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September 17, 2003

To move forward, we need to step first left, then right, left, right

Carol Negro, whose letters mostly criticizing those aligned on the Liberal side of the aisle I found in Tribunes for Feb. 12, April 16, August 20, August 27, and Sept. 10, not to mention letters critical of her from other readers in other issues, reports she was a Liberal for 53 years, until two years ago, in fact. I reserve the right to agree or disagree with her on any given issue. However, I do not find the terms Liberal or Conservative at all useful in describing political ideologies. But when she can attack "The Democrat Legislature" I do have to wonder if some Liberal done her wrong. Has she jumped sides to get revenge? "Democrat" in this context is meant as an insult. The word is "Democratic." I am a member of "The Democratic Party." I am no more a member of the "Democrat" party than one out five Pacificans are members of "The Republic party." She asks that I trust her to understand the Left. Perhaps she understands some individuals whom she has identified as on the left, but I doubt she really understands "The Left." Those words are much too vague, much too amorphous, to be understood. As for trusting her, I wouldn't trust even myself to understand something so vague. Some folks experience a religious conversion, changing their entire belief structure. I have no idea why a person in her fifties would undergo such a political conversion, even to the point of using words intended to demean and belittle an organization she may have once respected.

I often disagree with Ian Butler on given issues. I believe he feels the same about some of my opinions. Yet I find it difficult to find in his letters the fulfillment of Ms. Negro's comments. It has never occurred to me, even when I disagreed with him profoundly, to think or to say that he is "biased, emotional, simplistic, filled with S double speak."

While I don't think it was a good idea to allow persons in this country illegally to get driver's licenses, I don't think it likely that all the evils Ms. Negro predicts are coming down the line. A driver's license for those here against the rules is simply a tacit admission that we haven't the ability to control our borders. I am more concerned that naturalized, legal Mexican-Americans are considered by their nation of origin, the Republic of Mexico, to have remained citizens in good standing of that nation while swearing allegiance to this one. Be an American, or be a Mexican, but don't try being both.

I do think it highly unlikely many illegal immigrants from south of the border are all that anxious to serve on American juries, despite Ms. Negro's concerns. It is a simple fact, however, that English speaking Americans came to the northern and western Mexican territories in the 1840's and wrenched away 40 percent of Mexico's lands from that sovereign nation. Talk about dangerous immigrants! Californios who had been given large ranchos by a sovereign nation for services rendered had to go into the courts of another nation, whose language and laws were alien to them, hire lawyers at high expense, to defend their rights to their own lands. Francisco Sanchez was forced to prove that he really owned the lands that became Pacifica. It is no coincidence that 15 years after he died, most of Rancho San Pedro was in the hands of Yankee lawyers and bankers.

Paul Azevedo proudly acknowledges he will have been a Pacifican for forty years as of Sept. 30, and a Pacifica voter since Oct. 19, 1963. Newly moved Pacificans, or persons newly 18, should register by Sept. 22 to vote in the Oct. Statewide election. The Reactor's e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net. Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.

 
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