California’s Melting Pot

Ah, that the solution to California’s explosive growth were as simple as you make it out to be. ‘Twould surely be a wondrous thing if all we had to do was make room in our hearts for others and thus create a melting pot utopia.

How do we handle the problems inherent in absorbing millions of poor, often uneducated and unskilled foreigners into our society? Let’s look at the realities which must be dealt with:

Jobs: Aerospace and manufacturing plants have left California; banks have closed; agriculture is down; construction is at a standstill, along with landscaping, pool companies and nurseries.

Welfare: The declining economy has sent the welfare rolls soaring with more than 2 million Californians receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

Medical Care: Ten of our 23 trauma centers have already closed and now a large San Diego hospital joins their ranks due to non-paying indigent care.

Schools: A “Crisis in Education” exists as beleaguered teachers try to cope with children who speak every language except English and achievement scores drop.

So where are the “storied opportunities” you speak of? Are they to be found in the gangs which infest our cities or the drugs which pour across our border? Is the “promised land” a place where tensions and hatreds escalate as Americans fight aliens over a job or place to sleep? These are problems which must be resolved and to gloss over them with simplistic romantic notions about “making room in the heart” does a disservice to all.

AUDREY W. BERGNER

La Jolla