Letters to the Editor: Don’t congratulate yourself just yet, Martha’s Vineyard

To the editor: I had to laugh out loud as I read the sanctimonious op-ed article by former Times journalist Bob Drogin, a resident of Martha’s Vineyard, in which he praises the brave and selfless citizens of his island off the Massachusetts mainland for the great virtue and compassion they showed in shouldering the incredible burden of providing food and shelter for about 50 immigrants for two days.

Drogin’s piece invites derision for its lack of self-awareness and perspective. Does he think his community would hold up nearly as well if theirs was the experience of a typical Texas border town?

McAllen, Texas, has a population of about 140,000 and has at times over the last two years been forced to manage an influx of 1,500 migrants a day. A day!

Martha’s Vineyard has fewer than 20,000 full-time residents (the population varies greatly by season), and I would love to see if they would feel so magnanimous if they had to take in several hundred immigrants per day.

Ron Greeno, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: This is a perfect illustration of the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

Republicans treat people as pawns. Did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just basically transport families across state lines and dump them as a political joke?

The Democratic-leaning folks of Martha’s Vineyard rushed to support the cruelly used men, women and children dropped in their midst with food, shelter, clothing and toys, as human beings should treat each other.

The GOP cares for itself only. Democrats take a much broader view.

Marianne Hunter, Rancho Palos Verdes

..

To the editor: One letter writer suggested that the scheme by DeSantis and other Republican governors was to “give progressive states a taste of what border states … are struggling with.”

Yes. By all means, let’s give those lefties a lesson. Round up some immigrants, force them onto planes and buses and evidently lie to them about where they were going and why.

The letter writer believes that the action was to “make the experience real” for Washington, Massachusetts and New York. It was certainly “real” for the immigrants.

Francis Moss, Joshua Tree