I do not always concur with this paper's editorials but think the Nov. 11 editorial made the right point on the issue of fair cuts to salaries and perks of members of the California Legislature.  

Fairy taleAmerica loves fairy tales. Republicans spin the Rumplestiltskin-like myth that President Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics enriched America. The gigantic Reagan tax cuts for the wealthy were, the myth goes, invested in America, creating jobs for America's middle class.  

Unfair benefitsThank you for your editorial of Nov. 12 titled "Social Security equity." As a retired police officer with 22 years of service, I am a victim of the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision.  

Health reform nowHealth care reform is needed now. We have reached the tipping point where to do nothing is to destroy people's lives and livelihoods. For working people with health benefits, employers are doubling their premiums or reducing offerings, dropping dependent coverage or eliminating  

Rectify injusticeI appreciated your editorial on Social Security equity. I hope you continue to print articles on the unfairness to government workers and print updates on the attempt to reverse the Government Pension Act and the Windfall Elimination Provision.  

Lucky to live in OaklandI AM so proud to live in Alameda County and in the city of Oakland. It was early evening and I was about two blocks from my apartment in downtown Oakland when my power wheelchair just stopped.  

Design is unsafeAs a commercial truck driver, I cross the Bay Bridge several days a week.The infamous S-curve on the upper deck is only part of the problem Caltrans has created for drivers, and I fear we are going to see a lot more accidents over the coming months.  

Reilly columnI am shocked that Clint Reilly's column is published under the heading "Public Service Message." I guess if he pays for it, it is his choice.  

As long as the insurance industry is offering insurance, profits will come before people. Eliminate the health care "industry" and start providing actual health care.  

Your article on Kaiser Foundation's financial situation doesn't tell the whole story. The decline in membership, while in part due to the currant economic downturn, will probably worsen in 2010 because of the rise in costs for service.  

Pity the victimThree weeks have passed since the rape of a 15-year-old child.There's been talk about "life sentences" for these thugs. I was a rape crisis volunteer in the late 1980s.  

The Nov. 10 vote by the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors to reverse its previous and long-fought position to support construction of a casino at Point Molate in Richmond was worse than a "sellout."  

I am outraged about how aggressive conservatives like Sean Hannity and others are being about the tragic shooting at the Fort Hood military base and the way they are attacking the Obama administration on weak defense policies.  

A letter to the Times' editor advises that the high U.S. mortality rate is due to congressional inaction on mandatory health insurance.  

The abortion questions in the health care Q&A reveals the vacuous thinking in this 1,980-page monstrosity of a bill. How often is one expecting to use this service; so why should everyone be forced to buy coverage for it, maternity benefits and other eventualities one will likely never use?  

Why can't the president and the members of the U.S. Congress get it straight and pass a single-payer health plan? Isn't this exactly what they have?  

I do not always concur with this paper's editorials but think the Nov. 11 editorial made the right point on the issue of fair cuts to salaries and perks of members of the California Legislature.  

Where was your coverage of the Oct. 28 Tea Party Express II in Walnut Creek? Although national networks covered this news event, somehow the Times just missed it.  

Thank you for your editorial of Nov. 12 titled "Social Security equity." As a retired police officer with 22 years of service, I am a victim of the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision.  

Leonard Pitts' column on "honor killings" is correct that "a culture's lack of faith in its own mores (is clear) any time it feels compelled to use violence to enforce those mores upon its people."  

The approval of a casino at Point Molate is another example of the worst of society being elected to office. These morons on the Board of Supervisors are responsible for the horrendous deficit of Contra Costa County and are desperately looking for any way to find new revenue.  

StereotypingI take issue with Joan Wraxall's conclusion, as expressed in her Nov. 7 Your Turn piece, "Times wrong on Richmond."Wraxall wrote, "There are two Richmonds: One exists for the privileged perched in the hills, the other is an urban slum on the flats.  

Political?This is regarding the Nov. 6 Times article, "Jury: Wycoff should be executed."Why isn't the outcome of this trial centered on the requests of the victims?  

Scare tacticsThe Republicans are at it again. Plagued with a chronic penury of useful and creative solutions to problems, the Republican Party continues to rely on their one old trick that has consistently failed to help them win elections: An attempt to control voters' minds using scare tactics.  

Life and deathTwo events this weekend put the choice of life and death issues in focus for me. They were the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the passage of health care in the House of Representatives.  

Return the Delta to its natural state the way it was before Europeans came and began managing it.  

Build more dams. No large dams have been built in over 30 years. Our state population has grown 30 percent since the last dam was built.  

The State should do what's necessary as a minimum to maintain the Delta's present condition.  

If California wants to preserve the Delta and all of the towns and land around it, it needs to ensure an adequate fresh water supply and replace the earthen levees with concrete barriers.  

For years, Californians voted against the peripheral canal. I believe it's Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger's extensive Southern California real estate loyalties that are moving this legislation.