PUBLIC FORUM.

Solar energy

Re "Solar power to the richest" (Jan. 28);

The economy in California has not been the best these days. The solar panels are not cheap even with all the rebates offered by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. If the wealthier decide to do their part on saving energy, we should welcome their initiative. They are not forced to buy the panels and probably do not need them either. Their buying power could boost the demand for the panels, consequently lowering the prices. This could make the panels affordable for the rest of us.

At the end, the energy problem is an environmental issue that affects everyone.

-- MAURICIO I. RUIZ

Canoga Park

Broadway

Re "Broadway may get an encore" (Jan. 28):

As an individual who still bemoans the destruction of the Carthay Circle Theatre, I applaud the effort to restore the old Broadway Theater District.

As a youth in the Depression and war years I found refuge in those beautiful palaces. A double feature and stage show at the Paramount and Orpheum or watching the projected clouds roll by on the dome of the Los Angeles Theater are embedded in my fondest memories. I hope to live long enough to see Broadway once again the centerpiece of L.A.

-- RICHARD BURNS

West Hills

Vote your wallet

Re "Hillary is target of contempt" (Comment, Jan. 24):

Words can be hurtful. However, it is actions that are very hurtful to American citizens. The Clinton administration in 1993, its first year in office, taxed 85 percent of every senior's Social Security check even though income is taxed at time of paycheck, thereby causing double taxation from 1993 to the present, which was illegal and still is.

Apparently, no one took this to court. I find Hillary's comments about how much she cares about senior citizens self-serving on her part, and devastating to seniors. Vote your wallets, people.

-- DIANE NEWTON

Northridge

RINO is right

Re "Giuliani strategy hurts him in state" (Comment, Jan. 24)

According to Dan Walters, Rudolph Giuliani needed to "punch up his campaigning in California" to "overcome that imagined disdain for RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) that conservative Republicans have."

No amount of campaigning can change the fact that the conservative Republican base has not "imagined" the fact that Giuliani is the archetypal RINO, from his endorsement of Mario Cuomo for governor of New York over George Pataki, which split the New York Republican Party in 1994, to his embracing New York's sanctuary city policy on illegal immigrants, to his lawsuits to maintain commuter taxes that the state Legislature abolished, to his admitted admiration for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

-- ROBERT McARTHUR

Los Angeles

Edwards an adult

Re "Attack-dog Bill" (Your Opinions, Jan. 27):

With apologies to my friend Marcy Rothenberg, whose letter blames the Clintons for mudslinging, I blame both Obama and Clinton for indulging in the media's addiction to inflammatory headlines. Both should have refused to respond to media questions designed to elicit bickering and instead steered the questions toward the issues.

John Edwards has been the adult in debates and focused on the issues important to who the best candidate is: ending poverty, protecting individual rights, health care, making college affordable, standing up to corporations, and ending the war.

-- LLOYD A. DENT

Studio City

Proposition S

Would someone please tell me why a letter from William Bratton, the police chief, would urge me to vote yes to cut the telephone tax rate in order to save vital public services.

Since when does cutting a tax rate save services? Could it be that there is no legal tax rate for the telephone? I guess they are asking me to vote a 9 percent tax rate on my phone. Now why would I do that?

-- MARJORIE EISENBERG

West Hills