Unz’s Appointment to State Panel

In “Speaker Urged to Rescind Unz Appointment” (Feb. 2), various Latino civil rights activists argue against the appointment by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa of Ron Unz, promoter of Prop. 227, to a blue-ribbon panel on government finance. Marcos R. Contreras states, “We should not reward those who attack and hurt our community like Ron Unz.” Contreras’ position implies that there is but one community whose goals and needs should be considered by those making political appointments. We must assume from Contreras’ argument that this community consists of those who were against Prop. 227. This blatantly ignores the fact that there is a large community (in fact a majority of the voting public) who supported Prop. 227. What of their needs and goals?

I am also disturbed by the response from Villaraigosa’s spokeswoman, Elena Stern. While Stern does acknowledge that Unz, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, would bring an “interesting perspective” to the finance committee, she goes on to state, “If this were a bilingual education commission, Mr. Unz would not be on it.” This implies that there are but limited ways by which the question of bilingual education, and its underlying goal of language assimilation, should be approached, namely those not [supported] by Unz.

GEORGE BULLOCK, Glendale

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Not only did Unz announce his appointment with a Prop. 227 letterhead, but he is continuing to spread the news on his Web site (https://www.onenation.org). The site is keeping the campaigners in favor of Unz’s initiatives in California and Arizona up to date. Unz may have stopped his release on 227 stationery, he may say that his appointment is solely personal and not representing any organization, but he is using this as a political plus for his campaigns against bilingual education.

I strongly urge Villaraigosa to rescind Unz’s appointment.

DENIS O’LEARY, Ventura