Discrimination

No one could quarrel with one of the concluding paragraphs in Gov. George Deukmejian’s State of the State address, which reads: “And why not be No. 1 in the way we recognize people as unique individuals, full of potential, just as America promises? A state that makes equal opportunity a reality instead of a slogan or a quota--that declares in our society we don’t care whether you are black or white, Asian or Hispanic, man or woman. . . .”

But one would be inclined to respect this expression as more than mere rhetoric on Deukmejian’s part (if, indeed, he wrote it) if he had been wise and compassionate enough to sign the homosexual discrimination bill he vetoed, so that he could have added “straight or gay” at the end of the last sentence of the quotation.

ARNOLD T. SCHWAB

Westminster