NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE

“Death and Life in a Company Town” (by Kathleen Hunt, July 11) horrified me. For many years before Chernobyl, I heard rumblings, all unconfirmed officially, from friends in Europe, and I had my own suspicions about environmental decay. It will be decades, perhaps generations, before this nightmare can be remedied, and who will foot the bill? Not the new states, already struggling to feed their people. We would be naive to think that this isn’t a worldwide tip of the iceberg. It makes me wonder whether there will be a world for the generation now being born, healthy or not. ROBIN LEIGH ANDERSON Santa Barbara

DODGER BLUES In Jim Murray’s “Which Way to Chavez Ravine?” (June 27), I had hoped to find more than just an acknowledgment that “hundreds of Latino families were displaced from the site in a contentious eviction battle.” Instead, he assured us that the O’Malleys have been reliable in their role as caretakers. Los Angeles gave Walter O’Malley land and other perks to build his stadium. The O’Malleys may have changed baseball, but they also uprooted the lives of several hundred people who were powerless to fight back. Does anyone still care? VICTORIA M. TAYLOR Los Angeles

PLACING THE BLAME I am a believer. I believe that there is prejudice, and I believe that it is the one thing that can tear Los Angeles apart. But I also am growing increasingly tired of Wanda Coleman’s endless whining, bitterness and paranoia (“Rude Awakenings,” June 27). Unlike Coleman, I understand that one doesn’t have to be white to be a racist, and that not all racists are white. Snide phrases like “maroon-haired beauty” and “tawny-skinned maids” have as much to do with building “ethnocosms” as scrawling the word maggot on the side of a car. There are parts of the city where people of various ethnic backgrounds live happily side by side. Many of us are working together through block clubs and residents’ groups to build safe, prosperous neighborhoods. With the help of more articles emphasizing the positive efforts being made to bring the city together, I believe we can build Los Angeles into a still-greater city. ROBERT BUSCHER Los Angeles

Haven’t you guys figured out yet that Coleman’s difficulties aren’t racial? She has an attitude problem. I suspect that the damage to her car was done for personal reasons, not racial, perhaps by one of the menials (security guards, waitresses, clerks) she humiliated on a prior occasion. Enough already! GEORGE H. MCCARTY Highland

I’ll probably go to Politically Correct Hell for this, but I believe that Coleman has a distorted view of what it’s like to be white. I’ve had police officers pull up next to me and stare, and I’m as white as it gets. The only difference is that I can’t use the color of my skin as an excuse for such events. I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist, but it can’t be blamed for every bad thing that happens. PAUL SCHOWALTER Glendora

A CRUELER CUT? As a registered nurse, I find it despicable that six teen-agers in Thousand Oaks should be pictured smiling over a corpse (“Class Cut-Ups,” by Douglas McClellan, Palm Latitudes, June 13). The cadaver I studied was a street person with no choice about his fate, but we treated him with the utmost respect because he made it possible for us to learn so much. The article is insulting to the human ethic. PATRICIA RANDALL-ANDERSON San Diego

We are parents of one of the students in Westlake High School’s Advanced Anatomy class, and we’d like to commend McClellan on his article. Some other information might be of interest. The 15 students are divided into three teams, each with its own cadaver. The teacher of this course is Nancy Bowman, who emphasizes to the students that it is not a frog or a mink but a human being that they are dissecting. The utmost care and respect are demanded at all levels of the work. This excellent program has helped many of the students gain admission into the nation’s top universities. Our daughter’s decision to pursue a medical career was enhanced tremendously by Bowman and the administration at Westlake. EDWARD AND MARY HONEYMAN Westlake Village

RUSH TO JUDGMENT Regarding “Anti-Dittos” (by Jamie Reno, Palm Latitudes, June 20): It figures. Brian Keliher with his Flush Rush Quarterly is only trying to make a buck off Rush Limbaugh, and he knew that the media would pick up on his hype. I don’t believe a word about the “threatening phone calls and letters,” because Limbaugh fans don’t behave like that. KATHRYN D. FONTENO South Pasadena

Bravo for Keliher’s Flush Rush Quarterly! It’s high time that someone challenged the junk-food diatribe of this Bubba-vangelist, even at the risk of raising the blood pressure of his flock. Limbaugh’s bombastic and boorish blasphemy, broadcast from his blue-room bunker, only differs from the worst sitcoms in that his cameras occasionally pan to the audience. Now, that’s entertainment! However, when all his snake oil is sold, perhaps a suitable ending for his final show would be a generous base coat applied from the La Brea tar pits, topped off with Slick Willie’s Arkansas chicken feathers. That should tickle both left- and right-wingers. MAX ST. YVES Newport Beach

A LINK TO THE PAST In response to Jonathan Gold’s column, “The Eighth Day” (Three on the Town, June 20): I respect Gold’s impressions of the circumcision ceremony (Brit Milah ), but as a physician-mohel (ritual circumciser), I wish his experience could have evoked less cynicism. The circumcision, a beautiful and meaningful ceremony of physical and spiritual identity, physically links the child to thousands of years of history, dating back to Abraham. The child, often named after a deceased family member, also is linked with family history. Over the past 10 years, Reform Judaism has developed a network of dedicated physicians and nurse midwives certified to practice circumcision. They take their responsibility seriously, often interrupting busy schedules to accommodate the eighth-day requirement. Most charge reasonable fees and maintain a decorum of dignity. A list of these professionals is available through any Reform temple. DR. SAMUEL KUNIN, FELLOW AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS Tarzana