It appears nothing is getting through to this editor that illegal immigration is a problem. His last editorial, "How to quit worrying and begin writing" published May 28, 2008 (posted on ALIPAC 6/4/200, no longer has a link to it on the newspaper's site from what I can find. Perhaps the pressure is getting to him.

Below is his latest commentary. Note he always has to include something on the mistreatment of illegal immigrants.

~ Please feel free to comment at the bottom of the editorial.

RFK's last campaign — a time of hope and compassion 40 year ago

Published:
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 3:01 PM EDT

So many topics. So little space.

There's word today that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was once considered the "inevitable" nominee, will concede the race to Barack Obama. Not really a local angle on that one except that people in the South, and this is especially true in Yadkin, love to hate Hillary. So that's out.

The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has was elected to the U.S. Senate one year after my birth, enjoyed a "restful night's sleep" one day after undergoing an aggressive brain surgery aimed at slicing away at a cancerous tumor to give chemotherapy and radiation treatments a chance to work. But again, folks around here don't care much for Teddy. I've already heard my share of incredibly tasteless Chappaquiddick jokes since doctors first discovered that the 76-year-old veteran legislator had a malignant brain tumor. So, in the interest of not inviting more public ridicule about my admiration for a man and a family who have served this country for more than a half century, I'll press on to another topic.

What about Saturday's disturbing article in The New York Times about the rash of recent killings in the border town of Villa Ahumada, Mexico where last month dozens of men with assault rifles killed the police chief, two officers and civilians? The entire municipal police force quit after the attack, turning the sleepy town into yet another victim of the wave of drug violence that has swept Mexico in the last 18 months. Could it be yet additional evidence that the United States needs to get serious about reducing drug dependency on this side of the border, therefore eliminating the need for Latin American countries to resort to deadly violence and turf battles over who is going to ship the most cocaine into across our borders? Nah. Many readers will just dismiss it, saying it's yet another sign that we should build a fence around the U.S./Mexico border rather than addressing the consumption issue here at home.

There is a wonderful article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, accompanied by some incredibly poignant photographs, of the late Robert F. Kennedy's 82-day campaign for president in 1968. Reading it makes me melancholy and almost weep for a better time. I can still vividly recall the morning after his June 6 assassination — which will be marked on Friday with a 40-year anniversary — racing to Miss Tanner's first grade class at East Bend Elementary School, wondering who would be our next president now. At the tender age of 7, I had already begun to emulate Bobby Kennedy. And when our family visited RFK's grave site at Arlington National Cemetery in the fall of 1968, I knew even then that this was a special and tragic moment in our nation's history.

What a different and much better country we would have been with the election of Robert F. Kennedy. An end to the war in Vietnam. No Watergate scandal. And we would have had a leader, who demonstrated in the last four months of his presidential campaign, how deeply he was committed to the poor and disenfranchised by visiting the ghettos in Watts and announcing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination to a group of African-Americans in an impromptu speech in Indianapolis's inner city.

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another," Kennedy told the anxious crowd. "and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black."

There were riots in 100 U.S. cities that night, in outrage of King's murder. But there was no riot in Indianapolis where Kennedy gave his speech.

Contrast that with today in which we have in this country one of the largest gaps between the rich and the poor; a nation that has already lost more than 4,000 soldiers in a long and protracted war in Iraq with no end in sight; strong racial overtones as the first African-American man runs for president; and increasing resentment and discrimination against a new generation of immigrants — Latinos who have effectively replaced African-Americans as the new scapegoat for the country's social and economic woes.

On second thought, maybe I should find some less offensive and more upbeat topics instead, putting a positive spin on local, national and international events so we can all sleep better at night. Nah. I'll leave that to the politicians and public relations firms. They're much better at telling people what they want to hear.

Andy Matthews is the Editor of The Yadkin Ripple. He lives in East Bend.

http://www.yadkinripple.com/articles...als/edit01.txt