From the Los Angeles Times

Letters to the editor

March 24, 2008

Jackson gets no slack

Re " 'Old Hickory's' slaves," Opinion, March 21

Can we say that President Andrew Jackson was wrong to intentionally enslave people? Can we say that Osama bin Laden is wrong to intentionally kill people? Yes, they are both wrong. Ethical thinking is evolving toward moral truths, and much of humanity has outgrown the barbarisms of slavery and murder.

Carl Byker is correct to say that we need to "figure out who we want to be in the future," but that does not absolve Jackson of his moral failings. If we have evolved far enough ethically, we can say Jackson was wrong to own slaves and Bin Laden is wrong to murder, regardless of their moral evolution, culture or context. No amount of sophistry or quotes from ancient texts can disguise these facts.

We can have an "honest, thoughtful national conversation" when Americans can accept the reality that our ethics are evolving for the better. That Sen. Barack Obama encourages us to do so is certainly one of his strengths.

John Taylor

La Habra

Byker forgets to mention that Jackson also ordered the deportation of Cherokees from their native homelands to Oklahoma, the infamous Trail of Tears in which thousands of Cherokees died. Those folks in Tennessee who think that slave owners were kind desperately need to take a course in American literature featuring Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Toni Morrison's "Beloved." In both novels, the slave owners were kind. In fact, the farm in Morrison's novel was called Sweet Home. Yet both Uncle Tom and the Sweet Home men were destroyed primarily because their owners were kind.

White people are upset by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's politically incorrect statements. Yet ironically, the pundits who are launching the attack are the very pundits who attack the whole notion of being "politically correct." They should ask themselves how a Native American or African American feels every time he or she touches a $20 bill. If we are going to ostracize Obama for what his pastor said, then we need to remove Jackson's portrait from the $20 bill and rename every town that bears the former president's name.

William Joseph

Miller

Los Angeles

Hollywood's honorary mayor

Re "Who could walk the Walk?" Opinion, March 20

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge the honorary mayor of Hollywood? Surely you jest. Perhaps the mayor of Burbank? It's been Burbank residents, in particular the equestrians who ride in Griffith Park, who seem to have managed to get LaBonge to cater to their whims. For too many years, despite the obvious need to get kids outside and exercising, LaBonge has succumbed to the desires of non-L.A. residents who want Griffith Park's trails to remain a bicycle-free haven. C'mon, Tom, open up a trail or two in the park and give kids and their out-of-shape parents alike a place to get outside and exercise without facing the high-speed traffic on the streets that wind through the park.

We don't need all the trails in the park, but couldn't you give us at least one?

Michael Goodman

North Hollywood

Re "Who'll reign for Hollywood?" March 17

So the name Angelyne automatically comes to mind in connection with Hollywood? The words that first pop into my mind when her name is mentioned are "tacky" and "tasteless."

Not only was Gary Owens a good friend of the late Johnny Grant, he was also a much-loved radio personality for many years when he was at KMPC and has long been identified with Hollywood. Let's go with G.O.!

Ellie Doud

Van Nuys

A little too libertarian

Re "Where the votes are," Opinion, March 20

I agree with every one of the points made by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, except one. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is lunacy. We would, by that action, signal that we essentially have open borders; uncontrolled immigration would grow even more. The authors are libertarians. So am I, more or less. I care nothing about most social issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, gambling, prostitution and marijuana. But Milton Friedman, one of the pillars of the libertarian philosophy, said that open borders are incompatible with a welfare state.

Yes, almost all immigrants to America are people intent on working. They are almost all young, healthy and so on. I get all that. But don't think that we are not a magnet for people with expensive illnesses who sneak in here to get treatment at taxpayers' expense, women intent on giving birth here to their little "anchor baby" to secure benefits, and many others who are of no benefit to our country.

We need immigration laws, which need to be enforced. Without them, this country would simply not be as nice a place as it has been.

Mike Burns

Bakersfield

So candidates who promise to legalize pot, ban eminent domain, legalize online gambling, make the Internet tax moratorium permanent, bring the troops home and support single-payer health insurance can win "every national election for the next several decades"? Are Gillespie and Welch serious? Do they really expect Ron Paul, Ralph Nader and others to not only start surging in the polls but also take the White House the next few elections?

They don't need to wait to legalize pot; they're obviously already smoking it.

Ray Walker

Camarillo

The long view of Tibet

Re "Dalai Lama says he may quit," March 19

The Times mentions a quote, "If the world doesn't speak up, it will be another Burma." Tibet has been "another Burma" for a long time already. Tibet's chosen future leader, the Panchen Lama, is imprisoned. The current leader, the Dalai Lama, is in exile. Homes and places of worship or cultural importance have been destroyed or desecrated, and Tibetans have been killed, imprisoned, abducted or exiled for decades. Fifty years of brutal occupation by the Chinese has resulted in systematic cultural genocide. Maybe the symbols and the languages are different, but the brutal oppression is the same.

Tibet also reminds me of the West Bank -- in both places, the occupiers are forcefully moving their own citizens onto the land of the original residents.

Elke Heitmyer

Sherman Oaks

Why is it that many nations recognize the independence of Kosovo, in spite of the fact that Kosovo has been a part of Serbia since its existence, but no one appears to recognize that Tibet was an independent country, which is illegally occupied by the Chinese, and should therefore have the full support of all nations to regain its independence?

Pauli Peter

Los Angeles

It's just throwing money around

Re "Coaxing investors to take more risk," March 19

The recent bank bailouts and interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and the Bush administration are negligent and irresponsible. They are negligent because they ignore the fundamental problems in the financial markets: Consumers and investors have lost faith in a banking system that hides bad investments and compensates its chief executives with golden parachutes. They are irresponsible because they reward such actions with handouts that are absent of real reform.

Investors and consumers will regain confidence in financial markets and our banks when those institutions are held to the same standards and ethical practices we expect of homeowners. Until that time, interest rate cuts and bank bailouts simply throw more money into the fire.

Nathan Springer

Whittier

Forgiveness and Obama's pastor

Re "In Chicago, pastor's incendiary words carry familiar ring," March 20

Indeed they do; Michelle Obama's poorly timed, unfortunate remarks attest to that. In many cultures, the following adage is on point: You can tell a bird by its feathers, a man by his friends. Sen. Barack Obama's long association with a hater took away his and our chances to call him Mr. President.

Gunther R. Bauer

Rancho Palos Verdes

If Obama disavows himself of the excrement spewed from the pulpit, why not leave the church?

Johnny Magnus

Burbank

No on Las Lomas

I notice that the two letters in favor of the Las Lomas development project that appeared in the March 21 paper came from readers who live in Redlands and Redondo Beach. As a resident of the north San Fernando Valley who is undoubtedly more familiar with the area where the proposed development would have been built, I applaud the Los Angeles City Council's decision to abandon the project, which would have been built in the worst possible location, causing a traffic nightmare and destroying a beautiful mountainside.

Sandra Wolber

Granada Hills