The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Moving On Up

3.31.06 @ 12:01AM

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Re: TAS's writers and readers:

As a devoted Spectator reader, I get a tremendous lift each morning from the brilliant and creative words of R. Emmett Tyrrell, Ben Stein, Jed Babbin, Lisa Fabrizio and all of the other nimble minds who contribute regularly. Among those, I must count such Americans as the elegant Diane Smith, plain-spoken Elaine Kyle, steady Beverly Gunn and so many others. Sometimes it seems like the entire world is in shambles and only in the Spectator is it put right.

The real beauty of the Spectator is that it provides us with reminders of the blessed lives we can lead in America with all of its prosperity and promise. The Spectator reminds us of our struggles, conflicts, occasional failures and of our mutual hard-won freedoms, unique in all of the world's history. Most of all, the mere presence of such an array of great thinkers, writers and citizens offers me hope for the future of America and the world.

Much of what seems to trouble us today is a kind of national guilt over things like Vietnam, slavery, religion, abortion, our material wealth and our exalted place in the world. How that guilt is "managed" has led to the divide between red and blue America. Entities like the media, academia and the American left respond to this guilt by refusing to move ahead with life until all agree that white America has despoiled the Earth, sickened and enslaved our own minorities, waged cultural and religious war on benign foreign innocents and seeks to dominate the planet with this or that sinister profit-motivated conspiracy. Blue guilt can never be assuaged because the facts do not bear out their emotions and that, it seems, is why blue America is constantly angry and continuously offended by just about everything and everyone.

The voices that I read in the Spectator seem to have a wiser and more realistic approach. They seem to favor moving ahead in an imperfect world with hope that things like logic, facts, patriotism, courage, religious faith and traditional morality will carry us forward. Spectator columnists and readers are not angry, rarely resort to name-calling or vulgarity, are up on the facts and have the far more positive perspective on national and world events. They are, however, frustrated over the insincerity of the blue voices who cloak purely political motives in high sounding moral terms, intended somehow to induce us to share their shame and guilt (as well as the contents of our collective wallets).

I thank the Spectator for presenting rational views on so many interesting topics and for conducting lively, reasoned and thoughtful debate. So many wonderful writers and readers reflect what's best about America's past and present, as well as providing this reader with hope for the future of the world. Elaine, Diane and Beverly would never let us fall.
-- Deane Fish
Altamont, New York

CHOOSING SIDES
Re: Carol Platt Liebau's Immigration Ground Zero:

There is just one simple question that should be asked of President Bush and the United States Congress. Being duly elected in this republic, who do these sworn individuals represent, the American citizens or the Mexican government?
-- Melvin L. Leppla
Jacksonville, North Carolina

I just wanted to thank Carol Platt Liebau for her column on illegal immigration. She captures calmly what stirs me emotionally: a belief that this country is a special place that welcomes all, but should also expect a great deal from those who wish to immigrate here. Once the melting pot becomes a multicultural stew, this country will collapse. The melting pot is what has kept this country great, once it is no longer a collection of various nationalities combining into one stronger American identity, we will watch our country devolve into chaos. That is what most Americans know in their hearts, and that is what those who want to get a handle on the influx of illegals what to prevent. We love our country, and we only want those here who love it as we do.
-- Deborah Durkee
Marietta, Georgia

This is absolutely the best, most succinct summary of my feelings and beliefs on this subject. When Thomas Sowell's argument regarding the economics of immigration is overlaid on this piece, I think you have the perfect rationale for meaningful policy reform that any reasonable person could want or muster.

After the failings of the administration and Congress to cut the budget and use their simultaneous control of the legislative and executive branch to eliminate programs and departments in Reaganesque fashion, I and many Republicans will be watching this issue very closely. If something along the lines described by Ms. Liebau is not enacted, I will be voting for whoever is the challenger in the next Republican primary, and may or may not vote in the national election.

On a related topic, like many other red staters who have made contributions to the party over the years, I have stopped giving and it will be some time before I start again. I have paid and voted to get the Republicans into power SO THEY WILL ENACT LAWS I AGREE WITH. They haven't been doing that. Before they get paid anymore, I expect to see concrete results. The plea of "if you don't give, Democrats will get elected" is falling on deaf ears. We put you in office to do a job--and we can damn well put you out if you don't start doing what we sent you there to do.
-- Matt Patrick

Hear! Hear! I am an Hispanic fully cultured, assimilated and "Americanized," three generations removed from the countries of my heritage. My ambivalence about the immigration issue is slowly gravitating to the disposition she expresses. In particular I am impressed by the last sentence of the article, "...immigrating to America is a privilege to be cherished, not an entitlement to be demanded." It succinctly states a truth that perhaps because of its simplicity, is easily ignored in the current debate. Now, if only it were possible to convey this concept to that illiterate mass that functions strictly upon raw emotion, bereft of civil rationale.
-- O.A.

There is a contradiction in Carol Liebau's article... She says immigration laws need to be enforced, and then she says that illegal immigrants need to learn English.... Denny Hastert is going along with a guest worker program, so it looks like we've lost this one... We'd be better off to leave things as they are.
-- GK
Arizona

We're having the same problem up here in Canada, as some 120,000 illegal Portuguese are being deported as a beginning to getting the illegal immigrant problem under control. I am an American living in Canada legally, and it cost me $1,800 in fees and three years of intensive paper-gathering, traveling back and forth, and preparations to get my Permanent Resident card. The fact that some Portuguese family decided just to come over here and squat, planning to reap for free what I had to work and pay for, does not move me -- not even when I see them weeping at the airport as their free ticket back to the country where they legally belong is handed to them. The thing that bugs me most, though, is the loud howling that these people are "Honest and hard working" -- and have been "playing by the rules" -- when they are living here illegally, paying no taxes and yet sucking up benefits that are being extorted from my legally-earned paycheck.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Economics, Federal Budget, Social Security, Religion, Abortion, Hollywood, Law, Israel, NATO, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil, Unions, Medicare