Letters to the editor

The Times poses false comparisons that do a disservice to the claims of parents of vaccine-injured children.

Parents are not trying, as you suggest, to defeat the vaccine program. Their purpose is to show that their children were vaccine-injured so that they will get the care they deserve.

Declining vaccination rates, if they exist, can be attributed to a conflicted government safety program, not parents. It is too early to determine whether autism rates were affected by the thimerosal removal.

Public health authorities aggressively marketed mercury-containing flu vaccines to pregnant women and children. An excessive vaccine schedule continues unabated even as evidence mounts that vaccines cause harm.

Hannah Poling was completely healthy before her vaccine injury. Your speculation that if vaccines had not injured her something else would have is sophistic. It is time our nation owned up to defects in our vaccine program.

Robert J. Krakow

Garden City, N.Y.



As a pediatrician and the parent of a child with an autistic disorder, I applaud your editorial promoting vaccinations.

Our children benefit when life-threatening and highly contagious diseases cannot gain a foothold in Southern California.

The approved vaccines typically induce less "immune system stress" than do common childhood infections (chickenpox, influenza) that are now preventable through vaccination.

Autistic children can display great upset with routine medical visits, and are even more distressed when ill. They particularly deserve the protection of full vaccinations.

Marc Lerner

Irvine



As the parent of a child who developed seizures following her initial vaccines at the age of 2 months, I refuse to defend my position not to vaccinate her or her younger brothers.

I am not anti-vaccine but am suspicious of the industry, knowing that it is just that -- an industry. Some would say that we've replaced the hideous diseases of the past with new autoimmune disorders, and who is to say which is worse?

When your newspaper comments casually about "personal belief exemptions," you trivialize something that is far more complex than you know. "Personal belief" is an agonized decision.

I have two sons who have not been vaccinated, and I have never felt entirely comfortable with that. But I do know that if I had vaccinated them and they suffered as their sister has, I wouldn't be alive to tell it.

Elizabeth Aquino

Los Angeles

Cracking down on chemicals

Re "The Green Revolution," editorial, April 27

The Times applauds the Schwarzenegger administration for its Green Chemistry Initiative.

But the California Environmental Protection Agency's goals were shared by the Toxic Substances Control Act enacted by Congress to determine which of the tens of thousands of industrial chemicals in our food, air and homes cause cancer, birth defects or other long-term harm.

The petrochemical revolution in this country actually began just after World War II. Some of the toxic agents, like parathion and methyl bromide, are still out there.

Unless the governor's initiative has real teeth, we'll be having this same conversation in another 35 years.

Al Meyerhoff

Studio City

The writer is the past director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's public health program.

Voices of protest

Re "Protest reflects a shift in Chinese Americans' views," April 26

Pro-China protesters enjoy their free speech here in America when they would be jailed or killed for equivalent actions in China. Until Tibetan cities have live webcams with highlights on YouTube, protesters' hypocrisy does not persuade.

David Pritchett

Santa Barbara



As a Chinese American with ties to Los Angeles, I read this article with dismay. A Chinese American is an American citizen who happens to be of Chinese ancestry.

The story purports to show the opinion of Chinese Americans. Yet The Times quoted two leaders of Chinese student groups. Another person interviewed is an American citizen, but is "a former government official" in China who still has close ties to Beijing. These three people cannot speak for the Chinese American community. Most Chinese Americans, like our fellow Americans, do not have a strong opinion on the Olympics.

I hope that, in the future, The Times will properly use the term Chinese American. Michael Wang

Durham, N.C.

Examining voter ID

Re "Voter ID law upheld," April 29

The Supreme Court has upheld the voter ID law in Indiana, effectively requiring government identification before one can vote. Because voting is a right guaranteed to all citizens, this decision surely must mean that all IDs will be provided by the government absolutely free of charge. One cannot be required to pay in order to exercise a right.

Also, the government must provide transportation and compensation for time off so voters can obtain IDs. The government cannot deny rights absent some extreme circumstances, such as national security concerns. Maybe the possibility of electing the first black president of the United States is a national security concern.

Miguel Rosales

Glendale



Re "A vote against history," editorial, April 29

As The Times editorial cites, during the 1950s and '60s, the Supreme Court did appropriately assert its right to strike down attempts to deny blacks their right to vote. But this is 2008, and recall how in recent elections there were substantiated reports of voter fraud in Ohio, East St. Louis, Florida and so on. (And of course there was the Cook County voter fraud in 1960.)

The Times' stance that because there has been no evidence of voter fraud in that state, Indiana "risks disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters to fix a problem that does not exist," falls flat.

William H. Smith

Palm Desert

Hard times for Generation X

Re "In debt, out of work and living with Mom," April 27

The Times writes of the middle class of my generation. But below that social class is where I and many more Generation Xers are and have remained since we've entered adulthood.

Financial times have always been tough for me and millions like me. I have always watched my spending and have never owned a home. Now that middle-class America is experiencing financial woes on a massive scale, the media find it appropriate to write about it. But millions in Generation X and Y are struggling and continue to do so without parental help.

Please don't forget about us.

Denise Milbauer

San Diego



There is a worldwide shortage of engineers that will get worse. According to your article, there is also a growing number of talented young people becoming unemployed.

May I make the gentle recommendation that many of these people could take advantage of their present unemployment and study to become engineers? I'm willing to bet there are Cal State counselors out there who would love to work with these people to help them find the quickest path to a fulfilling engineering career.

Would this be as bad as vegetating at home, driving Mom and Dad crazy?

James Cliborn

Topanga

A gas-tax cut is a dead end

Re "Empty promises," editorial, April 30

Why on Earth are elected leaders proposing we suspend the federal gas tax to offset rising fuel prices? The tax of about 18.5 cents per gallon is the same today as it was when gas was $1 a gallon.

This has been for many years a reasonable way to fund vital road repairs. Has this now become an unreasonable cost for work we no longer need?

Just how would this 18.5-cent discount offset what we pay to oil companies? It sounds like another federal subsidy for the oil industry.

Does anyone truly expect gas prices to stabilize 18 cents lower than they are today? Will we be happy driving over potholes while paying $3.82 a gallon?

Steve Factor

Los Angeles



The proposed gas-tax cut is only a temporary fix. Regardless of what the oil companies say, their profits last year were obscene, and they could reduce the price of gas at the expense of future profits.

When are the American people going to do something drastic in protesting these prices? Like boycotting gas purchases two days a week, or marching on Washington?

Joan Kerr

Torrance

Healthy reform

Re "In sickness and in health -- insurance," April 29

Apparently, people are becoming desperate when they will consider getting married to get health insurance. More of us are now uninsured or underinsured.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl's (D-Santa Monica) SB 840 offers a solution. It would provide comprehensive healthcare to everyone and save millions of dollars by creating a single risk pool.

Building on the current system is no longer working. It will take real reform to resolve our healthcare crisis.

Sandra McCanne

San Juan Capistrano

Trees of life

Re "It's a tidy answer to global warming," April 29

Scientists' efforts to find technological solutions to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere are admirable, even if they require massive amounts of electricity.

But Mother Nature long ago provided us with free devices that remove carbon dioxide from our air using natural solar power: trees and forests. One fast-growing tree can sequester many tons of carbon.

In addition to curtailing carbon emissions, let's get back to basics. How about planting trees?

Elan Glasser

Santa Monica