Affirmative Action Debate

* Affirmative action is a concept and practice that I have long supported. I hope this important social policy, though threatened, has not produced the hysteria of the young woman banging her hands on the wall or the writer of the misspelled sign in your photo “Protesters Occupy Building” (Feb 22). The histrionics and ignorance are counterproductive to what I believe the results of an education to be, gained through affirmative action.

DARRELL ECKERSLEY

Long Beach

* After reading that more than a million petition signatures were turned in Feb. 21 for the proposed affirmative action ban initiative, I am angry because I got a glimpse that tells me that some of those signatures were gained by deceptive means. On Feb. 19, in front of a record store in Granada Hills, a couple of petitioners were asking people to sign a petition for a ballot initiative that would make it tougher for drunk drivers to sue if they were in an accident. I read the petition carefully and signed it. After that, the petitioner turned the piece of paper over and asked me to put in my information and sign my name again. I asked if this was a different initiative. He said yes. I had to read it a couple times before I saw that it was the affirmative-action-ban initiative. I don’t agree with the proposal, but even if I had, I wouldn’t sign it because they were trying to get me to sign by deceptive means.

If a majority of this state is supposed to be for the proposed initiative, why did the petitioners feel that they had to be deceptive to get signatures? It is an insult to the entire electoral process and I will keep my eyes on any figures who were involved in this process this November.

NORMAN BUCHWALD

Northridge

* Re “UC Regents Set Preferences Ban for Spring 1998,” Feb. 16:

With horror I have watched the discussion regarding a ban on race and gender preferences. Affirmative action in this regard reinforces the ideal of an equal education for all citizens of this nation. A person going to the UC system must still pursue and pay for his or her own education and all are equally at risk to fail to complete a degree program. Students coming from disadvantaged neighborhoods or from high schools that can’t afford to offer the best preparation still deserve a chance at a college education. There is a difference between hiring preferences in a working situation (in which case the best person is the one who should be hired) and admissions preferences that attempt to ensure that our public universities reflect the people of the community who pay tax dollars to keep those schools open.

Too bad UC President Richard Atkinson didn’t have the courage to say it was worth losing his job over a policy that is selfish and racist at heart and stand up to the governor.

CLAIRE RYDELL

Canoga Park