Deportations won’t solve unemployment problem Re: “Visa holders take jobs away from U.S. citizens,” letters, June 8
Karen Gilbert is spot on about the issue of stimulating domestic employment with visa regulation, but let’s not take layoffs out on visa holders. I was laid off last year, and when the smoke cleared the
last remaining person in my department was a visa holder. I bear him no ill.
Very large countries like China and India cannot possibly employ all their own people; inevitably many will emigrate to find work. The United States does not have a billion people, but we also have more people than jobs.
We can’t solve the entire problem by deportations and closing the border. We must regulate our reproduction and treat every kid like he or she really matters, with none to waste, and train them for tomorrow’s jobs — no exceptions. This will take years.
Unemployment is the enemy. Not the visa holders.
Christopher Marsh
Alexandria
Posting 10 Commandments is unconstitutional
Re: “This guy is too honest to be president,” June 6
Gregory Kane seems unaware of the 14th Amendment, which states in part, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
This has been judicially interpreted to mean that the states are as limited as the federal government with respect to making laws “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.” As basic and worthy of respect as the Ten Commandments are, using public funds or the state Supreme Court building to promulgate them is as unconstitutional as doing the same with the Five Pillars of Islam or with the Bhagavad Gita.
Democracy is not only about “majority rule,” it is also about protecting the rights of minorities.
Gilbert Adams
Washington
Community excluded from soccer field decision
Re: “Leggett met with soccer group while pushing farm switchover,” May 30
I join my neighbors in objecting to the way the Brickyard Road matter has been handled. With only a few days’ notice, the organic farmer who had been leasing the land for more than 30 years was told abruptly that his lease would end. Neighbors learned that a deal was close to being finalized that would turn over this land for use by a private organization for soccer games, including parking
spaces, amenities and bathrooms.
Although negotiations were being conducted behind closed doors for several years, the neighbors closest to the land learned about it at the last minute and were deprived of the opportunity to weigh in on the decision.
I do not object to soccer fields per se, but there are other available spaces closer to those in need of soccer fields that should be considered.
Nancy Holahan
Potomac
