FEDERAL SPENDING
Column cuts to heart
of Ryan budget cuts
My banking, business and governmental careers have kept me in close touch with global economic and business news for over 60 years. I know of no columnist with the ability to understand and communicate economic news with the clarity and insight of Jay Bookman. He may be the only columnist in the country who reports on politics, who also has a clear understanding of economics and economic history. The recent column on the Ryan budget that cut to the heart of the national budget charade was proof of that (“Helping the poor by not helping them is bad policy,” Opinion, March 13).
We are fortunate to have him here in Atlanta. It is a pity that his occasional columns on national issues are not syndicated across the nation.
SAM COSTANZO, HAMPTON
IMMIGRATION
Citizenship is matter
of respecting the law
Mary Sanchez misunderstands (or at least mischaracterizes) the motive behind much opposition to acceptance of illegal immigration (“Now isn’t the time for waffling on immigration,” Opinion, March 12).
There are laws establishing who has the right to live and work in the U.S. If a majority of American citizens disagree with these laws, Congress may modify or abolish them. For an administration to refrain from enforcing laws with which it disagrees is bad for the country. It suggests rejecting the rule of law in favor of the rule of men.
Relatively few believe that immigrants are unworthy of citizenship. Most admire the courage and industry of most of those who have entered illegally. The objection to their presence is neither racial, cultural nor personal.
The U.S. hasn’t “fixed” the system because it is a house divided between those who support property rights and those who prefer open borders.
NORMAN D. FAGGE, MARIETTA
HISTORY
Past horrors teach us
to avoid repeating them
Regarding “We’ve had enough talk about slavery” (Readers write, Opinion, March 10), I initially didn’t know what to make of the letter or the writer.
From colonialism, the slave trade, the Civil War, to the Holocaust, our nation and world have been and continue to be shaped by horrible and tragic events. Those events have consequences that last for centuries. History should teach us the strategy and tactics of avoidance, but it also gives us lessons in what our nation and world could have been without those savage assaults on human beings and on the human psyche.
We can’t celebrate independence and democracy without acknowledging how we got there. Not doing so belittles the efforts of those who’ve overcome and continue to strive to do so — and gives power to those who would replicate those horrors.
RONALD D. JOHNSON, AUSTELL
GOVERNMENT
Conflicting messages
make people cynical
Tell me that it makes sense for the Transportation Security Administration to allow some knives on airplanes, while we suspend children from school for possessing the same items. Tell me that it makes sense for our federal government to post thousands of job openings after the sequestration took effect, while crying doom and gloom about all the pending layoffs.
Is it any wonder that the average citizen is so cynical about, and sick of, our government officials — and most politicians?
P.D. GOSSAGE, JOHNS CREEK
