CEO PAY
Response to “Lucrative paydays for corporate chiefs.” Business, June 5
Congratulations to all the overpaid CEOs in your annual pay review (“Lucrative paydays for corporate chiefs,” Business, June 5).
I have no ill will toward any of them. However, I do believe that it is important to clarify that their salaries are not a function of their worth to their companies. If all of our salaries were determined by a compensation committee composed of our friends and cronies, we all would be millionaires. The premise that these people are performing a task that only a few people can do (and hence, they deserve such grand compensation) is bogus.
Am I jealous? Of course.
Gerson Paull, Atlanta
FARMWORKERS
Tucker barely addresses sensible alternatives
Cynthia Tucker’s piece “The truth crops up on farms” (Opinion, June 5) shows her predictable tendency to spend 99 percent of her column pushing a specific opinion (however flawed), while misrepresenting or ignoring the inconvenient facts refuting her argument.
In the case of immigration reform, she defends the right of Georgia farmers to have access to cheap, yet illegal workers — while giving short shrift to the sensible notion of providing farmers with legal workers in a federal guest worker program. I posit that most residents would prefer limiting immigrants to legal workers, even if the people who employ them have to fill out a few extra forms. I also suspect Cynthia Tucker is in a distinct minority in her wish to either continue the current situation of millions of illegal immigrants running free in our country or worse, giving the illegal immigrants citizenship without the necessary first step of securing the borders.
Eric Sandberg, Atlanta
America’s laws protect us — and migrants, too
Once again, Cynthia Tucker shows Washington’s plan to never let a farm crisis go to waste (“The truth crops up on farms,” Opinion, June 5). The problem is, we know the farmers just will not plan ahead for getting their crops — but prefer to go to the corner and load workers into their trucks. We have laws to protect illegal workers for their own good. Folks are tired of seeing illegal workers used as slaves and mistreated, or taught to cheat our system. Our borders are dangerous. How many more must die, or get raped, tortured or robbed?
Georgians are not racists concerning Hispanics — but we want them to not have to suffer, and for farmers to obey our laws. Lynn Everitt, Hoschton
HEALTH CARE
Gov. Deal must broaden his advisory committee
Kudos to Gov. Nathan Deal for recognizing the imperative of moving forward with planning for health reform implementation. His appointment of the Georgia Health Insurance Exchange Advisory Committee enables the state to begin developing an insurance exchange appropriate for the needs of Georgians.
Unfortunately, Deal has missed an opportunity to ensure broad representation of the stakeholders most informed and most affected by health care. Among the committee members, some groups are well-represented: Republican lawmakers, the insurance industry, business and hospital systems. Both the tea party (lest they conjure up another 100,000 phone calls) and consumer advocates get token representation. Missing at the table are health care providers, public health experts, and anyone with direct experience working with underserved communities, or the health safety net.
One can draw only two possible conclusions from this: The governor doesn’t want input from those who provide direct care to patients (and understand the access issues and challenges for Georgia’s vulnerable populations), or it was a simple “oversight.”
I eagerly await Deal’s announcement about the new members on this advisory committee.
Dr. Harry J. Heiman, director, health policy, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Crackdown will take toll on small businesses
Regarding “Many immigrants leaving Georgia behind” (ajc.com, June 8), thank you for showing the other side of this story. Small business is one of the victims in this scenario. In a time when business is slow, laws such as these help no one but the egos of those drafting them.
Kim Claros, Lawrenceville
People in U.S. illegally are not immigrants
Regarding “Many immigrants leaving Georgia behind” (ajc.com, June 8), those who are leaving are not immigrants; they were illegally staying in Georgia. I am one of the immigrants, and we are an integral part of the Atlanta community and the United States. Your generalized headline for this article makes all immigrants’ situation difficult.
Americans are immigrants, and I assume most of the newspaper’s staff also came from somewhere. I hope that AJC editors will be able to see beyond today’s headlines.
Sunny K. Park, Atlanta
