America’s ‘disgusted majority’; supporting the troops; L.A. Unified’s problems

Fed-up Americans

Re “The disgusted majority,” Column One, Oct. 14

What a perfectly headlined article. Ann Quinn said everything I feel. Politicians running for office — it doesn’t matter which state — are spending time and millions of dollars to bash each other instead of dealing with the real issues.

I am a registered Democrat, but parties don’t mean a lot to me anymore. I make my feelings known through my ballot, but that doesn’t seem to matter either.

We’re talking about the basics here: What

Americans want is a job to go to in the morning,

food on the table and the promise of a better world for their children. What is so hard for our government to understand?

My government needs to have the backbone, guts, stamina and foresight to do what I elected it to do — govern the country for the American people.

Cynthia Kutasy

Riverside

Your article says the Quinns typify middle-class Americans who want government to “address the problems they deal with on a daily basis, putting food on the table, gas in their car and ... getting the kids through college.”

What are they complaining about?

Our government fought wars to preserve the supply of cheap oil; it strengthened the social safety net; it continues to keep taxes perilously low so that people like the Quinns can afford all the must-haves of a middle-class lifestyle.

I suggest that the “problems” the Quinns want the government to “address” would be those they themselves created by expecting too much and giving too little, all while taking for granted an aging infrastructure that their parents and grandparents taxed themselves to build.

Wouldn’t a better term for people like the Quinns be the “ignorant majority”? It’s precisely because the electorate is tuned out — the declining number of subscribers to your newspaper being just one symptom — that we have a government with no clear mandate to lead.

We are either a nation of community or a nation of individuality; we can’t be both.

Aaron Robinson

Torrance

Congratulations to The Times for putting this story on the front page. It’s so much better than the typical one-sentence guttural quotes from supposed voters. The best part: “Whoever gets elected to Congress will spend millions doing it, and then spend half their time in office raising money so they can do it again.”

Lewis Geyser

Solvang

Your article hit the nail on the head. If only the politicians would pay attention.

If we are ever going to see government work through the process of compromise for the good of all to get something done, those who do all of the talking must understand that there is in fact a large swath of Republicans (like myself) and Democrats (like my business partner) who are disgusted by it all and expect otherwise.

My view is not simply wishful thinking; I was an elected school board member for years, and I know from experience that people across the political spectrum can find ways to work together for the good of the people they are elected to serve.

Michael B. Regele

Irvine

The two problems I see in American politics are the voter who is motivated by fear and the monied interests who control both the legislators and the voters’ fears.

No one listens; problems go unsolved.

Dan D. Richards

Norwalk

Your article about voters’ disgust with partisanship and today’s political discourse was right on. There are hundreds of millions of us in this country, and we are not all going to agree. How about we all acknowledge the immense challenge of governing such an incredibly diverse society and then get on with it, instead of wallowing in the mud?

Governing means more than spewing platitudes and blaming others; it means engaging in meaningful debate, negotiation and compromise.

Those of us on the fringes of the political spectrum need to get a grip and acknowledge that a country this size cannot be governed from either extreme. And those of us in the middle need to get over the idea that the problem must be the party in power, and therefore the solution is to vote for the other guys.

Reid Olson

Los Angeles

Absolutely right. I am tired of the blaming, finger-pointing, name-calling, obnoxious rhetoric, phony sensitivity and inability of the political community to rise above the squalor and work together to govern.

Opposing a possible solution to a problem because the other side came up with the idea or your name is not on it? What happened to people with different ideas coming together to forge the best solution? Do we need to send all of our elected officials to diplomacy school?

Kathy Longley

Chatsworth

Supporting our troops — really

Re “An ‘It gets better’ for the troops,” Opinion, Oct. 13

The author provides us with some much-needed perspective, citing our overall lack of concern for military service members and their families.

It is well past time that we as a nation stop to reconsider who really has it rough. Yes, we have the right to complain about how bad things are, but we are still locked in two wars — both of our own choice — and yet we are largely unwilling to truly accept the consequences. Instead, we are angry and self-absorbed.

How small we have become. What more is it going to take for us to realize this?

Art Wahl

Port Hueneme

Changing L.A. Unified

Re “L.A. Unified’s change agent,” Oct 14

I am appalled by the “rearranging the deck- chairs on the Titanic” approach of the mayor and the school board to layoffs in the district, as well as the tone of The Times’ articles.

Changing the order of layoffs according to school does not amount to a fundamental change for the better in providing high-quality education and equal opportunity to the children of Los Angeles.

Only an end to the teacher layoffs, period, and full funding of all our public schools will do that, and that is the main demand of the protests.

The best conditions for student learning in all schools are a stable, supported teaching workforce and small class sizes — and that takes a commitment to funding.

Leone Hankey

Los Angeles

Let’s take another look at a long-held practice by L.A. Unified: its bloated administrative department. Instead of using teachers as the cure-all for troubles at the schools, let’s look at making some changes at the administration and school board level to help our children and teachers achieve.

Steven. A. Apodaca

Whittier

Marijuana and health

Re “Health gets lost in pot debate,” Oct. 10

Groups pushing to legalize marijuana are not claiming the drug is harmless. Indeed, many believe any harm associated with marijuana is an argument for taxing and regulating it.

Surveys indicate that teens can more readily purchase marijuana than buy alcohol. Instead of hoping that drug dealers will “card” their customers and not offer them more dangerous drugs, let’s implement a system we know works: tax and regulate for adult use.

Neither have legalization groups lost sight of the health effects of marijuana use. It’s just that the harm associated with a drug, food or activity is insufficient reason for prohibiting it. Thus, alcohol, tobacco, unprotected sex and never exercising are all legal.

Sarah Lovering

Venice