Readers
Rejecting stimulus money inconceivable
It’s not easy to dismiss the consequences of recent budget cuts on vulnerable Arizonans.
With elimination of the General Assistance Program, a monthly benefit of $150, about 1,500 Arizonans will have little if any money for food, transportation, rent or medication. Most of them can’t work and are awaiting disability certification for Social Security.
Worse, a program that provided them health coverage through AHCCCS also has been eliminated.
Dual eligibles, those on Medicare and Medicaid, now have higher co-pays and deductibles. These people’s earnings are no higher than 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Now they must go without medications that help keep chronic conditions in check.
At a time like this, why is the Legislature haggling over whether to accept federal stimulus money? It’s inconceivable that this state would allow one penny to go elsewhere when so many Arizonans could benefit.
This is no time for political ideology or grandstanding. This is a time for legislators to stand up and do what’s right for the people of this state. Restore these services.
Lupe Solis
advocacy director
AARP Arizona
Remember 9/11 when evaluating factory raid
I’m confused. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a “review” of the Feb. 24 raid on a factory in Bellingham, Wash.
Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) had evidence that some of the workers were gang members, but she promised a congressional oversight committee last week that she would “get to the bottom” of why the raid was conducted.
This was a picture-perfect operation. All 28 arrested had used fictitious documents to obtain jobs, and some were hardened gang members.
Is 9/11 a faded memory? Does Napolitano need to be reminded that three of the 19 hijackers violated these same statues, and that they all submitted false documentation when arriving in the U.S.?
Didn’t the 9/11 Commission indicate that the terrorists used poorly enforced immigration laws to come here as students?
Homeland Security combined Customs, port inspections and the Border Patrol to make enforcement seamless. That may be partly why we haven’t been attacked since 9/11.
Obviously, not every illegal immigrant is a terrorist. But ICE has a job to do. Agents don’t have the luxury of guessing who should stay and who gets deported based on last year’s political rhetoric.
While Napolitano “gets to the bottom” of this raid, she should remember that raids like this one in Bellingham resulted in the removal of more than 250,0000 illegal immigrants in 2007.
According to a recent report, illegal immigrants are six times more likely to commit crimes and serve jail time than the U.S. population as a whole.
As Napolitano reaches her conclusions, I hope she will be mindful of the message she sends and, most important, to whom she’ll be sending it.
T. Michael Andrews
former senior policy advisor to Tom Ridge
Department of Homeland Security
Our feminist culture emasculates men
From sexual harassment to women’s shelters, we constantly hear about mistreatment of women. From Oprah to Dr. Phil, someone’s always giving air time to women’s gripes.
Bookstores are cluttered with volumes devoted to the plight of underpaid, underclassed and and downtrodden females.
And men? You hear a lot about us too. Every other TV commercial seems to portray husbands and fathers as half-witted buffoons.
At social gatherings or even in the workplace, sexism is only acceptable when the object of discrimination is men.
Our terminology has been transformed as well. “Macho” once meant respectable masculinity but now has a ring of ridicule and implies spousal abuse. Our feminist culture has emasculated us.
A newborn first bonds with its mother. Some moms take advantage of this, programming a spoiled child to see the world through mom’s eyes.
In divorce court, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is rarely acknowledged. An article on innocentdads.org says, “The phenomenon of one parent turning the child against the other parent is not a complicated concept, but historically it has been difficult to identify clearly.”
Often the alienating parent is the mother, as she’s the one usually awarded custody.
The article adds, “Over time this pattern can have a seriously erosive effect on the child’s relationship with the absent parent.”
The book “Divorce Poison” by Richard Warshak exposes the subtleties and methods of alienating children from a targeted parent. He also relates the detrimental effects divorce can have on children.
All too often, law-abiding, hard-working dads are falsely accused of molesting their children or jailed despite efforts to pay court-ordered child support. More information is at helpstoppas.org.
Joe Martinez
Reviving family farms crucial to the planet
Let’s take action to revive family farming and abort factory farming before they completely ruin our our world with GMO, etc.! Look what the corps have “given” us: global trade and warming, out-sourcing jobs and a financial crash.
Ron Greil
Letters to the Editor