France’s proposed burka ban; parents and school reform; Barack Obama isn’t an ideologue

Battle over burkas

Re “Don’t ban the burka,” Editorial, Feb. 3

I was startled and shocked by your editorial. No better example of abject surrender to the ambitious Islamist terrorist regimes of the world could have been exhibited.

I was startled by The Times’ PC argument. I am also shocked that more than 41 people were blown up and many wounded recently in Baghdad by a woman in a burka . . . and that was not the first time such an attack had occurred.

To quote from a poem by William Butler Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”

If tomorrow I should see some woman concealed in a burka and standing in a queue at a concert hall or supermarket, I’ll light out for a place of safety.

Jascha Kessler
Santa Monica

I personally don’t have an opinion on whether or not the burka should be banned in France.

I suppose the concern is that the wearing of the burka symbolizes a form of religious extremism. Although I think your editorial puts forth a reasonable position, I do sometimes wonder at what point a society should stop tolerating religious extremism. Religious extremists are themselves intolerant and, worse, often advocates of violence in the name of God.

Gary Nagy
Gardena

Calling out the City Council

Re “L.A. council delays plan to cut jobs,” Feb. 4

I was always under the impression that a Los Angeles City Council member’s primary responsibility was to make decisions that benefit the city, making it a safer place to live and protecting its assets. Yet when faced with a massive budget shortfall, the current City Council added $4 million to that deficit.

Do the council members actually believe that they can continue to raise fees and borrow more to solve their spending problems? Their lack of control is driving this city to ruin.

It’s time to be leaders. The unpopular decisions are the difficult ones. The council should start by reducing its own salaries and staffs. Good leaders lead by example, not simply by giving orders.

And Jose Huizar: $15 million is a start.

Martin Mangione
Brea

Re “L.A. council opposition to layoffs, other cuts growing,” Feb. 3

If The Times’ description of our council members’ ideas is accurate, we must remove these people immediately.

Huizar “suggested that the city balance its books by borrowing more money”?

Bill Rosendahl “vowed to protect the city’s calligraphers”?

Labor leaders said that “they are open to shrinking the workforce as long as each targeted employee is moved safely into another vacant position”?

And Paul Koretz, Janice Hahn and Richard Alarcon want to tax billboards?

Are these people competent to handle anything? Everyone I speak to is frustrated and ready to leave this city and go someplace run by people who know what it means to live within their means.

Calligraphers?

Jeffrey Buttikofer
Los Angeles

Schools need the parents

Re “The ugly side of reform,” Feb. 1

Your editorial speaks to the control of schools by powerful, salaried stakeholders who claim to represent children first but who make long-term security for employees, rather than student success, the priority reform agenda.

These powerful forces have tolerated the LAUSD’s failure to effectively educate many children. They have minimized parent influence. In this latest round of reform -- an initiative that will allow outside operators to run some of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s campuses -- they have turned to tactics typical of undemocratic societies to spread disinformation and confusion.

They mean to keep us back, at whatever cost. Moving forward, our families and communities must demand more power.

Maria Casillas
Los Angeles
The writer is president of Families In Schools, which encourages parental involvement in education.

Practical advice on sex

Re “Study finds abstinence-only education helps young teens,” Feb. 2

I wonder how many diseases and pregnancies could be avoided if we tried a tactic I once used with a young girl who was brought to our middle school’s counseling office by a friend who wanted me to persuade her not to have sex with her boyfriend that coming weekend.

I gave her a list of the risks involved: disease, pregnancy, reputation. I saw her eyes glaze over.

Frustrated with my inability to reach her, I suddenly found a compelling reason for her to rethink her plans. I told her I would bet my house that within a month of sleeping with her boyfriend, she would see him holding hands with someone else and telling her he just wants to be friends.

Her eyes quickly refocused and a look of horror spread over her face. She postponed her weekend plans. The following week, she came running into my office with a huge grin, saying: “Guess what? My boyfriend was holding hands with another girl and told me he just wants to be friends.”

Jill Chapin
Santa Monica

Our values are skewed

Re “Stadium promoter donates to campaigns,”“Pasadena Playhouse to close,” and “Center for the disabled faces closure,” Jan. 30

The Times reported on Jan. 30 that developer Ed Roski is spending megabucks, apparently bribing politicians to approve a pro football stadium in the City of Industry.

In the same edition was an article about the closing of the venerable Pasadena Playhouse because it has never had a firm financial foundation, and an article about the imminent closure of an 82-year-old facility for the disabled because there is not enough money in the state budget to keep it open.

The juxtaposition of these articles is a blatant example of how our values have been skewed. Only entities and people that have the potential to make even more money for the already rich -- in this case a sports facility and football players -- are supported by investors and the government.

Be warned: Things will get even worse now that corporations have been granted unlimited spending in political campaigns.

Margot Eiser
Montebello

A centrist

Re “An ideologue in hiding,” Opinion, Feb. 2

Jonah Goldberg provides no evidence whatsoever that President Obama is an ideologue. An ideologue is a zealous advocate of an ideology. Based on the evidence to date, Obama is hardly a liberal, let alone a zealous one. He’s apparently a corporate centrist. That’s why so much of his base is disillusioned with him. It’s also why independents are disillusioned, because they see yet another politician who caves in to corporate pressure. If Goldberg’s gruel were any thinner, it would be a vacuum.

Brian Kelly
Glendale