New warning labels for cigarette makers; handling the national debt; the ‘card check’ debate

You’ve been warned

Re “Tobacco warnings take graphic turn,� June 21

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is mandating graphic pictures on each pack of cigarettes showing the realities of smoking.

Can we soon expect pictures of obese people placed on the front door of every fast-food restaurant? Or pictures of people dying of skin cancer at the entrance to the beach?

We should mandate that the FDA change its name to the FNA (Frivolous Nanny Administration).

David Green

Long Beach

Of course these new images will help smokers stop, even if the predicted expectation is for a paltry 300,000 quitters out of the more than 40 million smokers. Still, it would be ironic if the images attract more smokers, especially young males who might see carrying a pack as a badge of toughness.

Even I, a non-smoker over 50, had a passing thought of how cool it would be to have the entire collection, like baseball cards. Let’s hope smokers are more mature.

Ruth Figley

Santa Ana

Time to man up on the debt

Re “GOP leader gives up on debt negotiations,� June 24

The wealthiest Americans have enjoyed healthy dividends from Republican legislation, with benefits that come out of the wallets of the middle class.

Now, the Republicans are refusing to raise the national debt ceiling without deep cuts in programs for the neediest Americans. They don’t place any urgency on shouldering some of these sacrifices for the good of the country. Instead, they refuse any compromise that would increase taxes on the wealthy and end subsidies for oil companies.

If Republicans are truly interested in lowering the national debt, they must end corporate welfare and the George W. Bush tax cuts. If they place these two items on the table, a true bipartisan compromise could move our country out of this economic mess.

Joe Martinez

El Segundo

The day before House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) walked out of talks with Vice President Joe Biden, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report saying that the nation’s growing debt increases the probability of a fiscal crisis in which investors would lose faith in U.S. bonds.

Republicans need to stop playing political games with America’s future. The GOP is now in charge in the House, and Cantor needs to man up or step down as majority leader.

Robert Tormey

Escondido

The time has come to pay for our military actions. President Bush made unfortunate choices, the most outrageous of which was to not pay for the wars he decided to wage. We need to have a tax to pay our debts. All of us should share in the terrible costs incurred since 9/11.

Tantrums such as Cantor’s get attention but don’t solve a thing. Taxes are needed to pay for what we are doing.

Sally Cook

Granada Hills

‘Card check’ doesn’t cut it

Re “Time to fold on ‘card check,’ � Editorial, June 23

It’s not often that I find myself in agreement with one of your editorials, but I must say you’re right-on with this piece. I’d like to add one comment on SB 104, which awaits the governor’s signature.

The last several years have seen unions aggressively support “card check,� which would replace the secret ballot. They’re equally aggressive in opposing union members who use card check to leave one union for another. This resistance to what unions claim is a “fair� process is a clear sign that their definition of the word fair is fluid.

In short, Gov. Jerry Brown should veto any bill that places the secret ballot second to any other method.

Geneviève M. Clavreul

Pasadena

I have been a union steward for over 20 years. The Times makes a good point about protecting the workers as opposed to the unions.

A gap has been growing between the workers and their unions, and employers have done a pretty good job of exploiting this. As we have already seen, employers will always look after their bottom lines, and employee organizations are increasingly focused more on dues collection than workers rights.

The problem is worker apathy and the perception that once you’ve unionized, nothing more needs to be done. Workers don’t understand that they are the union and they must also be their own watchdogs.

As a steward, I have increasingly encountered this dilemma: support my co-workers or support the union? This question should never come up.

Dan Mariscal

Montebello

‘Family’ ties

Re “Data show state families changing,� June 23

It was unsettling to behold the new-age wisdom in the article. A family of three mothers, one daughter, another on the way and one sperm donor is presented as “normal.� The sperm donor is a “6-foot-1 Harvard grad, who scored a 1580 on the SAT.� We are not told of any other anticipated role for the biological father.

A husband and a wife who remain married to each other are “a little weird,� according to one person interviewed. Non-nuclear families “do not reflect a weakening of society but a fluidity and complexity that echoes the modern world.� That sounds impressive, but it means nothing.

One of the three mothers said that new types of families “open up new possibilities that can only be good for society — to have more diversity, more examples of what life can be.� Or “I think it’s good, therefore it is good.�

The wisdom boggles the mind.

Michael Kreutzer

Santa Ana

Deportation

Re “Fixing Secure Communities,� Editorial, June 23

Is The Times joking when it suggests that “the U.S. can’t and won’t deport all 11 million people living in the country illegally�? Two years ago, The Times reported that illegal immigrants were deporting themselves during the recession.

These immigrants are not magicians who defeat efforts to stop them. They come because Congress puts out the welcome mat. Several democracies issue their citizens national ID cards so foreigners can’t work. American taxpayers pile on freebies like medical care and a school lunch for the kids while they attend public schools.

The Times’ opposition to common-sense measures like Secure Communities and E-Verify is particularly disturbing while the great recession reduces millions of Americans from taxpayers to unemployed.

Kenneth Pasternack

Santa Barbara

On Bachmann

Re “Bachmann the true believer,� Opinion, June 23

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) may be sincere and genuine in her beliefs, but that does not qualify her as presidential material. She is, in fact, quite the opposite. Her lack of knowledge of the Constitution and her confusion of events in American history illustrate this far too clearly.

I always thought that having a president who is smarter than the average American was a good thing. Voters support Bachmann at their own peril.

Scott W. Hughes

Simi Valley

Marriageable

Re “Same-sex marriage in the real world,� Business, June 22

If the people who oppose same-sex marriage are not concerned about recent court decisions that undermine their position, this should scare them to death.

My 91-year-old mother, who was born and raised in the South and attended a fundamentalist church, says gay people should be able to marry each other if they want to.

Case closed.

Patrick McDonald

La Crescenta