From the Los Angeles Times

Letters to the editor

May 2, 2008

Taking care of the kids

Re "In poorest schools, fear, despair rule," April 26

Of course the kids are depressed. They're on their own, with no one at home looking after their interests. Once, each of these children had a mother and a father and perhaps an extended family too.

Parents are their children's first and best advocates. If the children don't like school or have some complaint, how many of these parents have actually been to the school to have a discussion with the teachers or principal? Are those same parents making sure their kids are home at night, in bed, on time? Are they talking to their kids about their day? The survey assigns a whole lot of blame without looking at the obvious solution: involved parents.

Carol May

Los Angeles

The large inner-city high schools need to be decentralized into two schools -- one teaching trades and the second into academics and college preparatory classes.

Trying to force all kids into college prep is nonsensical and loses those who want a job, not college. The trades could have their own faculty, schedule, sports teams and activities. Companies could get involved with internships for the trades students.

No wonder we have a high dropout rate -- the solution is not "one size fits all."

Larry E. Greiner

Palos Verdes

I was struck by how little perspective and analysis The Times offers in reports like this. The number of students surveyed is impressive, but the fact that it was conducted by a student action group that may be trying to prove a point does not give the study real scientific merit.

One professor quoted sees clinical depression in the students' stated reasons for skipping school but never ponders the possibility that staying home may be a reason for boredom and unhappiness in itself. And the homemade Monopoly game -- it seems to be a tool to convince these students that they really are living in a perilous, hopeless environment.

Susan Slanina

Los Angeles

Lots of questions

Re " Real questions," editorial, April 28

The Times poses good questions. Now how do we get a debate format that would come even close to posing them to candidates?

Since the end of sponsorship by the League of Women Voters, presidential debates have become exercises in gotcha journalism and insipid questioning.

Does the omission from your list of any questions about education or healthcare suggest that you think those have been amply covered?

Carolyn Taylor

Los Angeles

Every one of The Times' questions far surpassed those asked by the debate moderators, but at least three others should be included.

To all three candidates:

* What would you do to end the widening chasm between rich and poor in America?

* How would you restore U.S. credibility abroad?

* Social Security has for years generated surpluses. What specific modifications would you propose to ensure its continued success?

Howard Hurlbut

Redlands

Investing in us

Re "Shaken consumers clamp wallets shut," April 30

The Times has a reputation for fairly and accurately presenting the facts. However, you regularly represent data in a deceptive and distorted manner.

The purpose of presenting data graphically is to increase understanding of the numbers. If a graph makes the data less clear, you are defeating your purpose -- unless your purpose is to dress up the front page with colored graphics.

On April 30, you printed four graphs on the state of the economy, none of which started at the origin (zero). When a graph is truncated in this way, the relative change is distorted to seem larger than it is.

The food-price graph (shown above) visually showed the price of food increasing from one vertical graphic unit in 2006 to four units in 2008, an apparent increase of 300%. But according to the data, the food-price index increased from 194 to 209, an increase of 6%.

If a reader has to go back to the data to understand a graph, it would be better to leave out the graph and just give us the data.

Mel Palmer

Fountain Valley

The time for consumers to shut their wallets is overdue. For too long, Americans have been indulging in a consumption binge, buying material goods that provide a fleeting high. Many items are thrown away with a deleterious effect on the environment.

America needs to reorder its priorities and invest instead of spending its money on imports and eroding the value of the dollar. We should invest in quality of life by providing healthcare for all, saving Social Security, cleaning up the environment, maintaining parkland and building modern transportation and improved roads and bridges. Decreased spending on consumption would offset any increased taxes.

Lloyd A. Dent

Studio City

Fast food and healthcare

Re "Study maps fast food, health," April 29.

As a nursing student, I have worked in a variety of hospitals, from private to county funded, and I've witnessed that patients with less money and access to healthcare do not go to the next town to buy an $8 organic salad. Instead, they go to the McDonald's for three $1 cheeseburgers.

Access to healthcare is dependent on location and cost, and the same is true for food. Why is healthy food so much more expensive?

The fast-food-to-produce vendor ratio is 4 to 1. We cannot conceivably equalize this ratio, but we can educate patients and help them control what they eat. Bad eating habits lead to bad health outcomes. We live in a junk-food jungle where obesity and diabetes reign. It is up to us to tame those beasts.

Carla Teehankee

San Francisco

Black, white, brown and blue

Re "LAPD says race not a factor," April 30

"Los Angeles Police Department officials announced Tuesday that they investigated more than 300 complaints of racial profiling against officers last year and found that none had merit" is, bar none, the most hilarious sentence I have ever read in The Times.

And I'm white!

Leni Fleming

Los Angeles

Just to make sure I understand the message here: If all the accusations of racial profiling are sustained, we're a racist and corrupt department. If the accusations are unfounded, then we're also a racist and corrupt department.

Arno Clair

Saugus

Broken China

Re "China's powerful weakness," Opinion, April 29

Francis Fukuyama assumes that China's central government wants to protect its citizens, a notion for which there is scant evidence.

Communism always makes tyrants of its leaders because there is no other means of control.

And it is human nature that the worst rise to the top, embracing corruption, because that is the only way to succeed.

Mary McLemore

Autaugaville, Ala.

The numbers game

Re "747 to join 818 as Valley area code," April 25

After the new 747 area code arrives, everyone in the San Fernando Valley will have to dial 11 digits to make a local call, as do most L.A. residents already.

Is it that difficult to develop technology requiring only seven digits be dialed for calls within the same area code? Why don't the phone companies do it?

Jeff Vaughn

Encino

The overlay of a new area code, 747, over the 818 area code is no big deal.

Everyone who uses a cellphone has all of his frequently called numbers in memory anyway, so there is no change there. Most land-line phones today also have either 10 or 20 memory slots. If you do a lot of calling to 818 or 747 numbers, you should sacrifice two of your memory slots for 1-818 and 1-747. Then you could make your calls with eight pushes of a key instead of seven as you do now. So tell me again, what is the big complaint?

Sinclair Buckstaff

Northridge

That we are running out of numbers is the claim and justification for adding yet another area code. The truth is that those in charge have run out of brains.

The easy fix -- and we will have 10 times more numbers available per area code by doing this -- is to nationally make our numbers eight digits instead of seven. Just add a zero to all existing numbers. Simple, effective and easy to remember, but not political.

Steven Bein

Los Angeles