Hysteria

Re "Empty promises," editorial, April 30 Congratulations to The Times for recognizing that the proposals for federal gas-tax suspension are political hysteria. However, The Times could have been really brave and advocated a federal gas-tax increase. Congress had a chance in the late 1970s to encourage the use of low-mileage vehicles. A significant increase in the gas tax at that time would have accelerated the development, manufacture and sale of hybrid and electric vehicles. This is not a new idea.

IT was a nail-biter of a month. But at last the news is in: The idle chitchat, the intense speculation and competitive jockeying are over, and families throughout the Los Angeles area are either exulting in victory or wallowing in defeat. It's kindergarten acceptance time, the make-it or break-it moment when L.A.'s top private schools mail their acceptance and rejection letters, then conveniently take off on spring break to dodge the hysteria.

Watching the GOP presidential debate last week, it was easy to conclude that the greatest threat facing the U.S. is an influx of undocumented immigrants. Most of the candidates were, as arch-nativist Tom Tancredo put it, trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo. And every time they did, they seemed to get raucous applause from the audience.

Aren't we overreacting to the lead content in toys from China ["A Hazardous Playmate," Aug. 27]? How much lead is on a single toy? What is the likelihood of a child ingesting measurable quantities of the lead to cause any health problems? There is no way to completely sanitize our world; in our overzealous efforts to do so (with pesticides, antibacterial soaps, and antibiotics to kill everything), we have created more harm than good. Who is behind the hysteria and why?

She was black, they were mostly white, and race and sex were in the air. But whatever actually happened the night of March 13 at Duke University -- the reported rape and its surrounding details are hotly disputed -- it appears at least that the disturbing historic script of the sexual abuse of black women was playing out inside that lacrosse team house party. Two black women performed an exotic dance. The white men in their audience shouted racial epithets, one of the women has said.

Once again, President Bush is misinforming the American public: (1) There is no effective vaccine against bird flu -- the cornerstone of Bush's "plan"; (2) There is no proven therapy either. Tamiflu is a drug of no proven value in bird flu; (3) There is no proof that the present bird flu virus can be transmitted from person to person. Right now, it is an infection of birds that can be transmitted from very sick birds to humans who handle them or eat them. It is time to stop misinforming the public and time to stop fanning mass hysteria.

REGARDING "A French Village's Unexpected Heroes" [Her World, Sept. 4], Susan Spano wanders off track as a travel writer to a political critic when she refers to President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 as "infamous." The attack on Pearl Harbor was infamous. It is so easy to be an armchair historian by hindsight. Roosevelt passed this law mandating internment camps after being counseled by many members of Congress and his Cabinet. There was a definite clear and present danger due to mass hysteria of American citizens on our entire West Coast.

Re "Wildfire Dangers Grow as Hills Dry," June 24: Local fire officials are starting their usual brush fire hysteria, based on the same old illogic. This year, because of the near record rains, the "greater than average" wildfire danger is due to the greater volume of dry brush. In other years of below-normal rainfall, the "greater than average" wildfire danger is due to the extra-dry conditions. It is impossible always to have "greater than average" danger of wildfires. The concept of average flies out the window.

Locked up more than two years as a security threat and accused of supporting terrorists, four Iranian brothers are challenging Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's decision to hold them without bail in a case their attorney said stemmed from "post-9/11 hysteria." The Mirmehdi brothers -- Mohammed, Mostafa, Mohsen and Mojtaba, who once worked as real estate agents in the San Fernando Valley -- have been in custody since Oct. 2, 2001. U.S.