To boldly intrude is inexcusable

Re “Inquisition at JPL,” Opinion, Jan. 16

The background checks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are a colossal waste of time and money. They are an unnecessary distraction to a part of the space program that works exceptionally well, and another example of the Bush administration trivializing the momentous and complicating the obvious. “Patterns of irresponsible behavior” like homosexuality? I’m surprised they’re not still looking for Communists. The inquest of America’s best and brightest vaults the administration’s foolishness to new heights.

Kevin Crozier

Sun Valley

--

I was gratified to read Tim Rutten’s article on the legal fight against intrusive government background investigations at JPL. As a plaintiff in the lawsuit against NASA and Caltech, I have been asked countless times, “What are you trying to hide?” I am amazed that so many people seem to have forgotten the fundamental freedoms on which our country was founded. Thanks to Rutten for describing so eloquently the principles that have motivated us to take this difficult stand.

Bruce Banerdt

Pasadena

--

In following this story over the past months, I’ve noticed a few rebuttals along the lines of “everyone has to get screened for their job, why should JPL be any different?” In fact, JPL isn’t different, in that all employees are interviewed and have their citizenship, education and employment references verified. But JPL is different in that it doesn’t force prospective employees to pee in jars or disclose personal activities that go on behind closed doors at home. Rather than drag JPL down, shouldn’t other employers emulate JPL?

An interesting piece of history -- the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” was Tsien Hsue-shen, one of the leading rocket scientists in the U.S. and a co-founder of JPL. However, he was accused of being a Communist in the McCarthy era and barred from further work in the field he loved. So a man who should have become one of our national heroes was driven to return to his birthplace. Let’s hope that we don’t follow the path of history.

Scott Peer

Glendale

--

How can a government that professes less government smother us with too much government? Rutten’s column missed an important point. Genius does not fit in the boxes on a government-designed chart. Neither does the type of personality that gets us to Mars, operates the rovers, imagines and reaches for the impossible. To label and attempt to homogenize them would turn NASA into another FEMA.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin should reimburse the plaintiffs’ costs, withdraw the inquisition, resign and return to academia. The result: America gets to keep forging ahead in science, exploration and igniting the imagination and wonder in us all.

Norma Pierson

Pasadena