Employing Illegal Aliens

I applaud your editorial in which you pound the nail of national hypocrisy squarely on the head. Americans have long been champions of the double standard. We take pride in having created a nation of laws--knowing that those laws should apply principally to others.

As a society, we espouse high-mindedness and tell ourselves that we know right from wrong. As individuals, though, our conduct is governed less by the letter of the law than by the workaday economics of personal gain.

We self-righteously claim to be doing the illegal immigrants a favor by simply letting them into this country--as my co-worker waxes ecstatic at finding a young Latina who will clean house for $15. Who is doing whom the favor?

We bring down the Zoe Bairds of the world so that we can feel more at ease with our own personal mediocrity of values and integrity.

HOWARD L. BODNER

Encino