Letters

From the February 1994 issue

"America's Economic Refugees" (Nov.) shows the benefits immigrants bring into this country through their hard work at the grass-roots level, where true entrepreneurship is born as a matter of survival. But I was quoted as if I was underestimating the issue of exploitation. The plight of the immigrant is undeniable, and it is also undeniable that immigrants are exploited in many instances--not only by employers but also by the media, politicians, providers of goods and services, and private as well as governmental institutions.

Immigrants do bring a strong value system to our society. Among Hispanics, the rate of divorce is a lot lower than that of the general population, and the extended family is strong. Eighty-three percent of the Hispanic households in California are the classic family units that serve as a foundation for stability, compared to 64 percent among non-Hispanic whites. Where we fail the immigrants is in not allowing them to maintain a strong sense of identity and self-worth. The present immigrant bashing is an example of denying their value as human beings, and I do not know many people who can fight, much less survive, such reactionary bombardment.

We must provide them with the opportunity of educating themselves, so they can have the freedom to choose which jobs they would like to take. We must allow them to come into the mainstream, so we may benefit from their value system--family cohesiveness, integrity, respect for others, loyalty, love for their kin. We must signal to them that it is OK to be who they are and that they do not have to choose between one culture and another, that there can be a choice of taking what is best from each culture. There is a lot to be learned from them, and in learning from them we can use their value system to return this country to greatness.

José de Jesús Legaspi
Montebello, CA

School Duel

From the viewpoint of libertarians, the school-voucher initiative ("Getting an Education," Nov.) was a fabulous success in one important sense. With the help of a huge number of pro-voucher volunteers, it took only $800,000 to put the initiative on the ballot. But it cost the California Teachers Association, arguably the most anti-taxpayer labor union in the state, $12.6 million to defeat it. All told, 95 percent of the $16.9 million spent against Proposition 174 came from the five government-school labor unions.

Normally the CTA uses its captive dues for advancing new socialist programs and funding big-government candidates. But in this election the CTA was desperately fighting to hold on to its empire--the failing public-school monopoly.

Advocates of limited government should put a voucher initiative on the ballot every year--just to drain the coffers of the CTA and its allied labor unions. Offhand, I can't think of a more cost-effective way to deplete the campaign funding of some of our worst elected officials.

Pat Wright
Chair, Libertarian Party of San Diego
San Diego, CA

Tim Ferguson takes the position that another worthwhile concept has fallen on hard times because it wasn't sold right. Is it possible that it wasn't the selling job that was at fault, that the basic concept of vouchers is seriously flawed?

The elitist concept of vouchers is simply one more example of the grand old American tradition of running away from our problems. When the farmland in the East gets worn out, we simply load the family in the wagon and head west, where the land's free and the soil is still fertile.

Universal "free" education is one of the features of our governmental system that sets us apart from the rest of the world as a desirable place to live and grow. A voucher system would be a giant step toward dismantling that system. If we have decided as a nation that we no longer can afford universal, tax-supported education, let's vote it out gracefully. Let's not cop out by picking it to death.

Earl Gates
Decatur, IL

I am appalled and bewildered to find so-called libertarians and conservatives backing another government subsidy in the form of school vouchers and calling it "choice." Sure, all citizens would benefit from a good education, but what about clothing, food, health care? Why don't we ask the government to send us a voucher so we can use it for "choice" in physicians? How about food coupons so we can have "choice" in food? Why not housing chits so we can have a "choice" in neighborhoods? Why don't we just send all our money to the government, and they can send us back a coupon book? That willreally increase our choices!

Maggie Kohls
Des Plaines, IL