Kim's Letters to the Editor

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This also includes a few LTE written by my parents. There were probably other letters, but these are the ones I've been able to locate. The related articles can probably be located at www.sacbee.com/archives/


1970s

My first LTE was to the Sacramento Bee in August 1977 in response to this article, where a policeman was fired for admitting to smoking pot while off duty.  I wrote in opposition to the destruction of someone's career over this, since I don't see the difference between having a shot of whiskey (other than it is "legal.") Since then many politicians and presidents have admitting to smoking pot at some point, and they kept their jobs.

This one took me days to write. I probably typed it up four times. This was before word processing - if you decide to add or remove a sentence - type the whole thing again. In contrast by 2000 I was typing out LTEs in about 10 minutes.


1980s

The next letter was nearly a decade later - January 3, 1986. I wrote advocating that the tax on cigarettes be increased substantially as a deterrent and to offset public costs. The Bee published their supporting Editorial the same day.

 

In April 1987 a truck turning left onto one-way 12-street got smacked by Light Rail that was going the wrong way on 12-street.  The Police perspective was that "the truck failed to yield." I wrote saying that was a dangerous situation and they need flashing lights. I believe today there are flashing lights, if not a crossing rail, at this intersection.

 

Just as now, 20 years later, a big issue in July 1987 was the "shortage of farm labor." I proposed a solution which has still never been tried: advertise, provide transportation to job sites, and pay a wage that would pull people from their permanent minimum wage jobs to do this for a few months.

The editors omitted a few passages from the letter I had submitted:

"The Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees living in California who are unable to find work since "they don't speak English and have been farmers all of their lives" are doing quite well on welfare, thank you."

Closing paragraph: "Granting permanent residency to illegal farm workers who have worked only a short time in the U.S. is not a solution. Since farm work is seasonal, what will they do here during the off season? Also, once permanent and legal, many of the legalized workers will seek more lucrative employment or public assistance, and the farm labor shortage will persist.

Funny how some things never change.

 

REFORMS HAND FARM INTERESTS SPECIAL TREATMENT

Published on May 31, 1987, Page D1, Article 1 of 1 found, 1456 words.

** When Congress enacted a landmark immigration bill last October, it had heard a litany of warnings about the danger of fruits and vegetables rotting in the fields if farmers couldn't find enough workers at harvest time. As a result, agriculture got VIP treatment in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Despite that, California farmers now are reporting spot labor shortages for some early-harvest crops.

An estimated 350,000 to 700,000 laborers who work in

 

In November 1989 I was a full time student and my wife was low-paid nurses aide. We had two babies and lived in a small apartment. Therefore I had to respond to Dorrie Armstrong's letter stating an entitlement to welfare and food stamps "because they are full-time students." Why didn't I think of that?

 

In December 1989 my father, Phd in Physics, responds to a letter written by a teacher who had misapplied the second law of thermodynamics:


1990s

 Even in 1990, in my senior year at CSU Sacramento, I rejected the idea that the USA needs to bring in immigrants to resolve labor shortages. The Bee pushed my long letter unedited:

http://www.popline.org/docs/231539

Title: The case for more immigration.
Author: Wattenberg BJ; Zinsmeister K
Source: COMMENTARY. 1990 Apr;89(4):19-25.
Abstract: Arguments concerning the optimal level of immigration to the United States are reviewed in light of current legislative concern with changing immigration laws. The authors make the case for increasing levels of immigration using a merit system to select immigrants. (ANNOTATION)

Some quotes:

http://debate.uvm.edu/handbookfile/immigration/2genlneg.html

Another advantage would flow from the fact that most immigrants have already had their educations completed elsewhere. In terms of the costs of schooling alone, even the relatively small number of professional and technical-occupation immigrants we currently accept are worth an estimated several billion dollars annually. Raising the average educational level of future immigrant cohorts would swell this figure dramatically.

Immigration then, can bring us significant numbers of bold creators and skilled workers. It can diminish whatever labor shortages may be coming our way. Immigration can keep America from aging precipitously and fill in the demographic holes that may harm our pension and health-care systems. Immigration can energize whole communities with a new entrepreneurial spirit, keeping us robust and growing as a nation. At a time when the idea of competitiveness has become a national fixation, it can bolster our competitiveness and help us retain our position as the common denominator of the international trade web. And as most Americans continue to believe that we have a mission to foster liberty and the love of liberty throughout the world, immigration can help us fulfill that mission through successful example.

But the point is that even with illegals taken into account, the numbers of people now entering the country are not distressingly high. In fact, they are lower than what, in our judgment, a wise policy would dictate. ''
 

 

In 1992 I spoke at the Sacramento City Council and wrote in the Citrus Height Bulletin against the proposed development of Stock Ranch as 130 single family homes and 1,181 apartments! I objected to the mismatch between housing and jobs in Citrus Heights, the impact on schools, and recommended an "industrial office park" for part of the site.

Ultimately the area north of the creek (in the distance) became a Costco and Walmart (jobs of a sort), no "apartments" have been built (there are two senior living facilities) and there are far more single family homes than originally planned.

My grandmother lived in one of the senior facilities for a time. In 2001 my daughter Stephanie wanted to go look for houses. I told her to find the open houses and we'd go. We went to a newer home in Stock Ranch and ultimately bought one up the street.

This is how the area looked in 2007 from Google Earth. The large white structures at the top are Costco and Walmart.

Citrus Heights Bulletin

In 1993 President Clinton proposed a $4 billion "economic stimulus" that would create 500,000 new jobs, including 219,000 in the first year. I did some basis math: The cost was $142,000 per new job created. Meanwhile they were flooding over a million immigrants per year - most of them competing with Americans for jobs.

http://www.npg.org/forum_series/nafta_timebomb.htm

 

In November 1993 a Sacramento Bee editorial ridiculed John Doolittle's opposition to NAFTA. My kids will remember I was a big Perot supporter, embarrassing them by writing PEROT on my back car window with thick masking tape.

Prior to NAFTA major corporations were locating around Sacramento - the future looked bright. Now NEC and HP have diminished and the U.S. economy about as bad as it's ever been. (NAFTA proponents might say "but think how bad it would be if we didn't have these free trade policies!" Yeah right.)

Now 15 years later Hillary Clinton is campaigning, claiming that she opposed NAFTA.

 

NAFTA, FOR THE FUTURE . . .

Published on October 24, 1993, Page FO4, Article 6 of 7 found, 723 words.

** The national debate about the North American Free Trade Agreement is so bewildering in its complexity, and so riddled with false or misleading claims - most of them by opponents - that many Americans have either tuned out or taken sides on emotional grounds. That's especially regrettable in the case of NAFTA, which The Bee supports and urges Congress to approve when it votes sometime next month. Organized labor calls NAFTA a job-killer. A minority of environmental groups says it

 

NAFTA VIEWS ALL DEBATABLE

Published on October 24, 1993, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 1365 words.

** Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer fears the North American Free Trade Agreement could destroy hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs. President Clinton says it would create 200,000 jobs.

Who's right?

If you guessed "neither," most economists agree with you. But in the current political debate, hyperbole has replaced fact.

"Economists' predictions about the impact of NAFTA on American jobs range from short-term losses in the

 

 

In December 1993 my father wrote a letter in defense of the Second Amendment

 

At CSUS in 1989 I had taken a group tutoring position. The second session only one person showed up. Then when I went to get my check I was presented with an oath the "defend the Constitution against all enemies." That made no sense to me so I didn't sign and forfeited my pay. Five years later I saw the above article and wrote the following.

 

STATE'S LOYALTY OATH UP AGAINST WOMAN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH

Published on March 20, 1994, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 1001 words.

** Lanell Bessard's religious faith never got in the way of her career ambitions - until, she says, she tried to become a public employee in California. It began in the summer of 1992, when Bessard, a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, started working as a secretary at a community college in Fresno. But it ended quickly a few weeks later when the personnel office came back to her with something called a loyalty oath.

All public employees in California are required by law to sign the oath, which pledges them to "bear true faith" to the Constitution. It's a simple act for most, but Bessard says the tenets of her religion prevented her from signing.

 

I've been roughly vegetarian since 1992.  I was put off by this July 1994 claim by the American Meat Institute that "properly educated Americans prefer irradiated beef."

 

In June 1995 my mother wrote the following in the Reno Gazette-Journal

 

I had been a member of CAPS since about 1986, and Ric Oberlink was the executive director. In 1993 I attended their annual dinner and Ric surprised me by calling me up and giving me an award:

In June 1995 both of our letters to the editor ran on the same day. I pointed out that, after the Bee bemoaned a skilled worker shortage, they ran two articles a week later about the scarcity of jobs for Ph.D graduates and for laid off tech workers.

 

NARROWING THE GATE

Published on June 12, 1995, Page B6, Article 2 of 2 found, 520 words.

** There are positive elements in the recommendations by the nonpartisan federal advisory Commission on Immigration Reform made public last week, and some that are questionable. Coming at a time when immigration is already a volatile political issue, the report is bound to generate even more heat as the 1996 elections near. The basic message of the commission, appointed by Congress in 1990 and chaired by former Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas, is right: to give highest priority to reuniting nuclear

SCIENCE GRADS MUST TACKLE JOB SEARCH BEFORE RESEARCH

Published on June 17, 1995, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 1112 words.

** Fitting the cap in her hair, the bright golden tassel at its side, Elizabeth Strange had every reason to feel satisfaction that six years of work was coming to fruition with a University of California doctorate in ecology. Or almost every reason. Scientists of the Class of '95 confront a political and economic landscape that is very different from what it was when they began their long years of toil in the laboratories and lecture halls of the nation's

 

IN THE LINE OF FIRE
IF THE BASE CLOSES, MCCLELLAN'S CIVILIAN WORK FORCE FACES A DIM FUTURE

Published on June 18, 1995, Page G3, Article 54 of 79 found, 1518 words.

** Civilian employees at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo recently found a pointed message when they logged on to the base's electronic mail system. If you haven't already done so, the message urged, get on the Department of Defense's priority job-placement list immediately. Major base closures may be imminent that could throw thousands more out of work and create fierce competition for a shrinking number of federal jobs.

 

Your tax dollars at work. And, just as today, in September 1995 the Bee won't say anything negative about immigrants.

 

HELPING HAND FOR REFUGEES
AID PROGRAMS EASE PATH FOR VIET FAMILY

Published on September 24, 1995, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 2720 words.

** They arrived on a hot, sunny Friday in July, a bewildered looking trio stepping into the crowded commuter terminal at Sacramento Metro Airport. On that day at 1:28 p.m., Binh V. Truong, a 60-year-old farmer, warrior, bus driver and political prisoner from Vietnam, became one of America's newest residents.

Accompanied by his wife and 26-year-old son, Truong's walk from the tiny white and red-striped airplane toward the low-slung terminal building represented the final

 

September 1997. The article must have mentioned that this was the woman's seventh kid. She is a citizen of another country, in this country illegally. Yet my taxes will pay for her medical expenses.

 

UNDOCUMENTED WOMEN AWAIT PRENATAL CARE CUTOFF

Published on August 28, 1997, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 832 words.

** As the right to prenatal care for pregnant, undocumented women in California hangs by a thread, one woman sits in her Sacramento home wondering what will become of the life growing inside her. "It seems like my baby is tainted before it's even born," said the woman, an undocumented, 39-year-old former domestic due to give birth in February.

"What is going to become of all the undocumented women who are pregnant? What is going to become of the

 

 

SIERRA CLUB AGONIZES OVER VOTE ON IMMIGRATION CUTS

Published on November 28, 1997, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 1274 words.

** The Sierra Club, the nation's most influential environmental group and a voice of progressive ideas, is poised to vote on a policy advocating that the United States drastically reduce its flow of legal immigrants. If passed by the group's 550,000 members nationwide, decades of neutrality on immigration would be discarded for a policy calling for 200,000 legal immigrants to be admitted to the United States annually, instead of the current 900,000.

The movement is led

 

 

CANDIDATE'S AIDE HAS GUN VIOLATION
ISLETON POLICE CHIEF SHRUGS IT OFF

Published on May 19, 1998, Page B1, Article 47 of 64 found, 703 words.

** Isleton Police Chief Eugene Byrd, who is running for sheriff on a pledge to liberalize Sacramento County's concealed-weapons permit policy, has a campaign manager with a criminal conviction for carrying a loaded handgun. Matthew W. Gray, 26, who now holds a concealed-weapons permit issued to him by Byrd, pleaded no contest in the misdemeanor case in 1991 in Santa Clara County. He also pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault.

A diamond broker, Gray previously had a permit

 

When I was born there were about 3 billion people on earth.  Ever since seventh grade I've understood that population growth is a huge problem. Then in 1999 population hit six billion.

 
Welcome to Earth: population, 6 billion and climbing fast

7/17/1999
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- Call this Y6B: The year of 6 billion, a milestone the world's population is expected to reach this weekend.

The birth of the planet's 6 billionth inhabitant, projected by the U.S. Census Bureau, also will mark another historic first: The world's population has doubled in less than 40 years.

Despite a gradual slowing of the overall rate of growth, the world population is still increasing by 78 million people a year. That's the equivalent of adding a city nearly the size of San Francisco every three days, or the combined populations of France, Greece and Sweden every year, according to a coalition of environmental and population groups.

"It took all of human history for the world's population to reach 1 billion in 1804, but little more than 150 years to reach 3 billion in 1960. Now, not quite 40 years later, we are twice that number," said Amy Coen, president of Population Action International.

Even with a decelerating growth rate, the number of humans on the planet could double again to 12 billion by 2050 if the current growth rate continues, the coalition projects.

The impact will be sweeping, the coalition of population groups predict. "Every 20 minutes the world adds another 3,500 human lives but loses one or more entire species of animal or plant life -- at least 27,000 species per year," it warns.

In addition, at least 300 million people already live in regions with severe water shortages. By 2025, the number is expected to be 3 billion if growth rates continue.

The population is expanding despite a "reproductive revolution" that has prompted half of the world's married women to use family planning techniques, compared with an estimated 10% only 30 years ago, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London. In 61 of the world's 191 countries, women's fertility rates have now dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.

In the United States, the world's third-largest country in population size after China and India, 71% of women use some form of family planning. The U.S. fertility rate, or average number of births per woman, has dropped to 1.96.

Yet the United States has the highest fertility rate among wealthy industrialized countries. And because of the "momentum" of population growth -- it takes about 70 years for the population to stabilize after a nation reaches a replacement-level fertility rate of 2.1 births per woman -- the United States is expected to double its population of 270 million in 60 years if the current growth rate continues, according to Peter Kostmayer, national spokesman for Zero Population Growth and a former U.S. House member from Pennsylvania.

 

The Sacramento Bee took the bizarre position that men should be forced to pay child support even when DNA proves that it is another man who should be paying support.

 

If men win this Capitol paternity fight, kids will be the big losers

Published on June 13, 2002, Page A3, Article 8 of 10 found, 773 words.

** You could practically hear the clinking of glasses and slapping of high-fives over the latest "good news" for California men with paternity beefs.

Maybe we should first stipulate:

Yes, there are deceitful, manipulative women out there with a turnstile at their bedroom entrance and a toll booth by the exit. For them, pregnancy is leverage; a baby equals cash.

Yes, there are some men - naive about their partners, ignorant of the law or merely
 

Bill could upend fatherhood law

Published on June 9, 2002, Page A1, Article 9 of 10 found, 1102 words.

** Claiming they're paying child support for kids who aren't theirs, some California men are arming themselves with DNA tests and fighting to change state law.

An Air Force master sergeant says lab results show that three children born during his marriage were fathered by three different men.

A Fairfield man says he had a one-night stand with a woman, then married her when she falsely claimed he had gotten her pregnant.

A La Jolla man says his wife

 

By 2003I was active against "H-1b" - Congress has raised the annual cap to 195,000 and let it stay there as thousands of America tech workers were unemployed due to the dot-com bust of 2001 - and I was on the board of NAEA.

 

A first: State asks U.S. for loan to pay jobless

Published on December 12, 2003, Page A4, Article 2 of 2 found, 358 words.

** For the first time in California history the state is asking the federal government for a loan to pay benefits to unemployed workers.

The unemployment trust fund, which stood at $6.1 billion less than 18 months ago, dwindled into insolvency as the economy continued to slump, more high-wage workers lost jobs and a state law increased unemployment payments.

For example, the maximum weekly benefit in 2001 was $230. The maximum benefit rose to $370 in 2003, and it will increase to

 

In 2004 I became president of Programmers Guild, and NAEA disassembled.

 

Job bills putting heat on governor

Published on September 11, 2004, Page A1, Article 2 of 2 found, 1150 words.

** Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to promote a "Buy California" mentality and speaks enthusiastically about preserving jobs in the state. He also wants to streamline government and make California more business-friendly.

Now the Democratic-controlled Legislature has handed Schwarzenegger a plateful of politically charged bills that would seem to pit his desire to save California jobs against his desire to please business and cut government spending.