How an ancient tale saved lives in Japan’s tsunami; L.A. Unified may be forced to cut adult education; and California as a place to do business

Internet envy

Re “A digital desert,” Column One, March 12

Step 1: Start an online company.

Step 2: Move to a place with no high-speed Internet.

Step 3: Complain.

This is totally ridiculous.

I wouldn’t own a manufacturing company and then move to Malibu and complain that I couldn’t run it there, or start a day-care center, then complain that there was a bar next door. Want fast Internet access? Move.

The article says that faster satellite access does exist, but it is limited and finicky. So what? It’s the middle of nowhere.

Since when is broadband access a right? I can’t believe we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for running lines out to areas like this.

It’s not as if we have repairs to do on roads, bridges, waterways or anything like that, right?

Joseph Waltz

Santa Monica

Sending quite a different message

Re “ The 1,000-year-old warning,” Opinion, March 11

José Holguín-Veras’ Op-Ed told a remarkable and deeply touching story about how the residents of Murohama, Japan, long ago suffered a massive earthquake and terrifying tsunami that caused many to rush to the closest hill for safety. Tragically, a second wave was coming from another direction. Those on the hill perished. As he wrote: “To signify their grief and to advise future generations, the survivors erected a shrine.”

This 1,000-year-old warning endured through time and helped save many lives in last year’s tsunami.

I wondered: What

will we leave as a message and our legacy to future generations?

All I can think of

us bequeathing to our descendants 1,000 years from now is a ruined planet with skull-and-crossbones sites containing nuclear waste, deadly for hundreds of thousands of years. Progress?

Susan Hanger

Topanga

The value of adult education

Re “L.A. adult education classes are threatened,” March 11

The adult education programs have been fundamental in educating so many students, from the English as a second language classes as well as those earning a high school diploma after having dropped out of school but finding their way back. Adult education is as much about recommitting to education as it is about academic performance

My late mother taught ESL at the San Pedro Adult Learning Center. Some of her best students were immigrants working toward becoming citizens, enrolled because they chose to be, sacrificing much as they worked by day and attended classes at night.

Education is our

best hope to promote a constructive and aware society, and to inspire individuals.

A common language unites us all and is vital to progress. To abolish the adult education programs would be a blow to our American values.

Stephanie Mardesich

San Pedro

Can it be true that L.A. Unified is planning to “eliminate thousands of jobs, close all district adult schools and cut some after-school and arts programs”? I like to pay taxes for these programs, but I guess others don’t.

Could it be that the rich really don’t want others to be educated so they’ll have a cheap and ignorant workforce?

Cheryl Clark

Long Beach

L.A. Unified proposes closing its adult education schools, which have a budget of a few million dollars but that have

measurable benefits in

all areas.

At the same time, the district has no problem spending millions to replace all the staff at Miramonte Elementary School — for no demonstrable benefit other than to divert attention from the sex-abuse scandal.

The L.A. community should be outraged that adult ed funds and all the thousands of lives they benefit are being sacrificed by district officials who value public relations over education.

Robin Hill

Mar Vista

Could the needed millions of dollars be made up by disbanding the L.A. Unified School District?

What’s worse — the loss of hundreds of jobs for bureaucrats or the loss to several hundred thousand students who need the adult education programs they are receiving to become functioning members of society?

If the district and, for that matter, the City Council cannot come up with the money to continue these programs, then they no longer are qualified to run our education system.

Jerry Beigel

Los Angeles

California: It works for them

Re “California, a bad bet for business,” Opinion, March 13

In the old days of the Cold War, we justly reviled the Soviet Union for its monopolistic practices. There was no room for individual freedom as the state owned industrial sites and agriculture was dominated by huge collective farms.

However, at the same time in the U.S., private monopolies were driving family farms into oblivion, and a similar process has taken hold in the rest of our economy. The same big-box stores now dominate every mall, and giant companies dictate the conditions under which we all live. Too many regulations or too high wages in your state? They’ll just take their business elsewhere.

The basic question is: Which of the two — human beings or enterprises — should exist in the service of the other?

The “laws” of economics are made by humans and can be altered when they become untenable.

Grace Bertalot

Anaheim

I am getting quite tired of people’s comments about the bad business climate in California. I especially take exception to Bradley R. Schiller’s statement that “Silicon Valley no longer has a monopoly on high-tech talent and innovation.”

The truth is that if you are intelligent, educated, innovative and hard working, then California is the place to start a business. If not, go somewhere else.

Don’t forget to talk to the highly educated tech workers, anywhere in the world, and ask them where they would like to work and live. The answer inevitably is California.

Christopher Shih

Torrance

My main objection to this tired right-wing narrative of California’s alleged business unfriendliness is the “culprits” blamed: labor and regulations.

California can boast about paying a fairer compensation to its workers, especially in light of a higher cost of living, and California has always been a trendsetter for regulations that prevent harm to consumers and the environment. California’s resistance to the nationwide “race to the bottom” in terms of union busting, low wages and externalizing the actual costs of production (deregulation) do make us appear “uncompetitive.”

Here are my suggestions for improving California’s competitiveness:

First, institute a single-payer healthcare system as seen in other Western industrialized countries and remove the greatest expense to businesses.

Second, establish a state bank that would put money into the economy primarily for badly needed infrastructure repair and improvement. Businesses would flock here.

Jeff Goodwin

Los Angeles

A Viagra test

Re “Santorum and Gingrich fight it out in the South,” March 12

So now we know how the Republican presidential candidates, Congress and radio personalities feel about contraception, both in general and with respect to health insurance coverage.

Has anyone asked them about Viagra? I would be interested in hearing their opinions on that.

Julie Milligan

Santa Monica