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MOCA’s graffiti exhibition; a big pension for a public worker in Salinas; the “birther” blowback

MOCA’s can of worms

Re “Tagging MOCA,” Opinion, May 1

Heather Mac Donald was right on the mark. Like some others, the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles chooses to glorify vandalism instead of condemning the urban and suburban blight it has brought to the L.A. area. Now we are all paying the price for the proliferation of graffiti vandalism.

Mac Donald also singled out the parents and their apparent and appalling lack of control as a major contributor to this plague. Why aren’t these folks out looking for jobs instead of roaming around all night long?

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Brava, Heather Mac Donald!

John Parodi

Huntington Beach

The promotion of graffiti by curators of MOCA’s exhibit, “Art in the Streets,” can be interpreted as an acceptance of our community’s failure to address the substantial social ills (poverty, alienation and division) that generate this activity.

Because we lack the will and means to address the underlying issues that cause visual vandalism, we just redefine it as art.

Then we can try to convince ourselves that it is not so bad to have around.

Gordon Theil

Van Nuys

I’m curious to know: What if a visitor to MOCA’s exhibit painted some graffiti on one of the exhibits? Would MOCA consider that “art” or vandalism?

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Miriam Jaffe

Thousand Oaks

Spotlight on a big pension

Re “Retirement plan may be audited,” May 3

What is missing from the article about Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare District Chief Executive Samuel Downing’s pension is any comparison to that of the presidents or chief executives of private companies of similar size and with similar responsibilities.

Why, just because he worked in the public sector — there’s no profit involved in the organization he worked for, only the health and well-being of the citizens and the community it served — should he not receive a pension commensurate with that responsibility?

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John Snyder

Newbury Park

Re “Big pension in little Salinas,” Editorial, April 30

The Times’ editorial does a good job of putting forth the facts so that the readers can be better informed. But a stronger position or even outrage might have been the correct tone here.

Some of the most pressing issues facing our society involve the concentration of wealth among the few, the changing perception of worth among the rest of us, and the fact that it appears that some of the taxes of the non-wealthy

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go toward bailouts for investment bankers — or, as in this instance, a simple administrator of an admittedly important organization.

But regardless of how varied the circumstances are, we hear the same story: These super special people will flee and we’ll all flounder if we don’t take care of them. How often must we hear that someone with a $700,000 annual salary and $150,000 lifetime pension would have access to so much more someplace else? Who’s writing this script, Ayn Rand?

Steven Johnson

Redondo Beach

Case closed? Not for some

Re “ ‘Birthers’ keep the controversy going,” May 3

I actually thought the release of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate would finally silence the “birthers.”

During the 2008 campaign, Orly Taitz, Wiley Drake and their ilk didn’t have a problem with John McCain being born in Panama’s Canal Zone. The only logical conclusion is that their real motive is their conviction that a president cannot have dark skin and a foreign-sounding name.

Doris Schaffer

Fallbrook

I thought the topic was laid to rest.

Out of respect to your readers’ intelligence and with all the news in world, couldn’t you devote a third of a page to a topic with more gravitas than someone from the lunatic fringe challenging the dismissal of a case against Obama regarding his birthplace?

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Carol Gilbert

Los Angeles

Your health or your money

Re “A case for state regulation,” Column, May 2

I’m not sure which of Anthem Blue Cross’ customers are fortunate enough to see their proposed rate increases “scaled back,” but our family is not one of them. Our renewal notice contained a whopping 40% increase for the same plan we already have.

Our rates have jumped from $1,000 to $1,400 a month for a plan that requires us to pay a $7,000 family deductible before benefits kick in. This translates to roughly $24,000 annually out of pocket before co-pay expenses.

It is well past time healthcare policies are regulated much like auto and homeowner plans. I completely support AB 52, which will require insurers like Anthem to seek approval from state regulators before implementing such onerous rate hikes.

Valerie Burchfield Rhodes

Laguna Niguel

A case for state regulation? To say the very least. Every article written about health insurance begs for a single-payer solution. There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have that, as well as having every health insurance company exist as a

not-for-profit. The focus must be on patients, not shareholders.

Perhaps if we got away from all the nonsensical methods of working out how to pay providers, we could get away from the game-playing that goes on.

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Nora Lehman

Newport Beach

Wisdom of the ancient Greeks

Re “Study probes view on God and cheating,” April 30

Socrates had something to say about “Mean Gods Make Good People.”

To paraphrase: In Plato’s dialogue “Euthyphro,” Socrates argued that goodness cannot be defined as what the gods favor because there is no merit in a goodness that is the result of mere fiat. It must rather be true that the gods favor things because they are good.

But, if God or the gods favor things because they are good, then this implies a standard that exists outside of God. And where did this come from?

This dilemma shows that the divine will can never be the foundation or source of morality.

David Keranen

Bakersfield

The study concludes that folks who are raised with the easygoing God who seems to inhabit many American churches today behave no better and no worse than nonbelievers, while those raised in fear of an angry Jehovah are unlikely to cheat on tests.

Any real Christian knows the study should have been titled “Just Gods Make Good People.” The Christian God is totally loving and totally just. Once you let such a God rule your life, you don’t behave well out of fear; you simply want to please him. Cheating on a test would feel so bad you just couldn’t bear to do it.

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Orson Bean

Venice

Making a stand

Re “Lemonade Day done wrong,” Opinion, May 1

I suspect the regulations that Nicolas S. Martin rails against for making it impossible for his daughter to set up a lemonade stand are actually aimed at adults who would either exploit children for their own business ends or set up their own businesses in places where I think most people would not want to see them.

Do most people really want to fight through various “entrepreneurs” to put their child on a swing, or meet vendors or hawkers on the trails of the Santa Monica Mountains? No, we go to these places to relax and re-create ourselves. Parks should be parks, not commercial zones.

I say thanks to the civil servants who enforce these regulations, and sorry to them for having to waste taxpayer money answering silly questions from the likes of Martin.

David Jones

Los Angeles

Fish story

Re “Palin takes jabs, makes no promises,” May 2

Despite some hoots, it is not surprising that the “crowd was subdued” through much of Sarah Palin’s speech to a Central Valley audience.

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I come from a farming family, and I would have been insulted at being spoken to as if I did not understand the importance of the local ecosystem and the future sustainability of my own farm. California farmers are well educated on the threat to this “three-inch fish” that Palin calls bait, and on how further degradation of the environment will continue to affect competition for water.

I would not be encouraged by hearing it reduced to such simple-minded rhetoric.

Kathy Harty

Arcadia

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