Parents’ hopes go with their children
Rather than berate parents who send their children across the border to what is hoped to be a better life in America, we should consider what drives them to make such a wrenching decision. My great-grandparents sent my grandmother and her sister, ages 13 and 11, to America to escape the Russian Civil Wars. They traveled over land by ox cart and across the ocean in steerage. Their reception was hardly welcome, yet they managed to make their way and become productive citizens.
My mother and her brother, 12 and 9, were allowed to leave Germany at the start of the Holocaust, but her father was Polish by birth and so couldn’t leave. Forced into a “Sophie’s Choice” situation, what would you do? Would you make this decision if circumstances weren’t dire? And which choice defines you as a good or bad parent?
Our country was built by immigrants who sought a better life. Yes, there needs to be a better way to handle these children and the immigration process overall, but a moral obligation means doing the right thing without expecting compensation. Who knows who walks among them?
SAGE BOUCHER, ATLANTA
Marriage could lessen wealth gap
An analysis by Standard & Poor’s reports the economy is slowing because of a widening gap between the wealthy and everyone else. The analysis notes part of the problem is that educational achievement has stalled in recent decades. Why?
The vast majority of families headed by single mothers live in poverty, and single-parent families are now at about 40 percent or greater. Compared to two-parent families, their children are disadvantaged from the start, particularly with regard to education. Raising children to be well-educated citizens is a challenge even for traditional families, let alone those headed by a single parent, most often a teen mom.
The solution to this widening gap is to promote marriage to put this great country on a road back to traditional values founded on Judeo-Christian principles; to provide comprehensive sex education to children starting at the pre-pubescent stage; and to convince children that if they don’t want to live in poverty, they must either practice birth control or abstain from sex. Furthermore, children must be provided the means of birth control. Is there another way, or do we just accept the status quo?
DENNIS BALLOU, ATLANTA
Ga. should pull out of Common Core
Before I retired, I gave 36 years of my life to the education of other people’s children. Based on what I learned over those nearly four decades, Common Core is a colossal mistake, foisted on Georgia’s children in the name of “improving education.” If only our elected officials could set aside their egos, admit that Common Core will do — and is doing — incalculable harm to Georgia’s school children and withdraw from that Godzilla of a federal program.
Let’s not forget, or try to hide, the attendant costs imposed on taxpayers. Accountability Works, a Maryland-based advocacy group, estimates schools nationwide will need $6.86 billion for “technology,” $5.26 billion for “professional development,” $2.47 billion for “approved” textbooks and $1.24 billion for “assessment testing” over the first seven years Common Core is in effect.
GEORGE MITCHELL, BLAIRSVILLE
