Letter To The Editor

Joe-

I saw your post yesterday concerning the 'Latino Forum' being held at a local church, and I had to wonder what its purpose would be, other than to pump the Latino community, and to try to put a good PR face on a growing problem-- the heavy drain of illegal immigration on our budgets.

It seems like we see this from time to time. An attempt to 'educate' the public on why we should just accept the presence of whoever wants to come here, and 'celebrate the diversity' as an area of our city loses its character and becomes a separate subculture with a different language and customs.

And of course, if we don't, we're racists. 

To that, I would repeat what I said in a comment yesterday.

I don't think the negative attitudes toward the Hispanic community have to do with racism as much as they have to do with that community's willful disregard of the status of those who are here illegally.

Most Hispanic folks I've known are great people- very hard workers, and very nice.

But to just ignore our laws and jump the fence because you feel like you have some right to be here is NOT going to make you too many friends.

And just because we object, that doesn't make us racists, either.

We have always offered lots of opportunities for people to immigrate legally, meld into our social fabric and prosper as fellow Americans.

But don't just sneak in, then join some group of activists and try to tell us of your 'rights' and what kind of contributions you're making.

It will fall on deaf ears.

If you aren't here legally, you aren't welcome.