Remembering James C. Corman

Shame on you, Bobbi Fiedler, for not keeping silent if all you could do was bad-mouth former City Council member and veteran Congressman James C. Corman after he died (Obituaries, Jan. 3). I hate to even repeat the words you used to dismiss Corman’s record of public service by calling him “a very far left-wing liberal . . . [and] a very skilled politician in those areas that he cared about: basically, increasing taxes to support welfare programs.”

Is that really all Corman meant to you? As a TV news reporter in 1980, I covered the bitter vote recount that confirmed your victory by 752 votes out of more than 150,000 cast in the Congressional election that ended Corman’s distinguished political career and launched yours into the national arena. (That recount was the first that brought the infamous hanging chad ballot controversy to public attention--two decades before Florida.)

You were an effective advocate for your campaign to stop busing as a vehicle to end school segregation, and never had cause to complain about the generous time and space given to media coverage of your side of that hot-button issue. Now tens of thousands of (minority) kids still ride the buses just to squeeze into a classroom, period. So why not let Jim Corman just rest in peace?

SAUL HALPERT

Studio City

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Thanks to The Times for honoring the memory of Corman. I was lucky enough to work in his campaigns and to get to know what a caring and honest man he was and how well he served his constituents. That he had to lose the election because of someone who used the fears of busing was something that broke the hearts of all of the people who knew and respected their loss of a good man. What was most disturbing to all of the people who voted for him was that because of the media’s early prediction of Jimmy Carter’s defeat, too many people didn’t bother to vote.

DARIA CASE

Sherman Oaks

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I am very proud of the fact that I was a campaign worker for Corman. I still treasure the memento that he presented to his volunteers.

Corman was a rare human being, a true statesman who deeply cared about people, an advocate for the unwashed masses, for the disenfranchised. He was a true humanitarian.

LORI DINKIN

Valley Village