‘Restore the Public Trust’

Many thanks for your intelligent editorial. I have long hoped to hear such a message from a responsible press. It hits the nail on the head: How can we have representative government when our representatives represent special interests of all kinds, who “pay” part of their salaries, and all of their campaign expenses?

When people rail against all the public ethics violations, they aren’t addressing the real problem. As you suggest, we should pay our representatives a respectable wage; stop all private speech honorariums; pay for our elections on a level playing field that doesn’t handicap candidates, and, lastly, reduce the marathon dances of long, boring, and expensive elections.

If all of this is done, I think we would see legislation being passed that benefits all the people, without the special power of lobbyists and narrow special-interest groups to abort them.

JOSEPH SIMON

Malibu