IMMIGRATION
Don’t offer citizenship to those here illegally
In response to Jay Bookman’s column (“Courage, compassion needed as key vote nears,” Opinion, June 5), he is correct that I oppose offering anyone who knowingly and willingly enters this country illegally a pathway to citizenship. However, he failed to acknowledge the legitimate reasons for this opposition.
Amnesty is simply contrary to the rule of law and fundamentally unfair to immigrants who wait to come to this country legally, and it will only encourage more illegal immigration. We tried amnesty in 1986, when we had an estimated 3 million or less illegal immigrants eligible. The result? Today, we have over 11 million illegal immigrants nationwide.
The bottom line is that a pathway to citizenship should be reserved for those immigrants from around the globe who play by the rules, follow our immigration laws, and come to our nation legally each year.
STATE REP. EDWARD LINDSEY, R-ATLANTA
SCOUTING
Gays welcome here, as are everyone else
Some of Cobb County’s largest Baptist churches have severed their ties with the Boy Scouts of America due to the organization’s decision regarding gay young men and Scouting.
I am saddened by this development and hope the churches’ decisions will prove to be the exception, rather than the norm. Covenant Presbyterian Church is proud to have hosted Scout troops on our Buckhead campus since 1928, including a Cub Scout pack that currently meets in our Scout hut. I applaud the organization’s new policy of inclusion.
At Covenant Presbyterian Church, we welcome people of all ages, gender, race and sexual orientation into our worship community. We believe the combination of our different backgrounds makes us stronger as a whole, and provides us with opportunities to learn from one another as we serve our church and community as the body of Christ.
ERNIE HESS, SENIOR PASTOR, COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
FAMILIES IN CRISIS
When single moms need help, where are dads?
Regarding “Single moms need help, not a lecture on morals” (Opinion, June 4), in all the hoopla over the 2011 U.S. Census finding that 40 percent of households rely on mom as the primary or sole breadwinner, I have yet to hear this question: Where are the men? Where are the daddies in this picture? Why are the moms single?
The divorce rate in the U.S. is still over 50 percent, as it has been for many years. Yet according to the CDC statistics, only about 75 percent of dads regularly pay child support for the children they fathered.
Sanchez’s column makes a good point about the lack of economic opportunities for both women and men on the lower end of the economic divide. It’s hard to get by working for minimum wage when you have no health insurance and have to take care of children, too.
But before we go blaming women for being primary breadwinners, let’s ask: Where are the dads?
LAURIE MCDOWELL, ATLANTA
