Reasons Behind Hunger in O.C.

* Re “O.C. Poor Go Hungry Regularly,” July 8:

The statement is made that despite being one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, people are going hungry. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

The “poor” are overwhelmingly Mexican immigrants with few if any skills, education or even the ability to speak English.

The main reasons [for poverty] cited are welfare reform and housing costs. I believe the main reason to be lack of will on the part of the United States to limit immigration, legal and illegal.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Orange County is expensive. These people chose to come here and they must accept the responsibility for their actions.

RAY ANTON

Mission Viejo

* As a former inner city teacher working with almost exclusively Latino working parents, I must take issue with the one-sided information given in the article, “O.C. Poor Go Hungry Regularly.”

Although the integrity of the people interviewed, a monsignor, a school principal, and the executive director of Catholic Charities, should not be questioned, their focus on the cutbacks in food stamps and other services does not take into account the crucial issue underlying hunger in many working families: their large number of children.

Having children is indeed a blessing, and an obligation. Those who cannot afford to feed their children have no right to have them.

My experience with working class families receiving relief is that they often had four to eight children, a number that even a middle-class father and mother would have a hard time rearing.

If these individuals really care about children and their future, their services should focus on family planning and responsibility. No religion is free from its doctrine, and no country individually or collectively can escape the immediate effects of overpopulation.

It is no fault of children that they are hungry. It is certainly the fault of an irresponsible father and mother and a doctrine that promotes large families that will leave their children without food.

LEONARD R. OLDS

Laguna Beach