Today's Letters: Greed drives builders to use illegal workers
By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published July 2, 2007
Deputies go to building sites, grab workers who run away June 28, story
The article concerning illegal immigrants on construction sites hit a raw nerve in me. I have owned and operated a small construction company for more than 30 years, 14 of those here in Florida.
Developer Louis Breland's apparent position that legal workers cannot do the job on time or on budget is repugnant and demonstrates why able-bodied legal men and women sit at home or worse.
Florida has a healthy building industry and many able workers. But as Breland's attitude suggests - and he is just one of hundreds who take this bottom-line stance - that if they can get away with paying illegals lower pay, work them harder, provide less insurance and workers comp, they are going to do it. Why? Because they make more money that way.
If I or any contractor fails to be properly insured, we are "shut down" until full compliance is met. That costs money. Legal workers can report a business that fails this test and get rewarded for doing so. How many illegals do you think will report noncompliance? Or if a developer fails to pay an illegal subcontractor do you really believe that sub will file a construction lien?
I applaud the Bay County deputies for doing their job. The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund people should tell their people to get legal or get out. Sorry, there is no two ways about this.
Breland and his type seek only to increase their wealth, and damn the legal American workers. I and many other small contractors are proud to employ our (legal) brothers and sisters. Does it cost more? You bet! Do they work as hard? Sometimes they don't; that's life.
The bottom line here is: If these workers were legal it would cost the subcontractors more money. The costs would go on up the line, and the filthy rich would not be so rich, but still a little filthy. The paying public will pay what the market bears.
Thomas J. Cook, St. Petersburg
Racial profiling alleged in Disney crackdown June 28, story
Tiresome excuse
After reading this article, I have to say that, frankly, I am completely sick of people saying, "It's because I'm black."
Everyone has been to Disney and other theme parks across the country, and you know if you are causing trouble or not. No matter what color you are, if you draw enough attention to yourself, you are going to be asked to leave.
It drives me crazy when I hear the same excuse being dragged out so often. I don't care anymore if this doesn't sound politically correct. The bottom line is: If you are causing trouble you are going to be watched - black, blue, green, red, it doesn't matter!
Chris Payne, St. Petersburg
Racial profiling alleged in Disney crackdown June 28, story
Behavior is to blame
I find it very disconcerting that accusations of "racial profiling" are being used, once again, in the scenario at Disney World, where apparently 45 of 46 people banned from Disney during two recent weekends were black or Hispanic.
Could it be possible these numbers simply reflect who was exhibiting the unacceptable behavior?
As a public school teacher, I observed time after time, situations where, even though numbers of minorities disciplined were disproportionate to their enrollment, these were the ones who were guilty of the unacceptable behavior.
Are those charged with enforcing the rules supposed to ignore the real numbers of those misbehaving, and make sure equal numbers of each group are disciplined, whether these persons are misbehaving or not?
How ridiculous. Enough of these accusations of "racial profiling" already. Let's deal with "Just the facts, ma'am!"
Marilyn Renner, Dunedin
A topic too grim June 27, letter
When words obscure
The letter writer objected to the "pink mist" reference in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip as "Orwellian" - "ghastly is now funny."
George Orwell wrote in his essay "Politics and the English Language, " that "Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
And that is exactly what the American public has been subjected to from the Bush administration. So bravo for Garry Trudeau, not just for seeing through the Orwellian haze, but also for showing compassion for the traumatized soldiers who carry out the orders from their ghastly leaders.
Alfredo Zamuner, Holiday
Homophobic at heart June 27, letter
We need Will
I have subscribed to the Times since my arrival in Florida more than 20 years ago. It didn't take long for me to realize that your paper and many who read it (at least those who write letters to the editor) are decidedly to the left of center.
On the other hand, you do print columns, from time to time, by two of my favorite columnists, George Will and Charles Krauthammer. Not often enough, mind you, to offset the plethora of left-wing ideologues that so often grace pages of the St. Petersburg Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and others, but just enough to keep me renewing my subscription.
Accordingly, I hope you will ignore the advice of the letter writer who urged you to drop the Will column. George Will is a breath of fresh air in an environment of left-wing pollution.
John Hungerford, Palm Harbor
It looks wasteful June 28, letter
A health bargain
In response to the negative letter regarding funding for Planned Parenthood, I would like to point out what that small amount of city funding goes for.
The city of St. Petersburg helps Planned Parenthood fund medical prevention services and our Adult Role Models program.
The Adult Role Models program is a community-based grass-roots program that teaches adult parents to educate their teens and other adolescents in their community how to keep safe and healthy should they decide to engage in sexual activity. The emphasis is to teach adolescents to avoid becoming unintentionally pregnant and/or contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. This program is geared toward African-American parents because the nonwhite teen birth rate in Pinellas County is 40 percent higher than Florida's average, and some St. Petersburg neighborhoods have the county's highest teen birth rates.
Our medical services program provides high quality low-cost reproductive health care and free prevention education. It has a very positive impact on city residents and Pinellas County in general by helping reduce the county's rates of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Pinellas County has the fifth highest HIV case rank and the sixth highest AIDS case rank out of Florida's 67 counties. Funding from the city of St. Petersburg helps keep reproductive health care and contraception affordable and accessible to low-income women and men in the city and throughout Pinellas County.
Wendy Grassi, director of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, Sarasota
Health care is broken June 25, letter
Healing our system
Having insurance companies and health care corporations making huge profits and paying grandiose salaries on the health problems and accidental injuries of fellow citizens is absolutely ghoulish! Unconscionable!
Health care should be provided by and for the people - a public service.
Ask the next presidential candidate who cries about "socialized medicine" two questions:
- Why is that bad for the bottom 70 percent of us?
- Why are other quality-of-life services (military, police, fire, teaching, etc.) not called "socialized"?
John Culkin, St. Petersburg
Take a new tack June 28, letter
Diversity in the news
The letter writer (who felt he was seeing too many articles about the homosexual community) fails to realize that the newspaper is for reporting the news - all of the news - whether he finds it interesting or not.
If I demanded that your paper stop writing about families, children and relationships because I am single and childless, wouldn't that sound self-centered and stupid? How is his request any different?
The letter writer should grow up. There is a big, diverse world going on around all of us and I happen to enjoy reading about it.
Stephanie R. Moore, Tampa