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 |
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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. ''
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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
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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
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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 |
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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. |
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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
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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
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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. |
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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
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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