Immigrants’ taxes
Re: “Time is right for immigration review,” Jan. 5 editorial.
I was disappointed that your immigration editorial referenced only the taxpayer cost of having illegals here, failing to balance that with any mention of the monetary benefits generated by their presence, which include tax revenues, among others. Does former Gov. Dick Lamm suggest exempting illegals from the payment of sales taxes? How would truly effective exclusion impact Colorado’s economy?
David Fulker, Boulder
State Republican rift
Re: “Is Republican rift fixable?” Jan. 5 news story.
While it makes for catchy press to emphasize “social conservatives” as the dividing issue within the GOP, for me and many other Republicans it is the party’s drift away from fighting for limited government (and limited cost of government) that creates a “rift.”
Republicans are a big-tent party with room for varying opinions on social issues. But if we do not stand for liberty, including liberty from excessive taxation, we stand for nothing. I am not a social conservative, though I get along fine with them. But, politically speaking, I have no use for a tax-raising, big-government Republican. Such a person is not a “moderate”; he or she is a Democrat.
This is not about social issues. It is about fundamental American principles.
Ross G. Kaminsky, Boulder
Deaths in Congo
More than 30,000 people a month and nearly 4 million total have died since 1998 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s the deadliest conflict in 60 years, exceeding the death toll of all wars since World War II.
If that’s not incomprehensible enough, it gets worse. Only 1.5 percent of the deaths are due to violence. The rest are due to malnutrition, disease and lack of care. Most deaths are due to illnesses that are both treatable and preventable. It’s being labeled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and rightly so.
As a country that just had its first independent election in 40 years, this fragile democracy should be nurtured. Yet, since the conflict started in 1998, little has been done by the international community, including the United States, to bring stability to the region and end the human tragedies occurring every day. If the U.S. is in the business of “spreading democracy” these days, why have the unfathomable atrocities among the Congolese been ignored?
Rachel Chaparro, Denver
“Coat lady of Denver”
This past week, New York Cares collected its 1 millionth coat in New York City. The annual coat drive is now in its 17th year. As we marked the occasion with a ceremony in Penn Station, many of us were thinking fondly of Elizabeth Yanish Shwayder, known affectionately to our volunteers as “the coat lady of Denver.” It was she who contacted our mayor’s office in 1989 and told him about the coat drive she started in Denver, suggesting New York City probably needed one, too.
She flew to New York at her own expense and taught us how she organized it back home, and got us off to a flying start. The New York Cares Coat Drive has become an institution in New York City, and we are excited to reach this important milestone. But it never would have happened if Elizabeth had not reached out to us and showed us how to do it.
Suzanne Davis, New York
