Democratic Candidates All Deserve to Be Heard

Why is there no mention of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in either of your Oct. 21 general articles on the Democratic nomination race (“Dean’s Success May Hinge on Luring Blue-Collar Votes” and “Candidates Bet Against History in Skipping Iowa”)? He pertains particularly to the issue of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s inability to attract blue-collar votes.

It would help for readers to know that Kucinich stands in stark contrast to Dean, being an antiwar candidate with deep blue-collar support, because of his stand for labor (he walked a Ralphs picket line in Venice on Oct. 18); for family farms trying to survive a takeover by agribusiness; for a return to fair trade with labor and environmental protections; and for health care with the insurance profits removed and given to medical servers, so all can be covered. Aren’t you supposed to be informing me about these things, instead of me, you?

Mimi Kennedy Dilg

Van Nuys

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Isn’t it logical that a candidate would prefer to be accepted by better-educated voters rather than less-educated voters? As one who does not particularly consider himself to be well educated, it seems prudent for me to take a cue from my betters and support Dean.

Ed Young

La Puente

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Re “Lieberman Heckled at Arab Forum,” Oct. 18: I commend James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) for their integrity and willingness to address the Israel-Palestinian conflict face to face, with mutual respect. At the same time, I wonder at the self-righteous hypocrisy and open racism of the Arab American “leaders.”

By calling on Lieberman, born and raised in the U.S., to “go back to Tel Aviv,” one Arab American utilized the same vile rhetoric employed by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups. A Palestinian activist’s invocation of the epithet, “He’s such a Jew” -- as if the more “Jewish” you are, the more evil you are -- speaks for itself. I am certain that these individuals do not represent the entire Arab American leadership, or Arab Americans in general. I urge Zogby and his more moderate colleagues to publicly repudiate these racist individuals and their statements as intolerable and un-American.

Jeffrey Ellis

Los Angeles