Immigration spending
Re: “Border fence is full of problems, costs,” Oct. 12 editorial.
The $ 1.2 billion allocated by Congress for a border fence could undoubtedly be better spent to control our borders more effectively. The money could be used to perfect a system to better identify those legally in the country and seeking jobs or it could be spent to do that and, in addition, create a guest-worker program and a path for citizenship for the illegals in the country. Creating a path for citizenship has many stumbling blocks besides being exorbitantly expensive. An organization the size of the Social Security Administration would likely be required to process the 10 million to 11 million illegals who would be required to pay fines, hold down a steady job, have no arrests, learn English, U.S. history and civics, pay back taxes, and go back to the end of the line of those awaiting entry who obey the rules for citizenship.
Norman Kautsky, Centennial
Vote-fraud worries
Re: “Safeguarding the vote is key,” Oct. 10 E.J. Dionne column.
Thank you for printing E.J. Dionne’s column. There have been factual findings that there were massive voter irregularities and fraud at the polling booths in the last several elections, and the more I read about this, the more worried I get about the possibility of this happening again in the upcoming election. This problem is widespread, irrefutable and a great danger to America’s democracy. I think it is up to the general media to get out the message loud and clear that we must have a paper trail, some kind of a backup for these high-tech voting machines that are easily tampered with. It is imperative that every American has confidence that his or her vote is counted.
Elizabeth Poletti, Littleton
Candidate’s conflict?
Re: “Panama trip has pol on hot seat,” Oct. 12 news story.
Not only did former Colorado Commission of Higher Education (CCHE) Executive Director Rick O’Donnell take a free, sun-filled vacation to Panama with his girlfriend as a fringe benefit from a state advertising contract, his girlfriend was just appointed by Gov. Bill Owens as a CCHE commissioner. First of all, it is wholly inappropriate for O’Donnell to take a beach vacation offered because of his state position. Second, it is wrong that he took his girlfriend, who was in line for a CCHE commission appointment. Third, his hypocrisy is clear: His 12-point plan to clean up Congress obviously applies to everyone but him, since he chose to violate his own proposed code while employed by the state.
Andrew Luxen, Denver
…
Your not-so-subtle political bias is showing. Interesting to see the prominent front-page placement of the derogatory allegations against Republican candidate Rick O’Donnell this near to the November election, while the good- news headline, “Deficit falls to 4-year low,” is relegated to Page 2. Far too often these political nuances show up in The Post’s pages as news reporting with your own brand of emphasis and favoritism. Let’s be fair and reserve your political agenda for the editorial section.
John Rohde, Cañon City
American Indians
Let us abandon the politically correct term “Native Americans” to denote descendants of the tribes who were here on the American continents prior to and after Leif Ericson’s discovery of America around 1000 A.D. At a recent conference of America-Indian composers in Washington, D.C., it was clear that so-called Native Americans dislike this term and would prefer to be called “American Indians,” a name that is attributable to Christopher Columbus’ mistaken assumption that he had reached India in 1492. Our fellow Americans whose ancestors were here in large numbers long before our European and/or African, Asian and Australian ancestors would prefer to be called American Indians, and there is plenty of anecdotal data to confirm this preference.
Furthermore, if we re-adopted this term, then the term “native Americans” could be correctly applied to those of us who were born here, regardless of our ancestry. I and all of my family consider ourselves to be native Americans, and since our indigenous fellow Americans want to be known as American Indians, let us please everyone and abandon this politically correct nonsense.
John White, Westminster
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