Ethics

Re "Bit of Old Hollywood Imperiled," March 3 When used to replace a damaged building that is a safety hazard with a space that is beneficial to the entire community, I doubt anyone would criticize local government for invoking eminent domain. But invoking eminent domain to raise property values and profit margins at the expense of members of the community is counter to the widely accepted American ideal of freedom. Ethics are at the core of this dilemma in Hollywood and elsewhere.

Michael K. Deaver's use of his intimate friendship with President and Nancy Reagan to make buckets of money was blatant and arrogant, a betrayal of trust. It violated an American tradition of public service that predates the American Constitution itself. And on Wednesday a federal jury convicted the former White House aide on three counts of lying about his big-time post-White House lobbying business. Deaver left the courthouse claiming that he did nothing wrong.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission asked the City Council on Friday to end more than a year of delays and impose rules that would bar elected officials from acting on city matters involving lobbyists and contractors who help them raise campaign money. In urging quick action, Commission President Miriam Krinsky cited concerns about the $8 million raised so far in the secession campaigns. Mayor James K. Hahn and City Council members have together raised about $6.

It must be nice to sit in an office in Marina del Rey pontificating about what's wrong with the world while engaging in sanctimonious hyperbole about the decay of an entire generation of American youth. Josephson does not even identify what his role as a harbinger of ethical platitudes is. Is he a parent, a teacher, a worker, a manager or a business leader? Or is he just a brow-beater of the first order, ready in theory but lacking in implementation? Perhaps Josephson ought to spend more time in the front lines of life acting as a role model for my misguided generation.

After Zan Dubin Scott's "Sweetie, Ready to Share That Inner Self?" (Jan. 27) about "Body Worlds" at the California Science Center, I thought I would take a look. While some of what was displayed had educational and scientific value, in particular in showing how bad habits are translated into diseases and ill health, it struck me there was a certain freak show aspect to the exhibition. Many of the flayed and filleted bodies that had been contorted in different positions -- Yoga Woman, Fencer Man, Skateboard Man, Ballerina, etc., had been posed after death to present a certain measure of entertainment value.

The city of Los Angeles and the state will place ethics reform measures before the voters in June. In both measures, future pay raises are attached to wide-ranging reforms. Locally, approval of the ethics reform package would include specific pay hikes. If the state measure is approved, a seven-member commission would be appointed by the governor to determine lawmakers' salaries. Here are the major components of each measure: Los Angeles Proposition H: A.

Lee Green's exceptionally well-written profile of Michael Josephson and the secular ethics movement succeeds in capturing the essence of a remarkable man making remarkable contributions to American society ("The Indisputable Mr. Scruples," March 10). Josephson's insights into the ethical dilemmas of our times and the clarity with which he is able to bring these into focus for a wide and diverse audience qualifies him as a sort of national treasure. The Los Angeles YMCA is one of more than 500 disparate organizations across the nation involved with Josephson's Character Counts!

One of the sly conceits of columns like this is to participate in the media frenzy of the moment by decrying it. That admission is required because this column is about Michael Jackson -- or, more defensibly, about the way in which new forms of journalism deployed to cover sensational stories involving celebrities may challenge some of the mainstream media's hardest-won ethical norms.

Democratic presidential hopeful Michael S. Dukakis charged Monday that the Reagan Administration has fostered a climate in Washington that is "contemptuous about public service" and therefore prone to abuse the public trust.

Our faces were as white as our coats. It was, after all, the first time we'd be stepping from the classroom to the hospital room to examine our first real patients. We had practiced most aspects of the physical examination on each other in class, looking in each other's ears, noses and throats, and taking each other's vital signs. We had even drawn our classmates' blood, our hands trembling as we guided the sharp needles toward the moving target of rolling veins.