Let Voters Decide, Not Term Limits

Shame on The Times for supporting Measure A, the Orange County term limits measure.

Term limits are to citizens what across-the-board spending cuts are to politicians. Both cases discourage responsible thought on the part of the participants.

Politicians who vote for across-the-board spending cuts represent themselves to the public as responsible politicians while they avoid making the truly responsible decisions as to which programs are effective and efficient and which must be cut and by how much.

Citizens who vote for term limits can represent themselves to the community as concerned voting citizens while they avoid making truly responsible decisions as to whether their representative has done a good job on the issues.

Term limits punish those very people whom the law should reward and praise: experienced politicians who research and weigh every decision to achieve good for the community. Term limits punish the community itself when an incumbent who is doing a good job for the community is forced out.

Measure A should be defeated.

MICHAEL HERMAN

Corona del Mar

* I agree with college student Marc Tisherman (Voices, Oct. 19), who says, “It’s better to be informed so that you know what you’re voting about.” He also said that he was lucky to be a beneficiary of affirmative action and hopes that Proposition 209 doesn’t pass.

This is precisely why Tisherman should have registered to vote, even if it was only for one issue. He knows better than most how important it was for him to get into college. I hope he and others who didn’t register this time do so next time.

Quite often I don’t vote for judges because I don’t know anything about them. But that doesn’t stop me from voting for other candidates and propositions.

If you believe as I do in a woman’s right to have an abortion, do we want a president who will nominate a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court who is antiabortion? We almost lost that right not too long ago, when the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4, narrowly upholding the Roe vs. Wade decision. And that was just one issue!

There is no reason why those who have registered shouldn’t show up at the ballot box. Find an issue or a candidate you have some passion for. Then go out and vote. It does make a difference! Remember those 5-4 votes in the Supreme Court.

BENNY WASSERMAN

La Palma