Readers Write 8/1

ENERGY

Oil is the lifeblood of our country. Try to imagine what we would do if all oil ceased to be produced. The whole country would come to a standstill. We cannot exist without oil!

So, why are so many people trying to demonize the very industry on which we depend upon for our survival? I hope people will awake to this great deception by the radical leftists, and stop buying into their warped way of looking at our economy (about which they apparently know nothing).

Wake up, America, and support capitalism, and one of our greatest industries.

Samantha Svensson, Conyers

ENVIRONMENT

Climate change ought to be a nonpartisan fight

Thomas Friedman is right (“Mother Nature will win in the end,” Opinion, July 25). Where is the public on the issue of the climate change bill? How did we let that one slip? What is wrong with us? Democrats are abandoning the bill to cap greenhouse gases and promote renewable energy. Republicans won’t touch it with a barge pole. They’re not even going into battle for this one. Wow. Even if a person is a nonbeliever in climate change, surely we’re all believers in clean air and a better environmental legacy for our children?

As for Senate Republicans, perhaps those of you concerned only about short-term economic gain are without descendants. That would explain your myopic stance on climate and renewable energy issues. And to you Senate Democrats who have lost your verve for fight because the right-wing media keeps knocking you down, and the American public is apathetic: Get back up, dust yourselves off, and fight this fight.

Partisan politics: It’ll be the end of this country.

Sarah Dorahy, Atlanta

IMMIGRATION

Kennesaw State student should be deported

Regarding “States talk illegal students” (Metro, July 25): Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl is, by her own admission, in this country illegally. It matters not whether she was brought in by her parents, or if she slipped under a border fence. When she was arrested, she should have been deported immediately — not given another year to complete her education.

So she continued to attend Kennesaw State, an illegal immigrant likely depriving a legal student a slot at the school.

Georgia’s public colleges may admit undocumented students? Why? Undocumented (illegal) students have no place in our colleges — or anywhere else in the country, for that matter. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says federal law does not bar illegal immigrants from attending public colleges. What part of “illegal immigrants” does ICE not understand?

Colotl could have taken the proper legal steps to become a U.S. citizen. She chose to remain illegal, and to play the system to her advantage.

Don Bogue, Stone Mountain

SOCIETY

Right’s tactics are more poisonous than the left’s

While I am very much in agreement with Kyle Wingfield that instead of retaliations that ensnare more Shirley Sherrods, we should recognize our own mutually assured self-destruction, I find his comparisons between the left and right somewhat erroneous (“Defusing racial politics,” Opinion, July 25). I have heard nothing from the left that comes close to the vitriol being spewed by the right. The signs held at tea party rallies, the deliberate editing of videos, and the constant barrage from Fox News and other right-wing media outweigh anything that I have heard from the left. I am disappointed that President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack did not stand up to Fox News and investigate this situation thoroughly. However, Fox News, Andrew Breitbart and right-wing commentators should take responsibility for the poisonous atmosphere they have created.

I remember the civil rights era all too well. We are coming much too close to that kind of hate again.

Those who are using fear and prejudice for their own political gains know what they are doing. We can only hope that people of good will can see this before it is too late.

Mary Bagwell, Atlanta

EDUCATION

Require HOPE winners to stick around awhile

Many know that the HOPE scholarship program is facing budget concerns. Since it benefits Georgia to have highly educated people, Georgia policymakers should alter the program so that there is a post-graduation residency requirement for all HOPE scholarship recipients. Doing so will subsequently increase the overall average education levels in Georgia, making the state more attractive to revenue-producing big businesses. There are numerous other positive benefits associated with educated people, such as lower crime and increased wages.

This alteration to the HOPE scholarship program will provide sustainable benefits in the long run for the state of Georgia. We need only be patient.

Jeremiah Glover, Atlanta

POLITICS

Tax cuts not enough; we must cut spending, too

In an election year article (Opinion, July 28), Sen. Johnny Isakson points to cutting taxes, but not to spending. Being right requires being more than just being half right.