), is Colson suggesting that Felt's allegiance should have been to a small group of people associated with the Nixon administration - and not to the American public?

Is this the kind of ethical thinking that Colson teaches the youngsters he now ministers to in his religious activities? I thought Colson had developed a more principled ``higher calling'' than that.

- David M. Galfond

Palmdale

How ironic

Re ``Deep Throat breaks silence'' (June 1):

Do you think that President Ronald Reagan would have pardoned W. Mark Felt if he had known that the assistant FBI director was the Deep Throat who helped to bring about President Richard Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal?

How ironic that Felt was convicted in 1980 of authorizing government agents to illegally search homes of anti-Vietnam War suspects.

Reagan justified the pardon because Felt ``acted on high principle'' to stop ``the terrorism ... threatening our nation.'' But Felt was more helpful to the survival of our democracy for his part in stopping the insidious secrecy of the Nixon administration that had broken the law in order to maintain its power.

Who today will stop our current government's duplicity?

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

Too funny

Re ``Democracy under assault in schools'' (Their Opinions, May 27):

Mary Sanchez's piece provided me chuckled amusement. Apart from her utterly absurd notion that intelligent design is a threat to democracy, I gave up on her as a competent opinion writer when she stated that intelligent design is a new way to say creationism.

The main intelligent design Web site, discovery.org, plainly states that intelligent design adherents reject biblical creationism as readily as their Darwinian opponents.

Surely Sanchez has access to the Net to verify this fact? The ``intelligent cause'' promoted by intelligent design in no way equates the personal, biblical God who has revealed Himself in Scripture. Those who continue to equate the two must be either too lazy to research the facts, or are acting with witless duplicity in promoting an anti-religious agenda.

- Fred Butler

Canyon Country

In any case

Re ``No insult to Bush'' (Your Opinions, June 1):

Yikes! I certainly agree ``depicting Bush as Groucho is an insult to Groucho,'' but I was astounded and disappointed to read that I reside in ``the conservative West Valley.''

When did that happen? In any event, I do applaud the students at El Camino Real High School, where the majority have minds of their own and showed considerably more intelligence, maturity and humor than their principal and his leaders.

As for the pathetic student who complained, he is to be pitied.

- Eileen O'Neill

West Hills

Just one thing

Re ``10 districts sue state, claim tests in non-native languages'' (June 2):

Just one question for those who have filed this ridiculous lawsuit: Who will be teaching these ``English learning students'' to read and write in their native languages to enable them to answer the questions on the tests in question?

Think about it!

- Judy McLaughlin

Simi Valley 

Not so messy

Re ``Carl's disgusting ads'' (Your Opinions, May 31):

So Steve Morsa has finally gotten fed up with the Carl's Jr. ads. I have been boycotting the company for the last four or five years because of its ads.

At least Paris Hilton is washing her car and not getting hamburger grease and slop all over the street, carpets, shirts, etc.

Carl's has been validating rude, immature, sloppy, disgusting behavior for the last several years in its ads, and no one has said anything. Now we get a little healthy sexual titillation and everybody goes nuts.

- David L. Johnson

Arleta

Last warning

The state better keep a close watch on Michael Jackson. The first thing the court should demand is an ankle bracelet for him if there is even chance he is found guilty. I would not blame him if he fled the country.

It is a shame the state is letting him run loose. Do they really think pulling his passport would stop him? His worth went down the toilet in the United States, but he could make millions performing in Europe. If the state allows him to get away, authorities have only themselves to blame.

- Frank Jacobs

Sylmar

Blind faith

Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas recently met with President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., where the president praised Abbas as a man committed to peace and curbing violence.

This praise belies the fact the PLO chief has publicly and repeatedly refused to honor his commitment to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and forcefully prevent Palestinians from killing and maiming innocent Israeli men, women and children.

As recently as March, Abbas publicly referred to members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as his ``brethren,'' further legitimizing these groups in the eyes of the Arab population. In his mind, there are no terrorists among the Palestinians, merely ``resistance forces.''

According to Abbas, the killers of Jewish men and women are ``neither criminals nor murderers. Rather they are fighting for the honorable lives of their Palestinian brothers.''

It seems that it requires an extraordinary amount of ``blind faith'' for Bush to see in all of that a platform of peaceful coexistence.

- Gary Curtis

Granada Hills

Training begins at home

Re ``Security reinforced at schools'' (June 1):

Here we are in the year 2005, and racial tension still exists.

My question is: Where are the parents, and what are they teaching their children? Why is everything placed on the schools, the teachers and the administrators?

Discipline begins at home when children are very young. If the parents do not do their job, how can the high schools do anything when all this time has passed and no learning has been done prior to this?

Parents need to be educated so they can educate their children in the area of behavior. It is their prime responsibility to raise their children properly. Then the schools can do their job.

- Stephanie Schwartz

Canyon Country

Ridiculous?

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg has authored a bill in the state Legislature that would limit the number of pages in school textbooks to a maximum of 200.

Perhaps she should amend that bill to require the parents of children attending school to spend at least two hours a night studying with their children. Ridiculous, you say? So is Goldberg's limit of 200 pages per textbook.

- Gene Goodwein

Van Nuys

Big losers

Re ``Welcoming 'illegals''' (Their Opinions, June 2):

Before granting visas to illegal immigrants, we should clean up the mess we've created - by enforcing the laws that are currently on the books.

The economic burden placed on our schools, hospitals and prisons far outweighs the benefits we are receiving from illegals.

I would gladly pay more for fruits, vegetables, hotel rooms and meals out if it meant the products and services were produced by legal immigrants. Under the current system, the big winners are businesses who employ illegals. The big losers are the taxpayers.

- Jeff Schleien

Simi Valley