Crossover voting can work both ways
I was both pleased and concerned by AJC columnist Jay Bookman’s comments regarding him “jumping ship” and voting for Republican candidates (“Why I will be voting Republican in runoff,” Opinion, July 16). I am pleased Bookman voted for candidates who he felt were either most qualified or were less harmful to serve the American public, instead of simply voting for the candidate he felt was the weakest opponent to face his Democratic choice in the fall elections.
Unfortunately, party crossover voting is more often than not used for the latter purpose. Does Bookman also believe the Mets’ manager should be able to select the Braves pitcher when the two teams play? While he feels open primaries are acceptable now, I’d be willing to bet he will squeal like a stuck pig if Republicans cross over and vote for the weaker Democratic candidates.
P.D. GOSSAGE, JOHNS CREEK
Immigration debate ignores history
The controversy over illegal immigration is not about politics as much as it is about philosophy. Those who oppose unlimited immigration have a sense of defending our borders and our nature as America. Those who are sympathetic to the immigrants and want to call them “refugees” are appealing to our Christian sense of charity. But I see the whole thing somewhat differently, perhaps somewhat politically incorrect. Many good issues are censored because they are called politically incorrect.
I ask simply: Why is there this connection between Hispanics and violence? Mexicans and people from Central America seem unable to function without criminal gangs. Their countries appear to be more like criminal conspiracies than nations. Does this have anything to do with the Spanish history of bull fighting, or the centuries-long burning of religious dissenters in Spain at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition? These queries are not politically correct, but answering them could help us put things in perspective.
NORMAN RAVITCH, SAVANNAH
Move over law ensnares motorists
I am glad to see the Gwinnett Police Chiefs Association is seeking to educate the public about the move over law. The lives and safety of law enforcement officers are of paramount importance, and any driver who negligently endangers them deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Common sense and reason, however, inform us that if Georgia’s move over law was intended to protect the lives and safety of emergency responders, then it should be forbidden for police officers to create artificial road hazards by parking their cruisers on the shoulder or median of a busy highway and turning on their emergency flashers for the sole purpose of trapping motorists into violating the law.
Furthermore, county police themselves become violators of the law and of the public trust when they stop and issue citations to drivers who committed no infraction. This arrogant, ongoing abuse frustrates the purpose of the law by contributing to the problem of public cynicism, complicating the work of the vast majority of emergency responders who serve with integrity, and desecrating the memory of those who have given their lives in the line of duty. The abusers earn for themselves a far greater punishment than ever did the guiltiest violator of Georgia’s move over law.
MICHAEL WHITE, WESTMINSTER, S.C.
