Thread: Need Assistance on Letter to Editor

Hello,

Here is my text for a local Letter to the Editor that I plan on sending. It should be under 250 words (currently at 212). Could you look at it and provide suggestions. I don't want to name specific companies, as they may not accept that.

Thanks,

Ostrich
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Upon driving to work the past two weeks, I observed a veteran Harford County landscaping company performing work on a major construction project. This company’s predominantly foreign-born workforce brought a couple of questions to mind:

First, while Maryland’s unemployment rate hovers around 9%, and the nation’s at 10%, most people realize that the true unemployment and underemployment rate is significantly higher. Why isn’t this company employing local Harford citizens?

Second, around 2004-2005 I noticed a large immigrant increase in the local workforce. Did the people of Harford County suddenly find certain types of jobs distasteful during this 12 month period, and beyond? Were they suddenly struck by the thought that they were too good to wash dishes, push lawnmowers, and lay block? Only a year or two earlier, local citizens were performing all of these jobs, en mass.

Finally, immigrants, legal and illegal, should be treated with respect, but whatever happened to respecting the American citizen worker? Our teenagers need jobs. Our adults need to put food on the table. How can Harford County citizens be expected to compete against foreign workers who are willing to work for much lower pay and no benefits?

The owners of this landscaping company should really consider the welfare of their fellow citizens when hiring workers.

Looks good to me

Wonderful!!

One of the reasons Americans no longer work in some of those jobs is that the pay scale is so much lower than it used to be. It's better from a financial viewpoint to sit home and collect unemployment. I would say it's time to cut off the welfare to the unemployed and force them to go out and work, but it's pretty much impossible in my town to get those jobs away from illegals, especially when even the local McDonald's won't hire American kids because they're not bilingual.

Great letter, thank you!

I understand not wanting to identify the company so as not to have the letter rejected, but will you consider giving the actual location of the project? This will help many like-minded citizens connect the dots and act accordingly,

Good job!

What is sad is that a lot of young people have developed a defeatist attitude of "Why try to do that work. They just hire aliens/Mexicans," etc.
So they have instead a forlorn hope that they will be able to get some kind of service job----where, they have no idea. I think this is very wide spread.

Furthermore even if there were no Americans, young or otherwise, to do these things there are other solutions:
1. Technology might just replace the job as it has replaced others like telephone operators and bank tellers. We even have automatically flushing toilets in many public places that tend to nullify THAT argument.
2. People may not really care if the grounds of business parks, etc are manicured to a T. Frankly I would rather see the illegals gone.
3. The construction industry is changing as Americans downsize from the McMansion homes that required a lot of construction labor, into smaller townhomes and condos.

The bottom line is that even though we have addicted ourselves to illegal immigrant labor, there are many ways it could be reversed. The negative side, to be fair, is that our entire culture has come to believe it is always possible to make money at a career where you never break a sweat and this is actually contributing to the influx of illegals who actually see a need they think they can fill.

I like the idea of including the town where the project is taking place. Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

Ostrich

Great letter. You might want to consider the reference to foreign workers. Unless you checked their papers, you cannot really know if they were born here, or are legal immigrants, or are here illegally. So you are leaving yourself open to the charge of racial profiling or racism.

You might want to consider something like this.
.............................



Upon driving to work the past two weeks, I observed a veteran Harford County landscaping company performing work on a major construction project, with what appears to be a work force demographic very different from what existed only a couple of years ago.

Have the people of Harford County suddenly find certain types of jobs distasteful? Have they suddenly been struck by the thought that they were too good to wash dishes, push lawnmowers, and lay block? Only a year or two earlier, local citizens were performing all of these jobs, en mass.

While Maryland’s unemployment rate hovers around 9%, and the nation’s at 10%, most people realize that the true unemployment and underemployment rate is significantly higher. Why has this company changed its hiring practices? Could it be that cheap illegal labor is too strong an incentive for local companies to resist?

Immigrants, legal and illegal, should be treated with respect, but whatever happened to respecting the American and legal immigrant worker? Our teenagers need jobs. Our adults need to put food on the table. How can Harford County citizens be expected to compete against illegal workers who are willing to work for much lower pay and no benefits?

Our local companies should really consider the welfare of their fellow citizens when hiring workers.

TheOstrich,

Hi. I had another thought. You might want to consider replacing your last sentence with this:

We support our local companies. Should they support us?

Cheers

Thank you again everyone. Bettybb, I'm using some of your thoughts. Great job!

Ostrich