Letter to the Editor from Gainesville, GA

Published: April 20, 2006

To the Editor:

I would like to thank Greg Wood for his wise words in his recent letter to the editor (The Georgia Bulletin, April 13) expressing compassion for our many Latino brothers and sisters who are among us here in our Archdiocese.

I would also like to address other comments that have been made recently:

The thousands (estimated by our CSS office at 60,000-70,000) of people who marched, with a permit, on April 10 in Atlanta were not all Hispanic, nor were they all illegal. The truth is 75 percent of all immigrants in the U.S. today have permanent legal visas. Of the 25 percent who do not, 40 percent have overstayed legal visas. And many of the marchers were American citizens, some of whom were of Hispanic ancestry. Most of the flags flown on April 10 were American flags.

Immigrants pay taxes. Even illegal immigrants pay taxes and never file their federal and state taxes, as evidenced by the fact that the Social Security Administration’s “suspense” file (SS taxes that can’t be matched with workers’ SS numbers and names) grew by $20 billion between 1990 and 1998. They also pay sales taxes and property taxes.

Children in public schools whose first language is not English do not drag down our test scores. Having worked in a school guidance office for many years, I can tell you that these children’s answer sheets are coded to reflect the lack of familiarity with our language and the scores are adjusted in the averages accordingly. Furthermore, many of the Latino parents insist that their children not attend ESL classes so that they can learn to speak English fluently. As with our ancestors, they will be the first generation to adopt English as their first language.

Many Latinos have insurance with their employers. Those who don’t are more likely to pay cash than to ask for free medical care, to avoid the questions. I know for an absolute fact that the majority would like to become American citizens. (I think if you do a little research, you will find that the large write-offs done by hospitals for indigent care are mostly caused by American citizens.)

I don’t agree with the opinion that immigrants take jobs away from Americans. Our unemployment rate is low, at least in my area. Immigrant-owned businesses flourish and have revitalized our economy, providing jobs for immigrants and American citizens alike.

Prior to the change in Catholic liturgy from Latin to the vernacular, all Masses were in one language. Now, because of the change, Masses are held, just in our diocese, in Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, French, Portuguese, just to name a few. In my travels in the upper Midwest, I found churches holding Mass in German, Lithuanian, Dutch, etc. The current variety of languages for Mass is because we offer it in the common language of the people of the area, not because of the illegal immigrants. Many American citizens also prefer to attend Mass in the language of their birth.

America is a country of varied cultures. We have Greek festivals, Italian festivals, Irish parades … I could go on and on. This is an entire country of immigrants.

The bottom line is, we need to pray for ourselves, that God will help us overcome our prejudices and see Christ in every person. The most important issue is not what the government does; the most important issue for each of us as devoted Christians, Catholic and otherwise, is that we find ourselves, at the end of our lives, among those “blessed of the Father” because we fed, clothed, and housed Him as we did it to the “least of these.”

Carol G. Bush, Gainesville