Email letters, June 18, 2012

By Staff
Monday, June 18, 2012

Obama sidestepped Congress for political gain on immigration issue

By now I’m sure Grand Junction readers have voiced many comments, pro and con, about Obama’s executive order regarding immigration. So, I’ll keep mine brief.

Many aspects of it are troubling to me, but some also appear dangerous and scary. Sidestepping Congress on any major issue looks dangerous, but doing it for votes seems politically suicidal. Aside from it being temporary and irritating to Congress, it looks tacky and smells bad, especially this close to the election.

The scary part to me is the very idea that one man can decide for all of us “the right (or wrong) thing to do.”

In my mind, that smacks of dictatorship.

A.B. CARLEY
Grand Junction

Wagner’s misuse of ‘tortuously’ made his column mentally torturous

Rick Wagner’s column on the county sheriff/federal law enforcement agents offers the suggestion that federal statutes arose from some understanding “...torturously based on some passing relationship to interstate commerce.”

This suggests the infliction of pain and distress by beating, fingernail pulling and poking in the eyes with sticks of the poor, woebegone body of “interstate commerce.”

The word Rick was flailing for, of course, is “tortuously,” indicating complexity.

The column only tangentially grazed a very significant recent forum involving several local county sheriffs in which a citizen asked, “Are you with us or against us?”. The question proved that indeed there is such a thing as a stupid question, similar to the statement Bush Jr. made, suggesting that even those with no opinion must be traitors.

A citizen wanted reassurance that the sheriffs would stand between him and “the tanks” when they come. Given that tanks are an anachronism, the citizen’s more proper worry should be the constant, pesky flyover of drones coming, in fact, to a sheriff’s department near you.

One backwoods country sheriff bewailed the Janus-face he had to employ, pushing away the feds with one hand while holding out the other for federal lucre (if he doesn’t take it he gets fired). Great grist for a column.

Instead we are treated to a convoluted traipse through history, back to a time when there was no law west of the Pecos, and only sheriffs (guys in white hats) in the rest of the nation.

Meanwhile, back at the Wagner ranch. One hopes in the future Wagner’s “War on Wrong” will expand to declaring war on malapropisms. Wading into one of Wagner’s anfractuous columns might be mentally torturous, because the track between idea and example is often tortuous.

DAVID L. MCWILLIAMS
Grand Junction

Prof wrongly compares deportation for kids of illegal aliens to Nazis’ treatment of Jews

I was aghast at the statement made by Professor Tom Acker of CMU likening the threat of deportation for children of illegal immigrants to “what it was like being a Jew in Nazi Germany.” Is he serious?

The Jewish people were rounded up, herded into railway cars like cattle and starved. Upon reaching their destination their children were ripped from their arms and faced the worst degradation anyone could impose on another human being. They were forced into inhumane living conditions, shot and thrown into ditches, burned to death in furnaces, etc., etc.

Can Professor Acker seriously be insinuating that illegal aliens face the same fate here in America? I’m sorry, Mr. Acker, but most illegal aliens in this country are treated better and receive more benefits than some American citizens. Go to any one of their countries and see how you will be received under the same circumstances.

As for Obama’s “turnaround” on this issue, he is the one who in 2011 said he could not go against the laws on the books and his hands were tied. He did nothing to work with Congress over this issue and waited until four months before the election to use an executive order to make his move.

Political? You bet. He is after the Hispanic vote and will use any means to acquire those votes. I would be wary of the possibility of his reversing his opinion after the election.

The children of illegal aliens are the product of the crime their parents committed when they entered this country illegally. They need to be given consideration; however; it should be done “within the law” and not for political benefit.

I came to this country more than 50 years ago. I came in through the front door and acquired citizenship. I have worked here, paid taxes, paid my own way, asked for no special benefits and obeyed the laws of my adopted country. I would expect nothing less from anyone else wishing to come to the United States.

M. E. OUELLETTE
Loma

Monument’s name misleads travelers into missing wonderful creation of nature

We only wish those who oppose the giving of the Colorado National Monument a name that truly describes its grandeur would have been with us for 10 years as we begged and pleaded with travelers who stopped at our business to please, please not be misled by the name and fail to see this wonderful place.

We owned and operated a cafe at the Grand Junction entrance and the misleading name of this grand park always drove people away from instead of to this marvelous place that deserves a National Park designation for people to grasp the fullness of its beauty.

One other matter I must address is an apology to my fellow citizens of Fruita. I have already apologized to then Mayor Ken Henry so now to all the people who are blessed with the marvelous Fruita community center.

I opposed the center on the grounds that with the community so equally divided it should not be move forward until there was more of a majority in favor. I was wrong, and thanks to Ken Henry and others we now have the hugely successful and very well done center.

The only fault now is finding a parking place because so many are using this grand facility.

ORVILLE BRUCE JONES
Fruita

Walcher catered to special interests in gravel pit approval ‘fiasco’

As a homeowner and resident of Clifton, I would like to remind folks when voting on the county commissioner for District 3 of the gravel pit approval fiasco that Woody Walcher and other members of the planning and zoning commission pushed through. The approval was knowingly against the wishes of local residents and against state law and local zoning codes.

We have seen enough of this kind of behavior in Washington, DC, and it’s time to rid our county of more of this “good ole boy” mentality. It’s time for a change and to bring our county into the 21st century by voting for honest, fiscal conservative candidates who put the best interests of the residents and the county first, not special interests.

I am voting for Rose Pugliese.

BARBARA SHINE
Clifton

Retired ICE investigator faults corrupt elite on both sides of border

I am a retired US Border Patrol/INS/ICE investigator. My view on immigration today is that the same bi-national 1% (Mexico/U.S.) who rapes U.S. taxpayers is the same bi-national 1% who rapes the Mexican undocumented.

Failed immigration is created and designed by the elite who run both governments. It is about the one percent’s bi-national greed through drug profits, trade, oil, remittances, the privatization of prisons, cheap labor, weapons, profit, NAFTA and a 40-year-long political platform that only sways back and forth, and seldom forward.

The Mexican undocumented would not come or stay here if that filthy, corrupt co-trading partner of the American elite would take care of its own citizens.

Many of you blame the undocumented as the cause of this problem. They are, in fact, a symptom but not the cause of the problem. Until voters see the root causes, this problem will never be solved.

JOHN RANDOLPH
Ridgway

Pugliese merits vote over Walcher, a ‘master of spin’

I’ve listened to many campaign ads in my day. If you close your eyes and concentrate on those by Ken Henry, John Justman and Rose Pugliese, you come away with a good sense of what kinds of character these candidates possess.

In contrast, Walcher’s radio ads are a true mystery. What is his intent? Is he using these ads to allow us to know him better? Seems to me, he is using his advertising to destroy both his opponent and the party to which he belongs.

That said, Walcher has every right to run as a write-in candidate and the right to say what he has to say. I will just call him the master of spin and leave it at that. What we need right now is not someone who will divide us, but someone who respects the process of being elected. That person in my opinion is the person who overwhelmingly won her position at the county convention, Rose Pugliese.

LINDA GREGORY
Grand Junction

Sentinel’s Sunday cartoon using personal tragedy for joke in ‘extreme poor taste’

I can’t believe The Daily Sentinel would allow such a hurtful and damaging cartoon to appear in the Sunday newspaper. To take someone’s personal tragedy and try to turn it into a joke is in extreme poor taste.

Not only should the cartoonist be ashamed of his cartoon, but the editor who allowed this to be published in a family newspaper should be ashamed, as well.

SONI DURHAM
Grand Junction