Reading Khachigian

* An excellent example of the dismal state of American politics is fully displayed in Ken Khachigian’s Nov. 9 column (“Nixon Tapes Don’t Reveal Whole Story”). Khachigian intends to defend his patron Richard Nixon from the revelations contained in the recently released White House tapes. The tapes reveal Nixon at his best: vindictive, shaking down political donors and encouraging illegal activities. But rather than emphasizing Nixon’s achievements, Khachigian’s defense is to mount an offensive against President Kennedy.

Thus we witness the primary activity of the two parties and its leaders and minions: lowering the bar of moral behavior. In the face of scandal and impropriety, elected officials of all stripes always deflect responsibility for unseemly, shameful and occasionally illegal conduct by claiming that the other side has done the same or, would you believe, worse!

That the other party and its leaders engage in disreputable behavior is not a sufficient excuse for those elected to serve the public’s interest. Elections are to choose leaders, not a contest between 5-year-olds. One would hope that the parties would act on their own to stop rewarding those who lie and cheat their way to the top and, once arrived, commence lecturing the public about the decline of American values.

WILLIAM R. MITCHELL

Irvine

* If Khachigian wants a wonderful experience, he should purge his extreme right-wing views and become a Democrat. The dark rain clouds that always follow him will slowly drift away and he can enjoy his life in our wonderful country.

DONALD ELMORE

Huntington Beach

* Re Khachigian’s Sept. 28 column (“Suggestion for Ted the Good: Buy American”):

I like his style! He is one of the few political writers who can articulate correctly and do so with compassion for those who cannot--perhaps because they were not properly trained in elementary school or were denied college degrees because of their color.

I am a volunteer for “English for the Children,” an initiative waiting to appear on the 1998 California ballot. Being a retired English teacher, I strongly believe a child’s success in life depends upon sound and thorough training in elementary school in the basics, in English, America’s mother tongue.

I would appreciate hearing comments about the above and about the deplorable political chicanery practiced in our educational system today. How can these be abrogated? Why can’t we abolish the hyphenated ethnic sobriquets and return to the perfectly correct ethnic nomenclature: Caucasian, Negro, Mongoloid?

Native Americans; legalized immigrant Americans; white and tinted Americans must fit the American label. We have a national anthem, a pledge of allegiance to our symbolic flag, which acknowledges a universal God, and a native tongue: English! What other country on Earth offers the freedom Americans enjoy! Why can’t we abide?

IDA M. WOOD

Laguna Hills