GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman; Shirley Sherrod and the right wing; a boy’s suicide

Whitman’s stand on immigration

Re “Softer tone ignites heat,” July 25

Voters don’t like being played for fools, and that’s exactly what Meg Whitman has done.

In ads during the GOP primary, former Gov. Pete Wilson pronounced her to be “tough as nails” on illegal immigration. Whether she fooled him too or not, his credibility is now as damaged as hers.

Fortunately, about three out of four American voters support Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070. By opposing the Arizona law, Whitman can only be described as “soft as butter” on illegal immigration.

Mark A. Mendlovitz

Beverly Hills

How ironic that Whitman’s blatant contradictions are highlighted by conservative radio personalities. As the campaign went from the primary to the general election, Whitman’s message to the voting universe changed. Whitman’s statement now that she opposed Proposition 187 is difficult to fathom, since she didn’t vote and since her campaign chairman, Wilson, was a proponent. Did she manifest her opposition through comments to a waiter at a Mexican restaurant?

That Whitman is a candidate is an indictment of the voters and their lack of even a modicum of intelligent interest in candidates’ qualifications.

William C. George

San Diego

Your reporter deserves combat pay for having to endure hours of listening to KFI’s John and Ken.

I gave up their show months ago when they kept harping about immigration, a subject with many complications beyond their small intellects. Perhaps because they are not from California, they don’t realize how hostile and boring they are, or maybe they know and don’t care.

Regardless, life is too short to give them even one more minute of time.

Annika Katzen

Beverly Hills

Speaking of Shirley Sherrod

Re “ ‘Post-racial’? Ask Sherrod,” Editorial, July 23

The Times is much too kind to Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing blogger responsible for the attack on Shirley Sherrod.

Breitbart’s airing of selective segments of Sherrod’s speech was not simply journalistic indiscretion but slander. The Times’ failure to unequivocally condemn Breitbart — one can assume in the interest of 1st Amendment concerns — is the precise reason that venomous right-wing propaganda is poisoning the political discourse in this country.

And don’t tell us that the left is behaving in an identical manner. When it comes to the dissemination of political untruths, the right is well ahead of the other guys.

In another instance of placating the political right, the Obama administration’s firing of Sherrod was a sorry conclusion to this whole debacle.

When the voters acknowledge in the 2012 presidential election that this is not “change that we can believe in,” President Obama will finally realize the error of his ways.

Gregory J. Ryan

Woodland Hills

Comparing Breitbart to the poor coyotes whose range we have usurped is grossly unfair to the coyotes. They’re just trying to survive in an increasingly urbanized environment. Breitbart’s malicious and cynical attempt to smear Sherrod puts him far below the coyote on the scale of worthwhile living things.

Bert Bigelow

Orange

Your editorial about the Sherrod debacle makes the claim that there is a “conservative narrative” on right-wing radio and TV that white people are being victimized by a black president.

Tellingly, you chose not to cite even one instance of such a claim being made, much less a “narrative” by conservative commentators. The reason, of course, is that there is no such narrative, but claiming there is gives The Times yet another opportunity to misrepresent those who disagree with its ideology.

Marvin Richman

Scottsdale, Ariz.

Re “Obama is offered a lesson on civil rights,” July 24

The Times reports that Sherrod’s ordeal included being “wrongly painted as a racist.”

But Sherrod is black, and it is impossible for blacks and other people of color to be racist in this country. As in all other groups, many are prejudiced and bigoted. But the way I see it, racism involves the power to control others on the basis of race or ethnicity — a virtual impossibility for blacks.

Referring to blacks as racist blurs the fact that racism continues to exclude blacks from full access to society’s benefits.

Larry Aubry

Inglewood

A child is dead. Why?

Re “Child agency’s woes persist,” July 25

This is a story of suicide at the hands of adults and institutions.

The failures in protection in Jorge Tarin’s case were serious.

First was the failure of the Department of Children and Family Services to provide social workers in the field with the means of accessing crucial data, a topic that has been the subject of discussion for years. The second was a failure of training and knowledge. Trained school, mental health and social work personnel were not appropriately alarmed by Jorge’s suicidal threats and failed to intervene decisively.

A basic tenet of suicide prevention is that when a child threatens suicide, that child must be protected and closely monitored. Also, a child interviewed in the presence of his abusers, even if they are a room away, is unlikely to respond in ways that demonstrate the risk he faces once the interviewers leave.

Had the department enabled a working communication system, or had the adults involved moved to safeguard Jorge’s state, he would be alive today.

Wendy B. Smith

Los Angeles

The writer is an adjunct professor at USC’s School of Social Work.

Wait a minute! It’s not the “agency’s woes” that matter in this horrifying report; it’s that another child is dead.

I can’t fathom how “school officials and mental health workers thought Jorge was well enough to go home.” This poor child did everything he could to get help. He reached the end of his rope, so he hung himself with it, because no one cared enough. All you agencies, school officials and family members are responsible for Jorge’s death. May he finally rest in peace.

Brenda Barnetson

North Hills

T.S. Eliot wrote of “dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.”

When the number of irresponsible parents reaches a critical mass, no amount of social workers, teachers or other public servants, no matter how excellent, can fix everything.

Wendell H. Jones

Ojai

Re “For a Haitian double amputee, life-changing aid now beckons,” July 25

I was horrified to read of the suicide of an 11-year-old boy who saw nothing but despair and pain ahead of him and decided to opt out of his miserable future. The blame lies in many places, but I believe in going to the top — to our county supervisors and to the administrators of our miserably run child welfare system, which pays millions for equipment that is useless to the social workers.

Then I read of 19-year-old Sounlove Zamor, who lost both legs in the earthquake in Haiti and will soon go to Israel to be fitted for prosthetics, at no cost. What a lift!

It is especially joyful to me to see my favorite other country come to the aid of this young lady. The humanity here was heartwarming. I am glad I read this second. It helped me get on with my day.

Edie Taylor

Pasadena