Herman Cain’s campaign crisis; public pension reform in California; Florida Sen. Marc Rubio’s ‘exile’ story

Questioning Cain

Re “Harassment allegations trip up Cain,” Nov. 1, and “Cain tries to explain his side,” Nov. 2

It is very possible that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain truly believes he did not sexually harass any woman.

Men of a certain age have no idea what sexual harassment is; their definition involves touching, groping, sexual language and suggestive gestures. They do not understand that their subtle messages, such as the admiring looks and comments about female attire or hairstyles made in places of business, can cause women to feel threatened. Women who object are rebuffed with “the guy was only kidding” and admonishments to “lighten up.”

Fortunately, many males, especially younger men, are getting the message.

Mary Ross

Cambria, Calif.

I’m not defending Cain, but what he’s dealing with suggests that the ideal candidate of the future will have to be a robot.

He’ll be presidential looking, conversant with all religions, living with an appropriate counterpart robot, two robot children and a robot dog, and have not a hint of a skeleton or even dust in his closet.

We demand that our leaders be flawless and beyond reproach, just as we are. Nothing less than perfection will do.

Hal Rothberg

Calabasas

Pension reform, by the numbers

Re “Brown needs pension effort,” Column, Oct. 31

George Skelton supports Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to raise the retirement age and increase the individual pension account contributions by public employees, teachers included. As Skelton writes, Brown’s goal is for Social Security to replace 75% of employees’ salaries.

Here are the facts: To receive full pensions, a teacher must retire after he or she turns 60. The median age for retirement among California teachers is a little more than 61, nearly equal to the average for women who retire from the private sector. Teachers pay 8% of their pay toward retirement; school districts kick in 8.25%

But teachers have Social Security penalties. Their Social Security payments are reduced by a huge amount, and they usually lose spousal death benefits.

Teachers are the victims of a 1983 federal law that penalizes them for earning Social Security or being married to a Social Security earner.

Bill Lambert

Tarzana

The writer is a former director of government relations for United Teachers Los Angeles.

Reforming the state’s public pension system is necessary if Brown wants to restore some fiscal stability. Besides the reasons Skelton gives, there’s a third reason for Brown to push pension reform: to put a slab of well-done economic reality on the plates of the union bosses and the Democrats.

Brown’s proposal is a step in the right direction, but it’s not going to provide the financial relief we need for years. I read that, in 30 years, he estimates saving $4 billion to $11 billion, and $21 billion to $56 billion in 60 years.

It seems as if Brown is just throwing dice, hoping that it eventually lands on a lucky number.

Terrell Grant

Los Angeles

Making sense of an exile story

Re “Marco Rubio’s story,” Editorial, Oct. 30

There were Cuban exiles before Fidel Castro.

In the 1950s, there were many Cubans who opposed then-dictator Fulgencio Batista and who went into exile to save their lives from his political police — trade unionists, liberal democrats, socialists, communists, Trotskyites, anarchists, the whole wide range of the traditional Cuban left that was oppressed as much by Castro as Batista.

So in the truest sense of the term, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was the child of Cuban exiles, just not the anti-Castro kind so politically active in Florida.

The issue is not Rubio’s status as the child of exiles so much as it is his politics and opportunism.

Kim Stevens

San Pedro

Your commentary on Rubio’s account of his family’s arrival in the United States is right on. It is a shame that Rubio felt a need to alter his family’s saga to avoid rattling the Republican anti-Latino immigrant platform. Americans of European backgrounds never apologize for their humble beginnings.

My brother, my sisters and I are the proud children of brave Mexican immigrants. We’ve all done very well, and we wear our family history as a badge of honor, as should Rubio.

Alejandro Diaz

Los Angeles

‘Little guy’ wins

Re “B of A kills its plan for debit card fee,” Nov. 2

The power of the consumer has been demonstrated through Bank of America canceling its plans to charge debit-card users a $5 monthly fee to access their money.

Bank of America made a huge miscalculation when it determined that it could use its enormous size to gouge the public. It could not have imagined that its action would be condemned by members of Congress and the president. Most of the time, the “little guy” kowtows to large financial institutions. Once in a while, the “little guy” triumphs.

Still, Bank of America will surely implement some other less blatant means to make up for lost revenue. One cannot begrudge it the means to ensure that its officers receive obscene levels of compensation. Corporate greed and shamelessness are the new American way.

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

Not about sexy

Re “Dressing as Halloween candy,” Opinion, Oct. 30

If women were actually targeted for sexual assault based on their sexual attractiveness, as Charlotte Allen suggests, one would expect that sexual assault would be an outlier in terms of the relative youth of the crime’s victims. But in fact, young people are more likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of all violent crimes. And with the exception of sexual assault, young men are more likely to be victims of violent crime.

By Allen’s logic, the (mostly male) victims of robbery and aggravated assault must have been asking for it. While I personally find many men attractive, I doubt they are victimized because they are so sexy that criminals simply can’t help assaulting them.

Sexual assault is not about uncontrollable sexual desire — it’s about power and perceived vulnerability. And like other crimes, the victims aren’t asking for it, no matter how sexy their outfits.

Jill Filipovic

Brooklyn, N.Y.

The writer is editor of feministe.us.

Too little time

Re “Science classes get shorted,” Oct. 31

The average school day is about 6.5 hours long. Subtract one hour for lunch and recess, one for math, 2.5 for English development, 30 to 40 minutes for writing and my own sacred 20 minutes for sustained reading, and I have less than an hour for science, social studies, health, art, checking homework, library time and physical education.

Last year 30 minutes daily was spent on standardized test preparation. I’ve decided to send home the science and social studies book to be read as part of my students’ required 30 minutes of daily reading homework.

I feel like I’m not a teacher imparting knowledge; I’m just preparing my students to take the state tests. And the icing on the cake is that if they don’t test well, it will be totally my fault.

Rosa Coronado

Panorama City

Expensive shot

Re “HPV vaccine for boys? Yes,” Editorial, Nov. 1

Yes, it would be lovely to vaccinate boys as well as girls, for all the reasons you mention. It would be even more lovely if it didn’t cost about $300. That is absolutely prohibitive for the many families trying to scrape by.

Joanne Zirretta

Aliso Viejo