Finding renewal in India; state may cut aid to new legal immigrants; West Hollywood’s pet store crackdown

India and its charms

Re “Wisdom, a world away,” Opinion, Feb. 14

What a beautifully conceived and executed response to the “tea baggers,” however unintended it may have been.

Anne Lamott’s antidote to the mentally challenged weepers who cannot deal with adversity of any degree without threatening revolution is the grace with which the impoverished of India rise above their difficulties and play with the hand that is dealt them.

Sure these are hard times for all of us, but why not try compassion, forgiveness and understanding instead of acrimony and bilious attacks? Palliate; do not excoriate. This is a time for us to come together, not pull apart.

Sam Armato
Manhattan Beach

The Times’ choice to publish this sometimes incoherent and ugly-toned article is puzzling and disturbing.

So soon after the joyous Saints’ celebration in New Orleans, the opening of the Winter Olympics and having Valentine’s Day and the Chinese New Year on the same day, we are given something so mean-spirited.

Lamott admits to being in a state of rage and despair after the Massachusetts Senate election, then “nearly bit the head off a kindly driver of a tiny rattletrap car” for asking an innocent question. To her, people are loathsome; seems like a nonviolent person would reserve such a word for ideas and actions.

Here is her prescription for helping “America rebound from Bush/Cheney. . . . Love, nonviolence, a lot of help, radical playfulness and perspective.”

She found this “wisdom” in India. A loathsome piece of drivel.

Charles Daues
Rancho Cucamonga

I could really identify with Lamott’s India experience.

My friend and I were also stranded on a road in India in a broken-down sedan. We would also experience the monkeys on a Ganges ghat, though no hair-tangling was involved.

In our case, the driver was unable to fix the problem. Our car eventually got towed to the next village by using a couple of bicycle inner tubes as ropes attached to a passing Jeep’s bumper. The Indians are very inventive and practical people.

The rest of the article’s analogies were a little thin, but I do agree wholeheartedly that India is an incredible and unforgettable experience.

Marty Wilson
Whittier

What the state pays

Re “State may end aid for new legal immigrants,” Feb. 17

This program should never have started in the first place.

The Korean gentleman raising his two grandchildren, and anybody else receiving benefits from the state, should be deported.

These kinds of programs just encourage people to come here and manipulate the system. We need to concentrate on taking care of our own and keeping taxes as low as possible.

This whole thing is nothing more than a scam

Scott Bryant
Lake Forest

The United States should end mass immigration, period.

The only kind of immigration we benefit from economically is the H1B visa type of immigration -- high-tech workers, entrepreneurs with money to invest and people with advanced degrees to do research.

What we are doing is bankrupting us. But everybody is afraid to confront the central problem -- too much immigration, legal as well as illegal -- because they are afraid of being labeled racist.

Somebody has to find the courage to stand up and say we need to stop immigration.

Mike Burns
Bakersfield

The state can’t afford public assistance for new legal immigrants and may cut this safety net; it may also end home healthcare for the poor. The county just cut payments to emergency room physicians who treat the poor and uninsured. The list of savage cuts goes on and on.

When it comes to state and county contributions for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, there’s a different story. The eventual cost of these conflicts may reach trillions of dollars.

While essential human services are cut and struggle to survive, it’s champagne and caviar when it comes to funding death and devastation.

John Marciano
Santa Monica

The Times reports that one man emigrated from Korea when he was 66 years old and is upset because he cannot get welfare from the state of California for the rest of his life. And people wonder why we are broke.

Barry Nichols
Los Angeles

What is so jaw-dropping about this article is that newly legal immigrants have had access to our tax dollars so abundantly.

I don’t know one person taking any type of welfare -- yet here are programs in this state available for immigrants.

Our state is broke. I agree with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to dissolve these preposterous welfare funds to immigrants when Americans are unemployed and homeless.

Robin Hvidston
Upland

If Schwarzenegger is going to cut down assistance to new legal immigrants just to save $304 million on our greater budget deficit of $20billion, why not reestablish political machines to help out these disadvantaged immigrants who left their homeland just to make a decent living in America?

If the government is not going to help support these new immigrants who pay their taxes, they might as well have stayed in their own country. But that’s far from the case.

These new immigrants need an opportunity to prosper, and if the government’s not going to help -- just to save only a small fraction of what is already a drastic budget gap -- then what?

It’s most likely that these immigrant families are struggling enough in our current economic crisis.

If we’re going to just “kick” these people while they’re already on the ground, then we might as well just let California’s economy plummet because the labor force will not be able to keep itself alive.

Jason Douangsanith
Chino Hills

Cracking down on pet stores

Re “West Hollywood bans most cat, dog sales at pet stores,” Feb. 17

As a college student, an owner of three dogs and a cat and a self-proclaimed animal-rights advocate, I find it sad the rest of the country can’t follow West Hollywood’s example.

The powers-that-be regarding puppy mills and others who cruelly exploit animals instead of practicing humane and ethical breeding are the main reasons this country is so slow to recognize our companion animals as such, instead of voiceless, helpless property. And then there’s your average ignorant consumers who continue to buy these poor, sick animals from pet stores, swap meets and street vendors.

People who exploit animals should be ashamed of themselves.

Dana Bartlette
Valencia

The dislike of purchasing pets at a store instead of getting them from a breeder or a shelter is understandable.

Much of the time these animals aren’t properly taken care of and may have diseases that will be a surprise strain on the new owner’s pocketbook.

With that said, I really feel that the banning of the sale of cats and dogs at these stores is the completely wrong way to go.

Instead, there should be heftier restrictions on how the animals need to be cared for in these places.

Regular checkups and inspections of these places could ensure that the animals aren’t being mistreated.

I’d rather see a licensing program that educates pet store owners in how to care for the animals. This would also give us a way to regulate the people who can raise and sell the cats or dogs.

This just seems like another way to control what people do without regard for the actual problem at hand.

Tanya Armstrong
Valencia