Saving the the Salton Sea; health insurance mandate; history in the schools

Salton Sea sense

Re “Salton Sea battle,” Nov. 20

I’m really getting tired of the “Salton Sea battle,” especially in light of the billions in tax dollars needed to preserve the lake. It’s time to do one of two things, both drastic.

In heavy snow years, like last year and perhaps this year, find a way to flood the sea with freshwater from the Colorado River. That’s how the sea was created almost 100 years ago.

That, or stop trying to defeat nature and let it dry up, retuning it to the original ancient lake bed it was before its flooding. Either way, the taxpayer wins.

Ken Harrison

Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

The Salton Sea lies below sea level, and the Sea of Cortez off Baja California is a short distance to the south. Why not build a pipeline from the Sea of Cortez to the New River, which flows into the Salton Sea?

The lake level could be managed, birds and fish restored and air quality improved. Mexico’s government might welcome the money and jobs created from building and managing the pipeline. The new recreation industry created by a healthy Salton Sea could be taxed to maintain the effort.

Bernard Newcomer

Escondido

Health insurance in the real world

Re “The right case for healthcare reform,” Opinion, Nov. 20

Walter Zelman casually asserts that any “responsible” adult gets health insurance.

The problem is that there seems to be a large number of “irresponsible” adults. That, or a lot of responsible adults can do the math and know that health insurance is a bad deal for them, particularly until they approach their senior years.

Government-mandated health insurance is simply another boondoggle that costs us far more than the problem it is alleged to fix.

David Argall

La Puente

Zelman assumes that the modern-day Republican Party is still a conservative party. Past Republican heavyweights such as Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole embraced a conservative philosophy that believed that government had a role in prodding the free market to benefit society as a whole.

This current crop of GOP politicians has morphed from traditional conservatism to an ideology best summed up by “of the corporation, for the corporation, by the corporation.”

Bob Teigan

Santa Susana, Calif.

History of the Americas

Re “Do Latino studies incite or inspire?,” Nov. 20

If you are an Anglo American child, you know of the Pilgrims’ escape to freedom in the Western Hemisphere. You have probably acted out the Pilgrim saga.

If you are a Latino child in the United States, you may not identify with that. That is why it is necessary and just to empower Latino children here by exposing them to their ethnic roots.

The greatness of these children’s ancestors seeps out through the work of scientists. MIT anthropologists found proof that 3,600 years ago, the Maya ran a large rubber production industry. But ask a person on the street who was the first to vulcanize rubber and chances are they will mention Charles Goodyear.

Latino children need to know of the Maya and the cultures known as the Anahuac, the probable ancestors of 30 million Mexican Americans.

Jenny Cardenas

Riverside

I am originally from Greece. Where are the Greek studies for my children?

When I came from Greece, all I wanted to be was an American.

If culture and history are important to Latino parents, they should teach them at home or in church. If these students feel that learning about their parents’ history and culture is important enough, there are libraries where they can teach themselves.

Why should tax dollars be used for studies for one group? Ethnic studies polarize young people at a time when the country needs to be united.

What happened to the “melting pot”? Sadly, we are becoming a “salad bowl.”

Lea Osborne

Woodland Hills

Wow, Paulo Freire and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” on the front page — what is the world coming to?

The difficulty involved in understanding “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is obviously lost on Arizona schools Supt. John Huppenthal. Perhaps he might take a crack at the book and then sit down in conversation, or as Freire might say, in dialogue with the students.

Additionally, one would hope that he has a working knowledge of Tucson’s Paulo Freire Freedom School, a high-performing charter with a long waiting list.

Tom Wilson

Laguna Beach

The writer is director of Chapman University’s Paulo Freire Democratic Project.

An inspiration behind bars

Re “Care and atonement,” two-part series, Nov. 20-21

I normally gloss over stories about prisoners because I tend to see serious lawbreakers as getting what they deserve.

Then I read Kurt Streeter’s articles about chaplain Keith Knauf and inmate John Paul Madrona and their work with terminally ill prisoners.

Madrona’s evolution as a man of character and conscience moved me and shows that redemption is possible, something that murder victim Terry Takahashi’s brother challenged him to consider years earlier.

I continue to think a lot about this story and the extraordinary power of forgiveness and human compassion, whatever our circumstances.

Linda R. Antonioli

Chatsworth

Nothing can ever make up for the tragic loss of Tracy Takahashi. But one thing that keeps his death from being pointless is that his murderers truly reflect upon what they have done and genuinely change.

Many have been taught that people are evil because a forefather ate the apple of the knowledge of good and evil in disobedience to God. But it is our “eating of the knowledge of good and evil,” sitting in our cells and evaluating our lives, that gives birth to conscience (the knowledge that God is ever present), without which there can be no real change.

Madrona may be well on the journey to finding the change not only in service but in love.

I hope the fact that Tracy’s tragic passing has been so instrumental in other men’s salvation is not lost on the Takahashi family.

Daniel Steele

Corona

Getting what you pay for

Re “Billionaires want to put big tax hike on the ballot,” Nov. 20

I would have no problem paying more in taxes if I could be guaranteed that the government and its officials had suddenly developed a sense of fulfilling a public agenda rather than their own personal agendas.

I have opened The Times several times recently to find articles about an unseemly government official misappropriating hard-earned tax dollars. And I, for one, am tired of supporting their hobbies.

Stefanie Sherwin

Pacific Palisades

Why don’t the billionaires supporting this initiative just donate enough money to raise the $10 billion and leave everyone else alone?

Suzette Van Bylevelt

Los Angeles

Not so fast

Re “Joe Paterno, meet J.J. Abrams,” Editorial, Nov. 20

Before you pull a muscle patting director J.J. Abrams on the back, keep in mind that Abrams did no more than what former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno did: kick the matter upstairs.

Rather than notify the police about the child molester, Abrams merely told the studio higher-ups for whom he works.

Unless Abrams contacts the police himself about the matter, he’s as guilty of passing the buck as Paterno.

Daniel Acosta

Rosemead

Fixing Reagan

Re “Reagan statue to be repaired, returned to park,” Nov. 20

The article on the bronze statue in Newport Beach of Ronald Reagan shows the artwork, after the vandalism, leaning positively forward. Sculptor Miriam Baker is quoted as saying, “The repairs aren’t going to be too difficult.”

But I’d suggest that to fully correct it, the statue be made to lean somewhat backward and strongly to the right.

Shelley Martin

San Pedro