Have Nots

In 1964, my fellow students and I feared the election of (GOP presidential candidate) Barry Goldwater; we envisioned a greater gap between the haves and the have-nots, reckless military excursions and a huge decrease in social services. Now that Ronald Reagan is President, all this has come to pass. Luckily, his term of office is almost over. Too bad there is no statesman waiting in the wings. ROXANE ALKASLASSY Sherman Oaks

A malfunctioning golf cart, a faulty electrical system or even arson could have led to the fire that triggered the deadly explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, but federal and state officials said Thursday that their $1-million investigation had yet to find the cause. Fourteen people died in the April 17 blast, including 12 first responders who arrived nine minutes after the fire was reported - and just eight minutes before the explosion shook the town, devastated two schools and shattered a nursing home.

Re: David Lazarus' consumer column "It's time for boards to limit CEOs' compensation," May 24: CEO salaries have been a major part of the increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots for some time. It is past time when members of boards of directors exercised their responsibilities to help stabilize our economy. Karl Strandber Long Beach

Despite predictions that sweeping federal budget cuts would lead to long wait times at the nation's airports, airline on-time performances did not change significantly during the busy spring break period. When a budget battle between Congress and the Obama administration boiled over in February, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano predicted that job furloughs and cuts in overtime pay to airport screeners and customs officers would result in airport gridlock and increase wait times by an hour or more.

There's been so much discussion of late about changing the airport name back to Orange County Airport that I would like to offer another idea. I think the airport should be named after someone who typifies Orange County, someone who symbolizes the county's greed and devotion to the haves taking it all from the have-nots. With this in mind, I would like to suggest that the airport be named the Donald Bren Airport. DONNA LAMPSON, Irvine

During Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, Herblock did a cartoon of him telling tenement dwellers, "Why don't you go out and inherit a department store like I did?" The angry and abrasive "Get a life!" sounds like the '90s version of that attitude, the haves telling the have-nots to get a job, house and bank account so we don't have to look at you any more--and don't have to think about the complex sacrifices it would take to solve the tragic problems of the disadvantaged. SAUL KAHAN Los Angeles

It makes this 62-year-old second-generation native Seattleite more resentful towards those Californians who have chosen to migrate to our beautiful state of Washington after reading Richard Sybert's "Northwesterners Can Just Knock It Off" (Op-Ed Page, Jan. 22). The attitude of those Californians is everything is there for the taking. The first thing the relocated Californian does is put up a 6-foot fence with a "Keep Out" sign on his inflated purchase. Then they proceed to tell us what is wrong with our area and how it was done in California.

There are few things as irritating as reading rich athletes, who have accumulated their wealth being good at some game, commenting on the problems of society. The absurdity of taking these athletes' opinions seriously on any matters other than the sports which they play is underscored once again by your recent article on Arnold Palmer. Since Adam Smith at the dawn of capitalism in the early 19th Century, economists have understood that artificially high unemployment is one of capitalism's mechanisms for keeping wages low and profits high.

The Tofflers' perspective on the loss of Second Wave industrial age jobs to a technological Third Wave ignores the human context in which changes are taking place. The ultimate challenge of the Third Wave society will consist of integrating "Global Village" technology with the broad spectrum of human talents. Otherwise, we are faced with a world where the term "haves and have-nots" will refer to those with certain technical abilities and those without, revealing a new class structure based solely upon the qualitative nature of one's inborn talents.

On a rainy night, I had flown to Manhattan. Walking to a hotel, I was drenched in seconds. In a recessed doorway, I saw a man huddled on the ground. I hurried into the hotel, rushed up to the registration desk and in a loud and excited voice announced: "There's a man lying on the street just around the corner!" The look in the eyes of the clerks told it all. It was if they were saying: Welcome to Planet Earth, the society with haves and have-nots. EMMA GOTTLIEB-ELLINOY Seal Beach I was about 7 years old in 1955.

Violence is the trigger in "The Place Beyond the Pines," Derek Cianfrance's latest love letter to bad breaks. But it's the ripple effect of responsibility, regret, limited resources and guilt that makes "Pines" particularly relevant in a time when so many struggle from paycheck to paycheck. Starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta and Dane DeHaan, the movie is intimate in its telling, sweeping in its issues and stumbles only occasionally. The idiosyncratic Cianfrance tends to gravitate toward the economically challenged who live lives of desperation.

At first glance, two stories much in the news in Los Angeles of late would seem to have nothing to do with each other. The first concerns the fate of the Museum of Contemporary Art - whether it will affiliate with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or USC or the National Gallery in Washington - and the outsized role its primary benefactor, Eli Broad, is likely to play in the choice. The second concerns the low voter turnout in the first round of the city's mayoral election this month.

Robert Kennedy was a young Bill Rosendahl's hope for the White House, but Kennedy's rival, Hubert Humphrey, practiced the "happy warrior" style of politics that represents the principles Rosendahl has embraced. As he leaves the Los Angeles City Council after two terms, his eight years in office (and a diagnosis of cancer, now in remission) have not extinguished Rosendahl's cheerfulness, but they have given his warrior side an instruction booklet. He's crusaded for gay rights, for better care for the homeless and his fellow veterans, for mass transit.

The Southeastern Conference conducted its annual player draft Wednesday in advance of winning its eighth straight national title next season. There's nothing like national SEC signing day, with other conferences participating the way the Washington Generals participate against the Globetrotters. OK, that's an incredible, attention-grabbing, inflammatory, hyperbolic reach. This reign of terror won't go on forever … will it? There were a few encouraging push-backs out there as Ohio State, which lured former Florida Coach Urban Meyer out of retirement to make the Buckeyes into an SEC team, ended up battling Alabama and Florida for recruiting-day supremacy.

Re "The battle of the coalitions," Opinion, Nov. 13 Ronald Brownstein describes the sharp differences between the Democratic "Coalition of Transformation" and the Republican "Coalition of Restoration. " It seems to me this is a re-characterization of the age-old struggle between the haves and the have-nots: The haves want to keep what they have, and the have-nots want a more equitable sharing of wealth and income. Economist Joseph Stiglitz, in his book "The Price of Inequality," argues that growing inequality inhibits economic growth and blocks wealth and income mobility.

USC has a chance to end a disappointing regular season on a high note by spoiling top-ranked and unbeaten Notre Dame's chance to play for the Bowl Championship Series title. Times staff writer Gary Klein examines the game's matchups and story lines: No. 1 priority USC has not fared well against opponents ranked No. 1. The Trojans are 7-11 against top-ranked teams in the Associated Press media poll and have not won since 1984, when they defeated Washington, 16-7, at the Coliseum.

Karen Entous and her husband returned from visiting their son in college last week. Their trip to Shaanxi State Teachers University in Xian, China, is one they won't soon forget. Entous, her husband, Allan, and their sons, Dan, Bobby and Mark, live in Encino. Dan had been at Amherst for a year on this foreign program while he was a student at CSUN. He didn't tell us very much. We would learn about what he did through the grapevine. He wanted that kind of separation, to grow up. He came back from Amherst and he wanted to go to China.

On busy Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, some well-kept facades conceal a secret. Behind the Mediterranean with wooden doors, the white stucco two-story with a red tile roof, the long wall obscuring a three-structure compound, hides a singular, massive wealth fueled by obsession. This is Larry Ellison territory, where a Bay Area billionaire with seemingly endless patience and resources is buying up the best spots along Malibu's 21 miles of coast. PHOTOS: Expensive things Ellison has bought The Oracle Corp.

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Department and other federal officials responsible for BioWatch, the nationwide system for detecting deadly biological attacks, have withheld key documents sought by a congressional committee, according to the panel's leaders. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the chairmen call for her to comply with their original request for documents, which was triggered by a July 8 Los Angeles Times article that disclosed shortcomings in BioWatch's performance.