Public Discussion

Re "In Iraq, U.S. Faces New Dynamics," July 6: If we're going to invade Iraq, we should go straight to the endgame and burn the Iraqi oil fields. If we don't, they will. Every possible outcome of an invasion includes those oil fields being lost. If we want to take away Iraq's ability to develop weapons of mass destruction, then take away the oil. It is the source of Iraq's money and the only reason any outsider cares about that poor, dark place. Burn the oil and Iraq will fade back into a medieval culture.

The public again was excluded Wednesday from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission's monthly deliberations over a proposed lease that would cede control of the taxpayer-owned stadium to USC. Government transparency advocates have contended that the scandal-plagued commission's secret negotiations on the Coliseum pact violate the state's open-meeting law. The panel's attorney has said the commission is entitled to hold the talks behind...

I'm glad Sergio Munoz opened public discussion of extending NAFTA to Central America in his Feb. 7 commentary. Isn't it time we began to consider opening the U.S.-Mexican border to the movement of people? DON BRAY Claremont

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana House Democrats who fled the state to protest a Republican agenda they considered an assault on labor unions and public education returned to the statehouse Monday after nearly six weeks in Illinois. Minority Leader Patrick Bauer said he and his fellow Democrats ended one of the longest legislative walkouts in recent U.S. history after winning concessions from Republicans on several issues. "We're coming back after softening the radical agenda," said Bauer, whose return was greeted by cheering union workers.

On Sept. 28, an editorial, "L.A. as an Educational Lab," and "School Conditions," a letter by Los Angeles schoolteacher Carol May, highlight the two sides of the coin of public education deterioration. The editorial focuses on the model of financier Eli Broad's $l00-million educational reform campaign for addressing process and organization in improving public education. Carol May describes the appalling lack of funds of public schools in the richest state of the richest nation in history.

Instead of an informed, constructive discourse of issues, there appears on the Op-Ed page a mean-spirited column by Russ Rymer comparing a presidential candidate with a convicted, cold-blooded murderer ("GOP Returns to the Scene of the Crime," Aug. 22). Hate-filled articles of this kind have no place in the political debate. If nothing constructive can be added to the public discussion of pertinent issues, it would be better if the discipline of silence were exercised. DAVID A. IZZARD

Re "UCLA seeks extra funds for hospitals," Nov. 14 As one who retired several years ago from a three-decade career at UCLA's world-renowned medical center (the Ronald Reagan Medical Center), I feel it might be all right to ask some basic questions: How much did the late president's supporters agree to pay UCLA to have it named for him, when its estimated cost was "only" about $800 million? Now that the replacement hospital's cost has skyrocketed to more than $1 billion, how much of the original dollar commitment for applying Reagan's name to it has been fulfilled?

Councilwoman Diane Boggs read a statement Tuesday night supporting the council's decision to pay for Mayor James Santangelo's legal fees while he battles a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge filed against him last month. In a show of support, about six Downey residents spoke in favor of the decision, which was made in a closed session at a previous council meeting. Boggs presided over that portion of Tuesday's meeting while Santangelo left the room.

Thank you for Mark Swed's piece on Speculum Musicae ("Speculum Musicae Still Shows Skill in Complex," Calendar, July 16). Although I was unaware of the group or the concert, I was very interested to read his thoughts on the current place of academic music. Music has become so much more diverse since the '50s or the '70s and the boundaries between serious and commercial music have become so blurred. It is also especially gratifying to find performing arts commentary in the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

"Clintons Piecing Together Reforms in Health Care" (June 8) told of the piecemeal approach to improving health coverage that the president is pursuing. I believe him when he says, "It is high time that our health plans treat all Americans equally." Unfortunately, I believe he missed the boat in 1994 when he failed to take on the insurance companies and shoot for the government as the single payer for health care. As long as insurance companies take a share of the profits in health care, we'll be faced with 43 million Americans with no health coverage and escalating costs.

BOOKS James Gleick: "Are We Drowning in Information?" The acclaimed science and technology writer follows up the publication of his most ambitious project yet, "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood," with a public discussion on how we got to an age of bits and bytes and where we go as the flood of information reaches near-biblical proportions. Petersen Automotive Museum , 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. Free (RSVP online). (213) 381-2541. http://www.

It can be hard to determine when a public figure has said something so offensive that he or she should be fired. But this much should be obvious: There has to be room in our public discourse for an honest statement, civilly expressed, even if it is prejudicial. NPR overreacted by dumping news analyst Juan Williams after he expressed personal nervousness on Fox News about boarding planes with Muslims who wear religious clothing Williams' comments were no doubt hurtful to Muslims, and ignorant as well.

It was one of a series of government-run public debates aimed at defining the values that constitute French national identity. But in this middle-class suburb west of Paris, the discussion last week quickly turned into a cacophony of hot-tempered accusations. Rather than give his version of what it means to be French, an invited speaker, historian Jean-Yves Mollier, attacked his host (who sat stone-still a few feet in front of him) for supporting the national dialogue. Mollier said the ongoing debates represent none other than Vichy-style propaganda attempting to "stigmatize" those who don't fall into France's ruling native caste, in this case mostly French Muslims of immigrant origin.

If history is any guide, we can say one thing for certain about the 2008 presidential debates, which are expected to get underway tonight in a televised performance at the University of Mississippi. There will be no discussion -- none at all -- of U.S. cultural policy. Questions during the three planned debates will likely include the crashing economy, the Iraq occupation, taxes and healthcare.

Re "Babies, the old-fashioned way," Opinion, July 9 Congratulations to Jennifer Block on a well-written, solidly researched article on the politics of birth in the U.S. As a home-birth family physician and a home-birth mother, I've been thinking, reading and writing about this issue for nearly 20 years. I don't think I've read a more clear summary. Push-back from organized medicine is nothing new. What is new is the national, organized and well-funded effort in support of home birth.

Re "UCLA seeks extra funds for hospitals," Nov. 14 As one who retired several years ago from a three-decade career at UCLA's world-renowned medical center (the Ronald Reagan Medical Center), I feel it might be all right to ask some basic questions: How much did the late president's supporters agree to pay UCLA to have it named for him, when its estimated cost was "only" about $800 million? Now that the replacement hospital's cost has skyrocketed to more than $1 billion, how much of the original dollar commitment for applying Reagan's name to it has been fulfilled?

It was dishonest and unacceptable for the Port District commissioners to make several hundred people sit through a four-hour public hearing Feb. 21 on naming the new convention center, and then not have the courage to vote on the issue before them! Those attending the hearing, and all San Diegans, should be outraged over the cowardly political trick perpetrated on us by Commissioners Penner, Larsen, Burke and Portwood. Commissioner Penner's "alternative" proposal was put forward at the very end of the long meeting, no public discussion was allowed on it, it had nothing to do with the City Council's recommendation, and it was a subversion of the entire public-hearing process.

The advisory committee for the city's newest park will hold a public workshop to discuss final designs on Sept. 27 in the City Council chambers. The park is to be built on a half-acre triangular parcel of land at 304 W. Ojai Ave., an entry to downtown. The latest ideas of the landscape architects and the design team will be presented for public discussion at the workshop, which will be held at 7:30 p.m.

To preempt an embarrassing disclosure, a married state legislator from Anaheim who has announced his candidacy for the state Senate revealed Wednesday that he had carried on a four-year affair with a woman he met through politics. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg and his wife, Robin, who campaigned for him last fall while he served with the U.S. Army Reserve as a terrorism prosecutor, said they were making public the relationship because the woman had threatened to publicize it.

The effort to fix Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center is expected to cost Los Angeles County taxpayers $47 million this fiscal year alone -- far more than has been publicly discussed. The costs come on top of the hospital's regular budget -- already more per patient than the county's other three public general hospitals. Although the number of inpatients the hospital cares for each day has dropped sharply, King/Drew's spending has not decreased, county officials said.