Being a ‘Conservative’ Doesn’t Mean Lack of Feeling or Caring

I must take issue with Costa Mesa City Councilman Orville Amburgey’s recent characterization of my decision to allow charities and social services funded by Community Development Block Grants to continue their vital work of trying to help people in our communities as “not conservative.”

Conservative, in my view, is not a synonym for lack of feeling or caring, nor should conservative be anti-immigrant or anti-human rights.

Quite the contrary, I believe a philosophical conservative can work for progress, change, reform and helping people help themselves in the tradition of Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

As President Bush reminds us, a “kinder, gentler” America is not inconsistent with working on policies--such as the free trade zone agreement with President Oscar Salinas de Gortari--which will benefit both Mexico and California--indeed, all of America.

Immigrants do not come to America for welfare, they come here to seek opportunity and a better life for themselves and their children. While a country has a right--and a duty--to control immigration at its borders, it would be a sorry commentary on our society if we started dividing people in our own communities into “us” versus “them” in order to deny “them” even necessary emergency services, shelter or food. Such an approach can lead only to racial stereotyping and discrimination.

Social service agencies are granted federal funds to deliver community services. They need to spend their time helping people, not turning themselves into mini-bureaucracies or immigration departments.

I would also like to point out to Mr. Amburgey that names like San Diego, Los Angeles and Costa Mesa should serve as powerful reminders that newcomers to Southern California have always come from the south, not just the east. Those who have been blessed by this land should attempt to be a blessing to others.

JACK KEMP

Secretary

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development