THE NEW NASHVILLE: FACING THE MUSIC

I enjoyed the article about the many faces of Nashville (“Rich, Hip and Country,” by Sean Mitchell, Nov. 7). However, Mitchell deserves a boot to the head for his disparaging remarks about longtime “Nashville Now” host Ralph Emery.

Without the exposure provided by Emery’s TV and radio shows, many country stars might never have been heard from, Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus among them. Emery showcased not only the more popular country singers but also some of the best and most interesting people in music, theater, sports and politics, from Marty Robbins and John Lennon to Presidents Bush and Clinton. He never talked down to his guests, and he was always ready to field a laugh at his own expense.

JULIE T. BYERS

Temple City

Continental Cablevision doesn’t seem to believe that country music and The Grand Ole Opry are all that popular. They canceled the Nashville Network evening programming and replaced it with the Playboy Channel. Maybe sex and violence sell, and country and Western fun and music don’t.

K. R. JEWETT

Playa del Rey

A PROPOSITIONAL MAZE

I was appalled by (State Assembly Finance and Insurance Committee Chairman) Steve Peace’s underhanded attempt to sabotage Proposition 103 (“A Proposition They Could Refuse,” by Bill Boyarsky, Nov. 7) because of his mistaken belief that his Chula Vista constituents are subsidizing the auto insurance premiums of redlined central L.A. residents like me.

Actually, it is the other way around: Our exorbitant auto insurance premiums are subsidizing other high-risk urban areas where auto insurance rates are dramatically lower.

LAWRENCE FAFARMAN

Los Angeles

The traditional legislative hearing typically produces a parade of witnesses mindlessly reading prepared statements, carefully crafted to add nothing new to the debate. That’s why I try to hold open public-discussion groups on tough problems. I did it with complex legislation on efforts to locate waste facilities on tribal lands, and it worked. I did it with workers’ compensation, and it worked. I am trying to do it with auto insurance, and it could work.

Not surprisingly, though, the old warhorses of the press are as threatened by efforts to break the pattern of gridlock as those in the Legislature. In a culture where no one listens or learns, we criticize everything that is different. After all, if it wasn’t wrong, we would have done it that way in the first place.

Can we solve tough problems? Can we make democracy work? Sure, but it requires a leap of faith that is beyond the cynicism that inevitably comes to those who are too lazy to listen, too resigned to the past to believe that it is possible to carve the future.

STEVE PEACE

ASSEMBLYMAN, 79TH DISTRICT

Chula Vista

Nice try, but why not print the real story? Proposition 103 is purely and simply a terrible, confiscatory, socialist law based on horrible public policy and democracy run amok. It tramples on the rights of individuals and corporations to earn fair, honest returns in a free market.

Why not have other initiatives that ask voters if they want rebates on car purchases, stereo equipment or tires. How about a law rebating the $150 that subscribers paid for The Times in 1989?

Why not spread the word to the thousands of worried fixed-income retirees who own shares of reputable insurance companies now in jeopardy? Proposition 103 robs from these people (the real owners--not some dark, sinister, greedy, conspiratorial monopolist) because equally greedy Californians were asked a rhetorical question: “Do you want some money?” and the answer came back . . . yes.

DENNIS REILAND

Irvine

ANOTHER GROUP OF FORGOTTEN AMERICANS

The issue of “The New Indian Wars” (by Margaret L. Knox, Nov. 7) is even more complex than was presented. Uncle Sam is not giving America back to all the Indians. Many registered Native Americans with proof of Indian ancestry remain unrecognized by the federal government.

Therefore, not all Native Americans are treated equally. Those without tribal rights receive no profits from the gaming act. Many are not exempt from state and local taxes, car license fees and property taxes or eligible for equal scholarship funds and benefits granted to federally recognized Native Americans.

It’s time for the federal government to investigate why many Native Americans are being ignored. People without tribal rights need someone to listen to them.

BRENDA L. DJALDETY

Upland

I agree with “220, Million CUSTERS,” author Bill Lowman’s conclusion that federal Indian policy “has evolved into a nationwide, sinister juggernaut, exacting from Americans sacrifices of property, money, rights and identity.”

We have reached different conclusions, however, on which “Americans” are the victims.

STEVEN SANCHEZ

Rialto

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T

The photo caption in Cityscapes (Palm Latitudes, Nov. 7) identifies “a misty morning view of San Pedro.” If you can see San Pedro in that picture, then I am sure the next time we have a misty morning in San Gabriel, I should be able to see San Pedro also. It must be in the mist.

JOHN OLIVER

San Gabriel

WANDA’S WANDERINGS

I felt very tired after reading Wanda Coleman’s “Sleepless in L.A.” (Three on the Town, Nov. 7). Those who say our city lacks “a political conscience like Chicago or D.C.,” “a heart like San Francisco” or “a soul like Atlanta” are missing something in their own lives.

Rather than complaining about feeling unconnected to Los Angeles, they should step out of their world of Hollywood make-believe, look their fellow denizens of the City of Angels in the eye and say something kind and friendly--before they make a beeline to the Hyundai, Wrangler or Mercedes, crank up the radio and hit the cold, hard asphalt of the freeway.

Whining only feeds the popular firestorms of discontent, now blazing out of control and as ultra-trendy in Los Angeles as coffee shops and big-screen TV.

JOAN M. STEWART

Westwood

RECIPES FOR HOME COOKIN’

I was really pleased with Michelle Huneven’s article “Home Entertaining: The Potluck Club” (Nov. 7). It has disappointed me that you rarely print recipes nowadays. Some of the best recipes I have were obtained from Times Magazine articles.

Many of us would rather entertain at home than meet friends for dinner at a restaurant. It’s more relaxed, more personal, usually more economical and a lot more fun.

I’d be more inclined to read restaurant reviews if the writers could talk the chefs out of a recipe and publish it along with the article.

MIMI BUITRON

Granada Hills

HEAVY METTLE

This is to request that you consider including Parade magazine in the Sunday Times. Parade is more focused and better reading than the L.A. Times Magazine. When I want to read articles like those presented in the Times Magazine, I turn to the Atlantic Monthly, Business Week or one of the more serious monthlies. Sunday morning is not the time I wanted to be confronted with this heavy type of material.

HAL COCHRAN

Covina