Low-Wage Jobs

* Roger Mahony’s June 8 commentary is another example of reverse discrimination against legal American citizens in the name of charity. As a person who has worked the low-wage, low-skilled jobs, let me tell you nothing is worse than a guy standing in front of you in the hiring line who is willing to work just as hard for half the wage. The pay scale in these jobs will never increase as long as there is a readily available work force crossing the border daily that will work for scraps.

Being employed in the low-wage world is honorable work and must be treated as such by making the jobs desirable to all people, not just exploiting the vulnerability of illegal aliens. I am a staunch supporter of organized labor but I feel that to support noncitizens is counterproductive.

I wish I had Cardinal Mahony with me for counseling the day I was refused employment at a car wash on Ventura Boulevard because I didn’t speak Spanish. I wonder if anything like that ever happened to him?

CHARLES GANNON

Van Nuys