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The April 28 editorial applauding the delay in draining Lake Calavera in order to repair the dam and bring it up to California state code takes into account the sensibilities and concerns of Calavera Hills homeowners, the Carlsbad Planning Commission and the city of Carlsbad, but no mention of the people most affected by the delay �� the residents of the Rancho Carlsbad Community who live downstream of the lake alongside Calavera Creek.

It is distressing enough to be glossed over by the Carlsbad Planning Commission and the City Council, but for the press to ignore that we exist is indeed painful to us and may indicate blindness on your part.

JACK M. JAFFE

Carlsbad

Why she is voting for Shari Mackin

In reference to a letter of April 25, these are a few concerns I, as an Oceanside resident and voter, have in regard to Mr. Ron Lettau�s comments.

Oceanside residents are not so timorous as he suggests. I, and others, go to the voting booth to exercise my best choice of candidates, not because I�m scared. Neither do I, nor I�m sure other Oceanside residents, feel I am �fooled� into a ballot choice. Research and personal knowledge are the best allies in making a decision.

Shari Mackin has raised her family in Oceanside, worked with youth groups to locate areas to play their ball games, been on a panel for Parks and Recreation, opened a right of way to the beach and provided the support that prevented the city of Oceanside from giving away 465 acres of territory via a Coastal Commission ruling. Are these selfish interests? I think not.

Shari is an independent person, cognizant of the community and people�s needs. Not a big entity�s lackey, as has been suggested. Personally, I�d rather be associated with policemen and firemen than some other groups I can bring to mind.

A vote for Shari is an independent vote.

JOAN HYDORN BRUBAKER

Oceanside

Bill asks teachers to teach, not indoctrinate

In the May 2 Community Forum, J. David Drielsma criticized the Student Bill of Rights as proposed by Sen. Bill Morrow. Having been in higher education myself, I have a very different take on the bill.

The proposed bill asks for professors to teach rather than indoctrinate, harass, or put pressure on students because of their religious or political beliefs. If some students at Cal State San Marcos taped their mouths shut in protest of the bill, they don�t understand what it was intended to accomplish �� true academic freedom for students. I have heard stories of professors who used their position of power in the classroom to pressure all students to believe a certain way (many stories can be found at www.noindoctrination.org). The bill reflects the desire of so many who urge appreciation for diversity in our society. What better place to start than in higher education, where a student with divergent views from that of the professor can feel free to express them without fear of reprisal or humiliation?

GARY ZACHARIAS

Escondido

Statements on special ed were wrong

Last February, Jack O�Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, announced the release of the first Pocketbook of Special Education Statistics. �This new tool shows ... pupils� test scores, and graduation rates are going up,� said O�Connell.

Sadly, this comment reveals a man with a myopic view. Since when does a nonverbal student with profound cerebral palsy and epilepsy take tests? Is graduation the main concern for students requiring daily pain medication and diaper changing?

Moreover, the California Department of Education reports special-education dropout rates are decreasing. What barricaded bureaucrat made this misleading assertion? How many Down syndrome, mentally retarded or students in wheelchairs skip school? �We need to increase the amount of instructional time special-education students receive with non-disabled peers,� said O�Connell. Why should students with profound needs be with non-disabled peers?

Has it occurred to officials that many severely disabled students require constant monitoring and specialized environments? Apparently, the elites of education need to spend more time observing students in the classroom than sitting at Sacramento eateries and speaking at out-of-town seminars.

KIM OAKLEY

Valley Center

Thanks, anyway

I completely agree with Rep. Darrell Issa�s final comment in his letter of April 27 �� Congress will act carefully to address Social Security ... Misleading statements and partisan scare tactics are an unwelcome reality in this important debate.� Issa should do us all a favor and listen to his own advice and take that message to his cohorts.

GEORGE WALKER

Carlsbad

Issa, Cunningham out of step

On April 27, Darrell Issa wrote that Bush�s plan begins to address the looming shortfall in Social Security. Not true. While the president is using the shortfall to promote private accounts, even many Republicans are withholding support for the president�s plan due to the fact that the message has gotten out loud and clear that private accounts would, in fact, further exacerbate rather than fix the problem.

All sides acknowledge that private accounts would remove even more funds from the Social Security Trust Fund, which has been consistently looted by Congress ever since the �80s. The money removed would be invested in private accounts that, by definition, would vary in their performance, with half the funds doing better than average, and half doing worse. Thus Social Security becomes social gambling.

It�s nice to see that many Republicans are thinking rationally and acting responsibly rather than blindly following an administration bent on decimating one of the most successful federal programs ever created. It�s too bad Congressmen Issa and Randy Cunningham aren�t part of this group.

GIVEN HARRISON

Carlsbad

Gay is neither good nor bad

Here is a short list of well-known gay, lesbian or bisexual people.

Aristotle (philosopher), Billie Holiday (singer), Hans Christian Andersen (writer), David Kopay (football player), Peter Tchaikovsky (composer), Sappho (poet), George Santayana (writer), Michelangelo (painter), James Dean (actor), Martina Navratilova (tennis player), Walt Whitman (poet), T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia �� British soldier), Leonardo da Vinci (inventor/painter), Emily Dickinson (poet), Brian Epstein (manager of Beatles), Alice B. Toklas (writer), Plato (philosopher), Gore Vidal (writer), Andy Warhol (painter), Alexander Hamilton (politician), Margaret Mead (anthropologist), Rudolph Valentino (actor).

George Washington Carver (inventor), Richard I (British king), Willa Cather (novelist), Desiderius Erasmus (Dutch theologian), Leonard Bernstein (composer), Edna St. Vincent Millay (poet), Oscar Wilde (writer), Sojourner Truth (abolitionist).

Of course, some famous serial killers were gay too. The point is, that diversity in sexual orientation, like left-handedness, is a random and natural part of our human nature and, by itself, does not define who or what we are.

ROCKY VELGOS

Vista

Illegal immigration is illegal �� period

I have one question for Raoul Contreras and the rest of the illegal immigrant apologists: What part of illegal don�t you understand? It�s illegal to be in the United States without proper documentation.

Naturally, the ACLU�s been complaining about the Minuteman Project while ignoring the fact that all they did was call the Border Patrol and direct them to the illegal immigrant�s location; in fact, they purposely did anything they could to avoid contact. That�s no different than calling the police if you see someone break into your neighbor�s house. Hint: Illegal immigration�s a crime. If you don�t believe me, look up the definition of illegal in a dictionary. Notice the first word in the phrase �illegal immigrant� is illegal.

Furthermore, if Americans travel to a foreign country, we�re expected to obey all of that country�s laws; therefore, we�re owed the same courtesy.

Oh, and I have no problem whatsoever with immigrants who enter the country legally. My great-grandparents (on both sides of my family) immigrated to the U.S. in 1900 and they did so by the book. The plain, simple fact of the matter is, as other writers have pointed out, that illegal immigration is just that �� illegal.

VICTOR CHABALA

Oceanside

Governor is right about immigration

In response to the remarks by the governor, his support of the Minutemen is backed up by almost every poll in which people oppose illegal immigration by 70 percent to 90 percent margins.

He is also quite accurate is stating that the project on the border was more like a �Neighborhood Watch.� I have met the leaders and many of their followers in a recent trip to Washington, D.C., and they are mostly retired, concerned citizens. They have brought to bear the fact that we can control our borders, if we have the will.

The governor has pushed the issue at the administration, who must decide what action the American people are demanding. In his own words, �We gotta secure our borders,� George Bush has egg on his face for calling these volunteers vigilantes. His actions in the near future will determine whether he has the support of the public, not just the pro-immigrant minority.

BYRON SLATER

San Diego

Where is Mexico�s civil rights movement?

I guess Ruben Fierro�s whitewashing of Mexico�s social history is to be expected (Letters, April 20). Mexicans want to think well of Mexico, and in the face of constant news reports about Mexico�s corruption and lawlessness it can�t be easy.

It�s wonderful that 19th-century Mexican President Benito Juarez was 100 percent Zapotec Indian. But why has there never been a civil rights movement that would give Indians equal rights and integrate them into Mexican society? Where are the social programs that could lift millions of them out of Stone Age poverty? Fierro can�t answer. Like Mexico�s leaders he�d much rather focus on racial injustice in the U.S. as a way to avoid uncomfortable questions about Mexico�s gross economic and racial disparities.

DOUG BELL

Rancho Penasquitos

AB 654 another form of mercy killing

The proposed AB 654 �- California�s Compassionate Choice Act �� is neither compassionate nor the right choice. It�s another form of mercy killing and/or euthanasia. The proposed bill will promote a culture of death for many of our elderly, sick and disabled. Compassionate sounds comforting, but this proposed bill is at odds with the truth.

Truth and compassion are two sides of the same coin. The truth is that human life is sacred and inviolable. No one, including the state, has the right to terminate life because of inconvenience, suffering or hardship.

If this bill passes, it will signal the beginning of a slippery slope to legalize mercy killing that will eventually include the murder of our young. For families here in California, it will destroy the foundation for living harmoniously with each other.

Mercy killing and assisted suicide, which this proposed bill advocates, destroy the dignity of a human being.

Let�s promote the culture of life, which ensures the sanctity of life for everyone. It will ensure the right of every human being to live in this nation with liberty and justice, not just for some but for all.

Contact your Assembly member to vote no on AB 654.

BILL BAER

Carlsbad

Ducks and babies

I have been following the amazing story of the Mallard duck who laid her eggs on the grounds of the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. (�Ducklings hatch at Treasury,� May 1).

Fearing that her unhatched eggs might be injured by tourists, our government built a barricade around her to protect her unborn chicks. After days, they hatched and were all escorted to safety by the Secret Service.

In Washington, D.C., and in thousands of locations across our country, unborn human babies are removed from their mother�s wombs and discarded every day.

My mind swims with the unbelievable message sent in this country �� the baby chicks make headlines and command national attention. The aborted human babies silently number in the millions, and no one blinks an eye.

SUE GIMBY

Olivenhain

Now we mistrust our own government

When the world was dark near the beginning of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He was correct, and most Americans trusted the leader of our government. Now most of us cannot do that.

Christian conservatives thunder about the gay menace and family values and draw attention from economic and international fiascoes.

Attempts by California to sue Texas-based energy firms that gouged our state failed because only the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction. Since its members were appointed by Dick Cheney there is no hope of recovery.

Some $7 billion worth of Social Security taxes paid yearly by illegal immigrant workers who are ineligible to receive any benefits is retained by the Dubyans. Another $41.5 billion is paid yearly by these workers for Medicare, from which they also are excluded.

The new target seems to be Iran, where Cheney hopes to find the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist in Iraq. The Army has new Velcro cammies but lack armored vehicles, and veterans' benefits have been slashed.

JOSEPH R. GRANT

Oceanside

Thornhill and Dean

Mark Thornhill sinks to a new low when he tries to impugn Howard Dean (April 26), who has more integrity and intelligence in his proverbial little finger than Thornhill could ever hope for on the best day of his life.

HANK GREGG

Carlsbad