Illegal Immigration Deserves Dispassion

Re “Adios to a Mean Initiative,” editorial, May 1: In your editorial hailing the failure of the petition drive for the successor measure to Proposition 187, the measure is referred to as “mean-spirited.” Because The Times chooses to view the issue of illegal immigration from an emotional perspective, it assumes that those on the other side do likewise.

In fact, those who supported the petition were not doing so out of mean-spiritedness but, rather, because they sincerely believed that the policies toward California’s biggest problem, illegal immigration, should be formulated based on rational criteria directed toward serving the public good. I believe the people of Los Angeles would be better served by The Times if it approached public policy issues from that perspective as well.

Lance B. Sjogren

San Pedro