A Little Less Politics and a Bit More Quiet

Re “A Brief Vacation, Please, From Preelection Hype,” letters, Oct. 24: A two-week vacation would be swell, but what we really need is a respite from all these initiatives and propositions. The stack of mail relating to these things has defeated me.

There is no way I can vote on issues that leave me scratching my head in total frustration and total ignorance as to the proper choice.

Coming from New York state, I have never seen anything like this. We live in a “republic” (remember the pledge ... “and to the republic for which it stands”). It is the task of the Legislature to enact laws. Perhaps when the former governor was recalled we should have recalled the entire Legislature and started all over again.

Ellen Wiest

Palm Springs

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Regarding at least a two-week moratorium on campaigning before the election: Let’s take it a step further. With instant communication at our fingertips, we no longer need months between the primary and the election. Six weeks seems ample time if one is running for office. So: primary, four weeks of rhetoric, and then two weeks of blessed silence so we voters can absorb the messages, and then to the polls.

It seems possible that this change would allow people who are not millionaires to actually compete.

Doris Larson

Arroyo Grande

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I have no faith in ballot initiatives. Why must we be forced to make decisions about the passage of laws on important issues? The writers of these initiatives always seem to do such a poor job that the new laws are overturned by courts, as in Proposition 187, or the new laws create too many new problems, as in the three-strikes law.

The television commercials make it even worse by using so many half-truths and deceptive manipulations as to make intelligent decision-making nearly impossible.

When in doubt, and there is always plenty of doubt regarding the integrity and desirability of ballot initiatives, please vote no. And let’s start to hold our state legislators responsible for failing to get these jobs done the right way.

Nate Brown

Glendale