A documented fact: Good story by Robert Nelson on so-called illegal immigration! Very balanced and truthful ("Alien Nation," November 4).Why don't Americans -- who don't want to do manual labor anymore -- get it? This country would go under, particularly the southwestern part of it, without undocumented workers.
I thought it was a good point that not enough construction workers are being trained in this country, making Mexican labor all the more necessary. Why can't we just come to terms with this and stop all the racist bullshit? Because that's what it's all about. A lot of white Arizonans -- the same ones who rabidly voted for George W. Bush -- hate Mexicans.
I mean, come on . . . the New Times story quotes none other than the president and CEO of the Arizona Contractors Association on whether the state could survive economically without illegals in the work force. Again, here's what he said: "I'd venture to say the state would collapse."
So why don't all you racist morons just shut up!? What you are pushing for just plain doesn't make sense! But it didn't make sense either that rednecks who are going to get screwed economically by the Bush administration would vote to put the president back in office. Yet all these gay-hating, abortion-hating, minority-hating fools voted against their wallets and reelected a president who's going to dismantle the Social Security system and put them on the streets with tin cups in their hands when they get too old to work.
What an idiot-ass world we live in, especially in a super-red state like Arizona! To all you Mexicans who are coming over the border: Welcome to Jesusland!
Richard Jasper, via the Internet
Raza relations: "Alien Nation" was one of the more balanced articles I've read on the immigration problem. There were, however, aspects that weren't addressed. The organized, if not militant, groups such as La Raza, Meecha and LULAC shoot Mexicans in the foot from a public relations standpoint.
Hispanics calling themselves La Raza (which means The Race) is equivalent to white people calling themselves "Supreme Whites." But Mexicans can get away with it in a multicultural environment gone mad.
La Raza's founder has made numerous statements relating to the recapture of Mexican territory (reconquista) "without firing a shot" and through demographic warfare. He says there's nothing anybody can do about it, and "we're taking America one block at a time." That motivates most people with a brain to want to grab their guns, which is likely the scenario in the not too distant future.
Another subject not covered was the Mexico "makeover" of our inner city. Main thoroughfares increasingly resemble Nogales, with more taco shops than Starbuckses. If I wanted to see this crap, I would move to Mexico.
The absolute worst tragedy in all of this is the takeover/loss of our neighborhoods; the victims are legal residents trapped in them. What could be better for homebuilders than the continuous flow of Third World squalor into established neighborhoods, forcing out long-term residents and creating a new housing boom?
When an invaded neighborhood becomes riddled with graffiti, stolen cars, gunfire, burglaries, home invasions, Mex tunes blasting from every lowrider, discarded diapers, urine stains and steaming piles of immigrant dung, it's pretty much unlivable.
Of course, all of this is part of the master plan perpetrated by the treasonous John McCain and his butt buddies at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. Arizona's congressional delegation and Jack Napolitano should all be hung in Patriots Square. We could serve tortas.
Greg Farley, Phoenix
Footing the bill: Okay, so the sky is going to fall if we deport illegal aliens! So we had better let them keep cleaning our hotel rooms, picking our lettuce, mowing our lawns.
But will someone please publish [Proposition 200 opponent and longtime Arizona politician] Alfredo Gutierrez's home address and bank account number so every time these lawbreakers use emergency medical services or hospital services, we can send Mr. Gutierrez the bill?!
Also, when they come across the border to give birth just to have American-born children -- whom they can't afford -- we can send them to Mr. Gutierrez's house so he can feed them and provide for them.
Oh, and one thing I've always wondered . . . why is it that these people risk their lives and break our laws to live and work in the United States and then are always waving the Mexican flag around or have it plastered all over their cars and homes? If it's such a great country, why did they leave it? Somebody please explain that to me.
Name withheld by request
Labor pains: Regarding "Alien Nation," will there be a period of adjustment when illegal immigration is halted? Sure. Employers will be forced to pay a living wage for construction, store clerks, service and assembly work, auto repair and farm labor. Americans did all of these jobs before the last two decades of massive illegal immigration.
The first money I ever earned was picking grapes in the Napa Valley. In my teens, all my friends worked in flower, bean, and tomato fields around Encinitas, California. We also cleaned horse corrals, did housework, tended babies and did night janitor work.
In short, blue-collar Americans [with Proposition 200] could flourish and return to middle-class wages that were once the norm. Let Mexican citizens stay home and force the untaxed wealthy elites in their country to quit raping that nation's resources.
Barbara Vickroy, Escondido, California
Sociology lesson: Thank you for the research behind the issues underlying the current debate about what many people call "illegal immigration." There are two points which the article did not address:
First, the Arizona experience is not an isolated one. Many sociologists believe that the Arizona experience is only a small part of worldwide movement of groups of peasant peoples. Some sociologists believe that the Arizona experience is simply part of the largest movement of peasant peoples in the history of humanity. Second, the article does not address the "push" factors in Mexico -- one of which is created by our own government. In spring 2003, Congress passed one of the largest farm-subsidy bills in history. A portion of this subsidy is for corn farmers in the Midwest. As a result, it is now cheaper for a corn tortilla manufacturer in Mexico City to purchase Iowa corn than corn from farmers in the villages in her own country.
Because of NAFTA, the Mexican government is forbidden to put tariffs on U.S. corn, and the Mexican farmer and his laborers are being put out of business. Our policies are creating ghost towns in Mexico, and the former residents of those villages are now nailing two-by-fours in all that new construction we see around us.
Ron Friesen, Phoenix
Right Wingers
A religious mandate: John Dougherty's ranting points out that liberals just can't stand it to think that more than half of the country doesn't buy into their Hollywood elitist crap ("Dangerous Dance," November 11).
I'd much rather have God involved in our country -- especially being that our founding fathers used God to form the country's foundation -- than liberals who only look at the world with a what's-best-for-ME attitude.
And, yes, by receiving [a majority] of the popular vote, Bush was given a mandate!
Dougherty's support of [John Kerry], a war criminal who's anti-American and anti-military, pretty much says everything about him. Get a life!
Name withheld by request
Bushwhacked: John Dougherty's column reaches a pitch of hysteria not seen since Chicken Little declared "The Sky Is Falling!"
The writer asserts that America is already well on its way to becoming a repressive theocracy based on the fact that . . . Utah voted for Bush?! Huh? Need further evidence?
Dougherty tracked down a radical Christian pro-life group that admits (gasp!) that they want pro-life judges appointed to the Supreme Court. What exactly this has to do with W is anyone's guess.
Dougherty suggests that Democrats should have "hammered on Dubya's cowardly avoidance of the Vietnam War." I don't know which coffee house he's been playing hacky-sack in for the past year and a half, but you couldn't turn on a television or pick up a newspaper without being reminded that the president did not serve in Vietnam and John Kerry did. Kerry himself could not seem to utter a sentence on any topic without reminding us of his veteran's status.
But let's get real here. Liberals traditionally have never valued military service, and certainly not war medals. It was not until the Democrats wound up with a candidate who happened to have served in Vietnam, and worse, had medals to prove it, that they suddenly started celebrating those who went to war instead of those who protested it. Unfortunately for the liberals, and despite their best efforts, the majority of voters failed to perceive Vietnam as an important issue in an election occurring 30 years after that war had ended.
Dougherty then goes on to describe the 9/11 attacks as more akin to a crime than an act of war. The idiocy of this statement should be self-evident.
Hysterics aside, there are some things we should all be concerned about with George W. Bush's second term: his environmental policies, which have encouraged global warming and likely triggered this unprecedented rash of hurricanes; his desire to "overhaul" Social Security by stealing the savings of the middle class and funneling it to the wealthy; and his secret plan to reinstate the draft in order to steal oil from the Middle East and give it to Halliburton. I know all this is true because I heard it from Turkey Lurkey.
Bill Smith, Phoenix
Stuck Pig
Bursting your onion: Wow! The follow-up story ("Punk You!" Stephen Lemons, November 11) is almost as stunningly unfunny -- and poorly written -- as the original ("Forever Yours," Esteban Sauer, October 28). Hate to burst your self-congratulatory bubble, but The Onion and Orson Welles you most certainly ain't.
Adam Pockriss, ABC News Media Relations
Editor's note: ABC News' Primetime Live with Diane Sawyer called after New Times' Preserve A Life spoof appeared to explore doing a segment on the, um, groundbreaking new "humidermy" firm we profiled. When she found out the story was a Halloween hoax, a humorless producer for the show was angry and defensive about getting punked -- which resulted in a flurry of e-mails from network flack Pockriss.
