I understand that these anti-immigration groups are scared and don't know how to react to people they know very little about, but instead of shutting them out and attacking them, they should try to learn about them and work with them!
The only way people will stop coming to this country is if we help those countries make their countries more attractive to their natives by providing freedom and opportunity, and I plan to do this, but for now, stop the hate--instead, understand each other!
Alma Lidia Marquez
Phoenix
My parents emigrated from Germany in the late 1920s. My 16-year-old dad needed a sponsor and a job in order to get into this country. Coming from this background, it would be difficult to call me "anti-immigration." The first task of both parents and grandparents was to learn English. No attempt was made to spread the German culture--we were American, period!
I was glad to see that Tony Ortega brought in the presentation by Roy Beck because, in my opinion, Beck has put passion aside in presenting his case for review and revamping of the immigration policy. The numbers are not arguable. This fact was driven home when I was caught in rush-hour traffic. I thought at the time, "None of these cars has foreign plates; there is no indication of the ethnicity of the driver; the language of the occupants has no bearing on the situation we are all in. Our problem is numbers--plain and simple."
As Roy Beck points out in his analysis, the government predicts the population of this country to exceed 500 million by 2050, given current rates of immigration and reproduction. No Phoenician can reasonably think that we in Arizona are somehow going to avoid the effects of this additional load on our lifestyle, the environment, water, the deserts, wildlife habitat, city services, regulation, etc.
Tony Ortega made a good start, but he has only scratched the surface. Now is the time for rational discourse at the local and national levels on how to deal with the impending crisis, or life in these United States will be gone--the alternative will likely be a drastic erosion of our lifestyles to the point where there will be no American dream, only a Third World lifestyle which is, after all, the motivator for immigrants headed our way. I'd hate to think that this is the only way our immigration policy will be changed.
Ron Gawlitta
Phoenix
Land Hope
Thanks to Michael Kiefer for his very excellent article "Government by Litigation," Part 1 (December 11). It is imperative that the public becomes aware of how our public lands are being mismanaged for the benefit of the timber and ranching industries. We are losing irreplaceable and priceless resources that belong to our children and grandchildren. Please keep stories like these in the public eye--New Times will be assisting today's taxpayers and our children's futures!
Irene Schmidt
Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin
