ORANGE : 25 Voice Views in Videotape for Gore

For the opportunity to be seen and heard by Vice President Al Gore, 25 people this week were filmed on videotape voicing their opinions and suggestions for a better country.

The speakers, mostly Orange residents, gathered at the Orange Unified School District office Tuesday night for their chance to talk about topics that included immigration, education and taxes.

Terri Sargeant, a mother of five in Orange, said immigration is a “hot topic.”

She led several other speakers on the subject, saying: “This is not a topic of racism. . . . We need to protect our borders so people cannot enter with such ease.”

Kimberly Bottomley, 31, also of Orange, echoed Sargeant’s views.

“I would like to see immigrants coming here and not getting government aid,” Bottomley said. There is “fraud going on with our welfare system also. . . . That ties in with our schools declining because so many illegal aliens and welfare recipients are in our schools.”

Others refuted those remarks.

“Let’s be frank about it,” said John Palacio, 40, Orange County director of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The fact is immigrants give more than they receive.

“We have tremendous challenges in this country and the greatest is that America is diverse. We must work together to make America strong,” added Palacio, a Santa Ana resident. “This country was built on the backs of immigrants.”

Arturo Montez, 43, urban affairs director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, agreed. The Buena Park resident talked about the scores of minorities who died fighting in Vietnam and Korea.

“We are being bashed by all the myths about immigrants,” Montez said. “Yet we are the ones who have to carry the burden.”

While most discussed immigration, some people talked about the environment or violence, and one person proposed that the government consider a flat tax for everyone.

The videotape is one of eight nationwide that will be sent by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington to the vice president and viewed at a conference in Richmond, Va., later this month. The tapes will then be turned into a formal written report and submitted to the White House National Performance Review Board.

“I can’t believe that the federal government is actually doing this,” said Pat Geer, who organized the videotaping session in Orange.

Added Bottomley: “I hope (Gore) will listen and do something about our frustrations.”