Our readers sound off:

Let's get their attention

In light of the recent Randy Cunningham debacle, maybe it's time we the people serve notice to our elected officials, notice that they're there to serve us, not themselves.

If every Republican and Democrat re-registered as an Independent, no longer will any politician be able to automatically count on votes from what were once blue and red colors on a map.

Re-registering Independent doesn't mean an individual must vote accordingly, just that the established party's (Democrats and Republicans) representatives are going to have to rethink what their job is and what they stand for. It's one helluva way to get their attention.

ROBERT J. SALVI

San Diego

Let's retire 'Duke'

"Duke" Cunningham has priced himself out of my league. Since $700,000 is what it takes for him to be a truly responsive representative, I've decided to work for Francine Busby to replace him. Go to her Web site ññ http://www.francinebusby2004.org/ ññ to find out what true representation means, then give her what you can afford so she can win his seat.

Let's help "Duke" spend some quality time in his $2.55 million Rancho Santa Fe retirement home.

GIVEN HARRISON

Carlsbad

Damage never should have happened

After reading the article about Rancho Buena Vista High School damage ("More work ahead to repair flood damage at Rancho Buena Vista High," June 10), I was wondering who informed Chuck Taylor, the maintenance director, that the practice of joining copper piping with galvanized was at one time allowed.

As a local plumbing contractor I can tell you that it has never been an acceptable practice or allowed by the Uniform Plumbing Code. The school district's building code is even stricter.

It seems to me that the original plumbing contractor and/or the inspection company should still be on the hook for the damage due to gross negligence. Why should we pay for damage that never should have happened? The school district should look into this. I wonder if they will.

ED NELSON

Vista

Cunningham's shows his hypocrisy

I laughed out loud when House Republicans passed a bill to clean up the United Nations, to stem its bureaucratic excesses, enforce financial discipline, establish protections for whistle-blowers and, best of all, create an independent investigative authority for ethics violations.

"Duke" Cunningham voted for this bill, after he had sold his house for well above market price to a defense contractor while steering millions of our tax dollars to that contractor. Cunningham even lives on that contractor's yacht in Washington. Our young are dying and being mutilated in the sands of Iraq for a pack of lies, and Cunningham personally profits from their suffering.

After Cunningham and his cohorts finish cleaning up the U.N., will they address their own ethical violations? And then, having removed the mote from their own eye, will these Pharisees remove the log of the Bush administration's lie-driven, warmongering, anything-goes ethics?

Of course not! We all know that Bush-minions don't give one whit about personal responsibility or religious principles. They believe that like taxes, responsibility and morality are only for the little people.

RAMONA BYRON

Oceanside

Issa supports bigger government

I was hoping my congressman, Darrell Issa, would have taken advantage of the once-in-a-five-year opportunity to support a privileged resolution to end U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization.

I saw in the June 12 North County Times ("How your lawmakers voted") that Darrell Issa voted to stay subservient to the WTO, which is costing America goods, jobs and sovereignty. The common internationalist attack on our sovereignty links the WTO, the U.N. and the so-called free-trade pacts ññ NAFTA, CAFTA and the FTAA ññ all to the detriment of our country.

I fear Congressman Issa as well as the majority of the good 'ol boys have not given enough consideration as to what harm these pacts can do to the U.S. By the way, this last quarter Congressman Issa voted for bigger government and bigger spending.

MARIO MINERVINI

Vista

Church in no position to judge

I can't believe that priest at St. Mary Star of the Sea Preschool rejected the little girl because her dad wears makeup ("Cross-dressing father says preschool discriminated against his daughter," June 18). With all the sick perversion that has been exposed in the Catholic Church, how can they possibly judge this family?

TOM and LINDA METZ

Oceanside

In time, story of cross-dresser will be quaint

On a freezing winter day in 1950s England, my mother sent me off to school dressed in warm pants handed down from my older brother. My Catholic elementary schoolteacher sent me straight back home, for "dressing like a man."

Several years later, a nun in my convent school told me it was a sin for girls to wear trousers because that was "imitating men." (And I thought what's wrong with that? They get all the interesting jobs and they don't have to stay home and do the housework!)

In 50 years' time your story (June 19) about the little girl turned away from a Catholic preschool in Oceanside because her father wears feminine clothing will no doubt seem equally quaint.

The Catholic pastor refused to comment on the story "out of concern for the family," when the father had already gone public. A parent who tried to defend the school by saying "it's easier to turn one person away than to deal with everything that would come with letting him in" hit the nail on the head. After the horrors of the pedophile priest scandals, it's shameful to see the Catholic Church continuing to disguise moral cowardice as compassion.

JUDITH LEGGETT

Poway

Get involved to improve your school

I am writing this letter in response to the recent June 12 letter titled "Guajome Academy has changed." I would first like to address the author's description of Guajome Park Academy.

GPA is more than a "nice little charter school in Vista." It is a school completely grounded in the International Baccalaureate foundation of project-based learning. It is a school that, while comfortable, warm and friendly, aspires to, and typically achieves, raising the bar for each and every student utilizing their natural gifts and abilities.

While GPA was founded on student and parent support, it is the lack of that same support that threatens our very foundation. Unless we want to be part of an organization that dictates actions, we ññ students and parents alike ññ need to not only complain but get involved.

We need to stop pointing the finger at people who devote every waking moment to making us better citizens and begin believing in ourselves, our school and, above all, our community. I see the same 10 parents at meetings. I see the same small group of students volunteering to get involved. I invite each one of you who either attends our awesome school or has a child who attends to stand up and be counted.

EUGENIO

ARROYO-AVILA III

Oceanside

Don't open Harbor Drive

I am writing in response to a May 28 article regarding opening Harbor Drive to condominium access. If residents of the condominium complex can't negotiate the mile drive through their own development, why should we on Harbor Drive expect anything different? We too have pedestrian traffic, pets and children. How is it better to endanger the children of Harbor than the children in the condo complex?

The only reason to open Harbor Drive is to provide quicker access to and from the condo complex. We on Harbor don't need empty assurances.

Condo owners knew the access routes and proposed build-out when they bought their condos. If they didn't like it, they shouldn't have bought there. On the other hand, Harbor Drive owners bought under a master plan that showed their road would remain a cul-de-sac.

Now the question is whether City Hall will honor its past contractual agreements with Harbor Drive property owners or buckle under to the pressure of condo owners who are now unhappy with their property's access routes.

If we on Harbor Drive lose, Carlsbad loses, and your neighborhood could be next.

DEBRA BODINE

Carlsbad

Hospital wrangling

The wrangling over the new hospital location is making me sick.

The area that the city of Escondido has proposed to put the new hospital would revitalize an area that sorely needs it, and will be convenient to all of North County via two freeway exits. The hospital's proposal is in a worse location and will significantly cut into a brand-new business park and the North County jobs available there.

For the hospital to disregard the impact on the community is ludicrous.

Hospital management needs to stop threatening to move the hospital. That is not what I was promised and not what I voted for. I will not pay my money just to lose jobs in the area. I will not pay my money for a hospital in another city. Before that happens I will put another measure on the ballot to require that Escondido tax dollars be spent in Escondido.

CARY KNELL

Escondido

Those who would deny help are heartless

This is a message for Alesha Griffiths (Letters, June 17) and all the others who scoff at the idea of medical marijuana. First of all, no one says that marijuana is a medicine, that cures ailments. It is medical in that it helps relieve pain and suffering in the desperately ill.

Years ago, I watched a 46-year-old friend die slowly from cancer. He had had surgery and chemotherapy, which left him looking like a Holocaust victim, and was in constant, searing pain. His mouth was full of sores, his throat raw. He could barely talk and could not even swallow water without suffering intense pain. If he did get food or a pill down, it came right back up.

His name was Bob, and perhaps smoking marijuana could have eased both his pain and his hunger. Perhaps he could have kept a bit of food down, or the pain pills the doctor had prescribed. I'll never know because there was no marijuana for Bob. How cruel, heartless and narrow-minded are those who refuse to look at both sides of this situation.

CAROLE SHANAHAN

Vista

Eliminate House 'dues' too

Since the House voted to withhold up to half of the country's dues from the United Nations if the world body does not cut its bureaucracy, redirect its budget and tighten its accountability, I suggest we do the same with the House.

Let's withhold up to half of what we pay members of Congress if they do not cut the country's bureaucracy, redirect its budget ññ eliminating political pork and corporate welfare ññ and start being accountable to the people who elect them rather than the special interests who buy them. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

BOB ARONIN

Encinitas

Buddhists have a right to meditate

On June 16 the North County Times reported on the Vietnamese Buddhist Meditation Congregation's efforts to protect its rights in court. A representative of the county stated that it issued its cease-and-desist order preventing the congregation from meeting on its property because it had fallen behind in its permit application. In fact, the cease-and-desist order was issued on April 4, and the congregation's final deadline for submitting its final plan was on April 29, a deadline that we met.

Allowing a small group of Buddhists to meet once a week on Sundays to engage in quiet meditation for the next few months has no negative effect on the community. Recognizing this, the county has permitted the use for some time, and should continue to do so until its application is resolved.

In 2000, Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to protect the religious freedom of all Americans, including Buddhists, in situations exactly like this. The congregation is seeking relief from the courts in order to protect these rights. Its lawsuit does not seek money damages, and does not name any of the individuals who have aligned against the group, trying to get it out of Bonsall. It simply wishes both to cooperate with the county to get its application approved, and to continue to exist in the meantime.

ROMAN P. STORZER

attorney

Washington, D.C.

Sons, daughters dying for a lie

This is a request to North County Times and the mainstream media to report on the Downing Street memo, the leaked classified document that seems to have been virtually ignored by the press.

It proves that in July 2002, President Bush lied about reasons for going to war and planned the attack of Iraq months before meeting with the United Nations about a possible invasion.

A quote from the memo: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMDs. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

It proves that the war with Iraq is a tool to help create the Project for the New American Century and to gain a stronger hold on Middle East oil.

Your sons and daughters are dying over a lie. America, it's time to wake up.

VICKIE McCULLOUGH

Escondido

Help end the war

I wish to thank the number of people who were courageous enough to attend Ramona's Arlington West memorial on June 18. Arlington West is a memorial to those killed in Iraq. It is not easy for us humans to feel the emotional impact of war unless we are connected personally to the loss.

This is particularly understandable when the war in Iraq is portrayed as an American football game in the media and by our politicians. To understand the cost of war, and weigh it against the need, requires the courage to engage the public, see the tears and hear the sorrow.

Those interested in understanding the impact of war, or in helping to make the impact of war known, can see how to get involved at sdvfp.org.

DAVID K. PATTERSON

San Diego Vets for Peace

Ramona

Medical marijuana more therapeutic

The conclusion reached in the Community Forum, "Medical pot smokers seeking a high," June 20, by Ken Strang, that it "… simply does not make medical sense" for patients to smoke marijuana when dronabinol (Marinol) is available legally does not make pharmacologic sense for several reasons.

First, while it is true that the prescription tablet contains a "clean and exact dosage" of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), this does not mean that a more exact therapeutic blood level of THC can be obtained with the tablet compared to "the dirty dosage system." The opposite is probably true. As much as 90 percent of the THC in a swallowed tablet is destroyed by the liver before it ever reaches the brain.

This variability can yield a slow onset of an unpredictable therapeutic effect. In contrast, the ingredients in smoked marijuana, bypass the liver and reach the brain quickly through the lungs.

Second, when therapeutic levels of Marinol are achieved, many of the side effects seen, including marijuana-like highs, do not differ significantly from those of smoked marijuana.

Third, patients under a physician's care with AIDS, nausea from cancer chemotherapy, intractable pain, etc., are not seeking a high with either Marinol or marijuana, but only relief from their symptoms. Finally, it makes far more medical sense for physicians to make medical decisions on the use of either medical marijuana or Marinol rather than rely on the tender mercies of the politicians or the courts.

LESLIE E. BAILEY, PH.D.

Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology

Sun City

Iwo Jima visit an insult to both sides

The recent visit to the newly refurbished memorial for the war dead on Iwo Jima by Japan Prime Minister Koizumi was an orchestrated Kabuki play if ever there was one. He is quoted as saying "More than 28,000 people of Japan and the United States lost their lives here on Iwo Jima. I hope I can contribute to a permanent world peace, knowing that their sacrifice has brought about today's peace and prosperity."

As a World War II veteran, I will presume to speak for the few who survive today and will never forget that 7,000 Americans died on Iwo Jima to bring about world peace, unlike their foes, who raped and pillaged their way throughout Asia for more than 10 years in the Empire of Japan's quest to create a Greater East Asia coprosperity sphere, ruled by Japan.

Prime Minister Koizumi continues the Japanese tradition of never apologizing for their atrocities during that period in history. This politically motivated visit to a sacred memorial by Koizumi is an insult to both American and Japanese servicemen who died there and elsewhere. Japan will never be forgiven for the actions of the leaders of that time without a heartfelt apology. Unfortunately, this will never happen with such politicians in charge of the country.

JIM TIERNEY

Murrieta

What is impact of campaign contributions?

William Finn Bennett and Mark Walker are to be commended for their excellent work regarding possible improprieties on the part of Republican Rep. Randy Cunningham of San Diego. It is notable that many of the sources are the usual left-wing critics of our troops and our war efforts; and coincidentally are also critics of the present administration.

Closer to home, they might persuade their editors to allow them the same latitude to investigate our own city council, past and present —— their obscene campaign contributions from deep-pockets benefactors. These donations and also the underlying motives would be well worth the discovery time required. The possible adverse effect of these vast amounts of monies on the city of Temecula and its residents, both past and present, would be well worth their combined efforts.

JOHN HOUSTON

Temecula