Letters

Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community. According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%)

Re "'Tax the rich' is not reform," Column, May 21 George Skelton is right: "The rich" have been paying the lion's share of California taxes for years. Too many citizens have no tax obligations at all, and it's fine with them for someone else to pay down our deficit. The tax base should include everyone. But Skelton doesn't mention that California already has the highest sales tax rate and one of the highest personal income tax rates in the nation. Overspending cannot be overcome by further taxing the remaining rich (employers)

Lipitor is the most prescribed name-brand drug in America - nearly 3.5 million people take it every day to control their cholesterol. Since the statin entered the market in 1997, it's earned New York-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. $81 billion, making it the best-selling prescription drug of all time, according to IMS Health, a Danbury, Conn.-based healthcare information company. So when Lipitor's patent protection came to an end Nov. 30 and a generic alternative became available, an awful lot of patients had a decision to make: Should they stick with the drug they knew or switch to something less expensive?

Re "The DIY generation," Opinion, May 20 Neal Gabler points out what to me is puzzling and disturbing: the public's - particularly the young public's - perception of President Obama as disappointing and ineffective. Their response: Forget using the voting booth as a means for change and instead get out there and meet social needs directly. Doing it yourself is a welcome first step. This young public, though - and the voting public as a whole - should now leverage its DIY response.

David Paul Hammer was a prisoner at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester a few years ago when he bragged to a reporter for an alternative magazine that he had received at least $176,000 from 1,500 to 2,000 people he had duped into sending him money. "The trick is making them fall in love with you through letters and on the phone," Hammer told the Los Angeles-based magazine, the Advocate.

Reacting to Eric J. Segall's Op-Ed article on Tuesday warning of a gay rights backlash if theU.S. Supreme Court overturns Proposition 8, reader Sara Wan of Malibu wrote: "It is wrong to suggest that pushing for civil liberties should be left to Congress and not include the judicial system. As long as discrimination is legal, it is harder to fight it. "Segall's analogy to past laws banning interracial marriage is incorrect. While there was not a specific push to legalize interracial marriage, the 1967 Supreme Court decision was the direct result of the civil rights movement.

Re "Sisters of mercy and dismay," Column, April 22 Steve Lopez got it right. It's all about the Vatican letting those nuns know who's in charge - and it's not Jesus. I was a member of the Immaculate Heart Community of Los Angeles in the 1960s during the Vatican Council's call for renewal of religious life. We studied the documents and voted on the direction the community should go. All the while, Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, L.A.'s archbishop at the time, used every power he had to crush the community's efforts.

Van Gogh The Life Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith Random House: 953 pp., $40 Vincent Van Gogh is an extraordinary artist about whom everything seems to be known. His brilliant work and tragic life, combined with a paper trail of letters to his art-dealer brother, Theo, have made him an irresistible subject for art historians, biographers, journalists, filmmakers, medical specialists and psychologists since his death from a gunshot wound in 1890. The Dutch painter of dazzling landscapes and searing portraits may be permanently engraved in the public imagination as a mad, self-destructive genius, but scholars continue to probe every last detail of his 37 years on Earth.

Poor Jeff Zaslow. In high school, some bully stole his favorite sneakers and wouldn't give them back. In college, his dream date confessed that there were only three guys she'd ever been interested in--and he wasn't one of them. He's painfully insecure. "All my life I've wanted to be liked," he confessed. "I'm not Willy Loman but I've always wanted people to think I'm a nice guy." This guy needs some advice. This guy needs Ann Landers. No, wait a minute, this guy is Ann Landers.

Re "Brown lists new cuts to close deficit," May 15 In this era when compromise and pragmatism are dirty words, Gov. Jerry Brown stands out like a giant. His analysis of California's financial condition, and his recommendation of new revenue via tax hikes combined with deep budget cuts, is honest. It represents the most logical response to a problem that is far more serious than many politicians acknowledge. His statement that the state of California and government at all levels are living beyond their means is absolutely correct.

Re "A faster track for gay rights," News Analysis, May 21 Based on public opinion, a Republican pollster warns that his party is on the wrong side of the same-sex marriage issue. But some of us consider that the right or wrong side of an issue is not determined by public opinion. Equating gay rights with civil rights is an oversimplification. Faith teaches us compassion for all people, including homosexuals, but this compassion is not commensurate with support for same-sex marriage.

Re "L.A.'s war on shopping carts," Editorial, May 20 I walk to the store to do grocery shopping for the week. Because I cannot possibly get all these groceries on the bus or carry them home, what will the city do for me? Offer free taxi vouchers? If the mayor thinks requiring locking mechanisms on shopping cart wheels will boost his popularity, he should think again and get busy revoking this ordinance. Lori Graham Los Angeles I like shopping at Aldi grocery stores, a German-based chain with many locations in the U.S. You don't have to worry about hitting a shopping cart in the parking lot. How do they do it?

Re "GOP hopefuls could sidestep tax orthodoxy," May 19 Hooray for the candidates who are willing to stand up to Grover Norquist by refusing to sign his anti-tax pledge. We need more brave souls in the GOP who want to compromise rather than obstruct. As for those Republicans who have already signed the pledge to never vote for tax increases, I challenge you to do your part: refuse to take a government salary, benefits or use expense accounts. Doing so won't cost voters anything if you support a tax increase because you can say you eliminated an expense.

Re "An L.A. budget, with holes," Editorial, May 18 Since 2009, the city has undertaken unprecedented structural reform while addressing each year's shortfall, including: Requiring employees to contribute 2% to 4% (from zero) of their pay for retiree health benefits, and freezing benefits for employees not contributing. The elimination of nearly 5,000 positions, resulting in the smallest civilian workforce since Tom Bradley was mayor. Pension reform and a 20% salary reduction for new hires.

Re "2 held in slayings of USC grad students," May 19 I was a USC graduate student in the 1970s. I had come from Ohio car-less and poor and was forced to live off campus because USC could not provide housing. When a late class required me to walk home at night, I made sure that morning to wear tennis shoes and dark clothing so my footsteps would be softer and my body less visible. Gang members confronted us routinely; one student in my complex was beaten up as he was running for safety.

Re "Supervisors failing to act," Column, May 20 Finally, someone is calling for real reform of Los Angeles County government. The fact that the assessor and the sheriff are elected by voters is just part of the problem. A complete overhaul of county government can only be achieved with a review by an elected commission of voters, not politicians. The county is simply unable to reform itself. It needs an elected executive, a bigger Board of Supervisors and an assessor and a sheriff who serve at the pleasure of the executive.

Anti-drug tactics Re "Crackdown to target skid row drug dealers," April 8 When I see the Los Angeles Police Department make a public spectacle of addressing the "drug problem" by going after a handful of retail dealers in the poorest neighborhood in our city, I am reminded of the therapeutic value of putting a Band-Aid on a sore created by metastasized cancer. Drug dealing is organized at an international, national and statewide level. Focusing on the bottom rung of the distribution ladder demonstrates only the incapacity of the LAPD to address a much more deeply rooted problem.

Re "A crime against motherhood," Opinion, May 14 To my horror, I just read that the namesake of my local high school, David Starr Jordan, was a leading eugenicist who "promoted compulsory sterilization legislation across the United States. " Op-Ed article writer Nilmini Gunaratne Rubin implores that more be done to compensate victims of forced sterilization. I would imagine it is a terrible slap in the face to victims such as the author (who never had a sibling) and her mother to know that there are still schools named after perpetrators of these monstrous crimes against humanity.

Re "True austerity," Opinion, May 18 Fiscal conservatives will always claim that the real problem is that the austerity measures undertaken in Europe didn't go far enough. Similarly, there's the claim that the reasonGeorge W. Bush, through his tax cuts and anti-regulatory stance, presided over the worst economic performance of any president in modern history was because he wasn't a true conservative. We have an obvious historical parallel. How did we finally exit the Depression?

Re "An imperfect union," Opinion, May 18 Troy Senik says that the California Teachers Assn. is the state's most powerful union. How does he define powerful? With pay? At an average salary of $68,000, teachers are not the best-paid public employees. Plus, starting salaries for beginning teachers average about $35,000. And our pensions? Remember, teachers kick in about 8% of each paycheck to the State Teachers Retirement System; their employers contribute another 8%. What public employees do that?