Rose Parade

* I’m delighted to see that the Tournament of Roses Executive Committee is now on the road to “political correctness” (Nov. 30). In the coming years, I expect to see a Native American, an Armenian American, an Arab American, a Gypsy, a gay/lesbian, a physically challenged, and a homeless person on the committee.

Has anyone noticed that Asian Americans are underrepresented in college and professional football and basketball?

HENRY SAKAIDA

Rosemead

* Once again good people have been vilified for no reason other than the color of their skin and their gender. Once again good people have been vilified under the theocracy of politically correctness and the racial demagoguery of (Brotherhood Crusade President) Danny Bakewell.

Years of dedicated private volunteer service to the Tournament of Roses mean absolutely nothing simply because members of the Executive Committee happen to be white and male. Bakewell and his minions have forced, under threats of disruption of an event whose sole purpose is giving pleasure and enjoyment to millions of people of all colors and nationalities, the imposition of “minority” members on the Executive Committee. Although they are most probably fine individuals, their profiles reveal that they have not nearly “paid their dues” in years of service to the Tournament as the present Executive Committee members nor of others who have been passed over because of this action.

Bakewell and those of his ilk have surely turned Dr. Martin Luther King’s words on their heads when now, the content of one’s character and actions are not the standard by which one is to be judged, but rather one’s gender and the color of one’s skin.

DERMOT J. RYAN

Santa Monica