Fire Station Playboy Ban

* In response to “ACLU, Playboy Magazine Join Fireman to Fight Ban,” Dec. 17:

Harassment should be penalized. But should something be outlawed just because it’s in bad taste (in individual, subjective feeling), or merely because someone feels hurt and offended?

I do believe in political correctness. That’s just good manners and an idealistic approach to living. I don’t believe neo-Nazi literature should be distributed in schools, but adults who want to should be able to read it. That’ll only improve the quality of the literature against it.

But take away the right to choose one’s own reading matter? Never!

MIKE VARADY

Los Angeles

* As the daughter of a career Oakland city firefighter, who, as a child, would often visit her father at work, I am in a position to confirm the pervasiveness of sexually explicit material in the common rooms, as well as the personal spaces, in public fire stations. As an adult woman I condemn this practice. I believe that while these dedicated public servants have the constitutional right to read whatever they like in their own personal space, it is inappropriate to bring it out into the public common rooms. Moreover, it must be remembered that these facilities are funded by public agencies, whose budgets are made up from the taxes of women, as well as men, and therefore subject to the edicts of public policy.

LORI L. SANDOVAL

Culver City

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* I’m sorry, but I don’t put pornography in he workplace under the First Amendment any more than I put rape under the First Amendment as “freedom of expression.” The two go hand in hand, especially where men far outnumber the women.

Tell the male firefighters to leave the pictures at home. If they need “intellectual stimulation” they should cut out the “intellectual articles” to take to work.

CAROLYN F. WHITAKER

Alta Loma