Honor Budget Limits, Not AIDS Victims
The Los Angeles City Council approved the expenditure of $344,000 to construct an AIDS victims memorial park. According to “Council OKs AIDS Memorial for Park” (April 23), it was “to honor Latinos and others who have died from AIDS.”
Since when do we honor people with memorials for a disease generally acquired through immoral behavior and drug use? There are very few people who are victims of AIDS for reasons of blood transfusions and other situations they did not have control over. While I have compassion for anyone who has been infected with HIV or AIDS, I cannot approve of the activities that caused the condition. For the City Council to find unanimously that immoral activities should be honored with a memorial park leads one to question what morals apply in the city chambers, apart from an apparent lack of fiduciary responsibility during a budgetary crisis.
Hilmar A. Rosenast
Valencia
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The city’s and state’s fiscal well-being is going to hell in a handbasket, yet our astute City Council members see fit to spend money for an AIDS memorial. This is in direct opposition to the will of the majority of the people whom they vowed to serve. This money would be better used to find a cure for AIDS. Building a memorial to victims of AIDS is tantamount to building one for smokers who died of lung cancer.
Robert Lauer
West Hills
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