GOVERNMENT
Thanks for exposing stimulus funds’ misuse
Regarding “Ga. mishandles job funds” (News, June 17), thank you for your informative (and yet disheartening) revelations concerning Georgia’s poor handling of $23 million in federal stimulus grants. Although some believe the stimulus program had dubious merit from its inception, many states have properly applied the funds and achieved positive results. Unfortunately, Georgia wasn’t one of them.
It is important to know who was responsible for the debacle within the Department of Human Services. It would certainly be interesting to hear that person’s response to the charges expressed in the AJC (although nothing can justify the lack of oversight of the project). Were it not for a whistle-blower and the AJC’s persistence, in all likelihood the failure would never have reached public scrutiny.
Michael L. Shaw, Stone Mountain
IMMIGRATION
Harvesting crops for a pittance nothing new
Easier access to guest-worker status will not bring migrant workers back to Georgia, nor will higher wages. For decades, we have been “blessed” with desperate people willing to harvest crops for little gain. My own people did it during the Depression. This subjugation of farmworkers is the reason we eat so well, and cheaply.
I have often thought that Georgians elect scoundrels because they believe they can better deal with the poison pot that is politics. We would be better off with elected officials with common sense and business savvy.
Robert Pittman, Carrollton
CURRENCY
No fuss when cash made here is sent to Mexico
Many politicians condemn any money that a U.S. company has offshore. It does not matter that those funds were earned by perfectly legitimate operations outside the U.S. On another front, the money sent back to Mexico by Mexican workers in the U.S. totals billions annually. This is money earned here (some of which is known to be unreported income on which taxes have not been paid). Mexico is not alone in this category.
Where is the corresponding level of concern? Can we imagine the outrage that would ensue if even a few American corporations failed to report income of this magnitude and then shipped it offshore without paying the taxes due on it?
It is time for meaningful political debates, where tough questions are asked instead of softball questions formulated by a partisan press. We should demand that our elected representatives at least be consistent.
John H. Watson, Marietta
PAKISTAN
Arrest of CIA informants is understandable
While I applaud the efforts and recent success of the Navy SEALs, I understand Pakistan’s arrest of those who helped us. If I were Pakistani, I would feel that those arrested should be tried for espionage and treason, and receive the punishments that Pakistani law provides for such crimes.
If American citizens provided intelligence and facilitated the armed invasion of America by Israel, China, Russia or Mexico, for any reason whatsoever, what should the legal treatment of those Americans be?
Bob Klepak, Conyers
