May 31, 2008

Saturday Forum

A California Democrat Wants His State To "Fall Into The Pacific Ocean"—After He Moves!; etc.

From: Bob Turley (e-mail him)

Re: Brenda Walker’s Blog: Million Dollar Mexican Moocher

I realize Los Angeles Times reporter Anna Gorman (e-mail her) probably did not choose the title for her newspaper’s absurdly named series, "Life in the Shadows" of which her story about Van Nuys resident and illegal alien Ana Puente is a part.[Immigration Debate Hits Home for Liver Transplants, By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2008]

But it is preposterous for the LAT to suggest that Puente is "in the shadows". After all, Puente (or someone in her family) called ICE to report that she is in the US illegally and thus could qualify for full Medi-Cal benefits because of the serious nature of her illness.

When and where does the madness end?

Actually, Puente is very much not in the shadows but is rather a 21-year-old Mexican national awaiting her fourth liver transplant at the UCLA Medical Center compliments of California’s taxpayers.

And, in an action that I’m quite sure did not take place "in the shadows", Puente spoke openly to Gorman when she uttered this priceless gem:

"It doesn't matter if I'm undocumented. They should take care of me at UCLA for the rest of my life because I've been there since I was a baby." 

As a Los Angeles resident, I know (as does Gorman and the LAT) that no illegal alien—and certainly not Puente— is "in the shadows".

You see them walking along the streets, driving their children to school, hanging out at day labor centers and waiting in clinics for a variety of treatments.

I read the comments to Gorman’s story—110 when I stopped. They were overwhelmingly opposed to the system that favors illegal aliens over many hard working Californians.

The Los Angeles Times is a major cause of California’s disaster, lobbying ceaselessly, as it does, for more immigration.

A few years ago the paper did a series on the pitiful Los Angeles Unified School District that it published over a span of four or five weeks. Never once was illegal immigration mentioned, as if it had nothing to do with the woeful condition of LA schools.

I'm a native Californian, born and raised in San Diego hard on La Jolla’s beaches.

Like Walker, I’m a registered (and disgusted) Democrat. And, also like Walker, I’m pro-choice, pro-gay rights and pro-environmental causes, but also 100 percent opposed to illegal immigration and the anti-American entitlement attitudes it brings with it.

I recently bought a house in Maine—as far away from California as I can get.

Once the Southland real estate market improves and I can sell my existing home for a reasonable price, you can count me gone.

My most fervent wish after I leave is to hear that California has fallen into the Pacific Ocean.

Good luck to VDARE.COM’s California-based columnists like Walker, Steve Sailer, Joe Guzzardi and the other patriots who will, I hope, carry on the battle.

My late, lamented Golden State could have been saved with reasonable enforcement laws and if our governors and Senators had taken strong anti-illegal alien positions.

Instead, they have all failed miserably. In the end, they deserve each other.

I could go on forever. But why harp on the obvious?

Simply stated, California’s finished.

Turley works for a large California school district. His previous letters about "water-crazy" Los Angeles and Somalis as the "perfect" meat plant employees are here and here.

[PermaLink] [Top] [Letters Home]

A Reader In Norway Says Even Liberals Scholars Are Coming Around On Illegal Immigration

From: Peder Knudsen (e-mail him) 

I am a Norwegian Social Democrat with great reservations about immigration, legal or otherwise.

The VDARE.COM site is exemplary in that it offers well-written and informative articles on this important subject. I sympathize with your cause.

However, may I respectfully make one point of criticism?

The economics of immigration is the most powerful argument that can sway politicians toward our side. At times VDARE.COM offers only the conservation viewpoint, obscuring the fact that both sides of the immigration argument may be of one mind.

Politicians, as well as the public, are most amiable to inter-party cooperation when there is agreement on both sides of the conservative/liberal divide in academia.

This is how "conventional wisdom" is born.

Therefore, it follows that it would be a good idea to emphasize that the mainstream consensus is that low-skilled immigrants are a negative for the overall economy – a statement that runs counter to all the "we need immigrants to do the jobs Americans will not do" that we so frequently hear.

As an example of this I point to Paul Krugman, the liberal New York Times columnist and respected scholar who admitted in his speech to Columbia University that such laborers have a negative impact on the economy. 

If we apply the MainStream Media’s logic that since Krugman is a liberal he therefore cannot be a racist, we have scored an important point.

The danger for the immigration restrictionist movement both in Europe and America is that we are always derided as right-wing bigots when, in fact, the left wing agrees with us on at least one key economic issue.

Joe Guzzardi comments: Krugman has come a long way in his immigration realization over the last few years. He now joins Robert Samuelson and George Borjas—among scattered other intellectuals—who acknowledge the negative impact low-skilled, poorly educated illegal aliens have on the overall economy.

[PermaLink] [Top] [Letters Home]

A California Teacher Offers VDARE.COM Readers A Racism Quiz

From: Kristin Kroll (e-mail her)

Now that California’s K-12 school year is over, we teachers must attend the obligatory, endless and boring potluck dinners to feign camaraderie with our administrators.

At one of the functions—with many ethnicities present— an incident occurred that might interest your readers, absorbed as they are by false charges of racism and sagging under the burdensome weight of political correctness.

When one party ended, the host boxed up the left over rice. Without saying a word, he offered it to the teacher of Chinese heritage.

Was this the generous gesture of a gracious host or does it belie racism so deeply rooted that months of sensitivity training will be required?

Don’t worry about your response. Any answer you provide is fine.

In California, teachers know that a student’s self-esteem is more important than his command of the facts.

Kroll is a Northern California educator. Her previous letter about Barack Obama’s sexism is here.

[PermaLink] [Top] [Letters Home]