Thread: my letter to the editor

here is a letter I wrote this morning. before I send it in I wanted to find out what y'all think. I tried not to make it too long beacuse most Americans seem to have ADD. It is so hard to write everything I am thinking in one short letter. So I am willing to take any suggestions/comments from everybody. Here it goes:

There seems to be great confusion for some Americans today regarding certain vocabulary used lately by the media and our neighbors. Hopefully I can clear things up for those that are confused. A LEGAL immigrant is one who enters a country following the legal process involved for entering such country. America does have such a process and millions of people have followed it to become American citizens. An ILLEGAL immigrant is one who enters a country illegally ignoring the laws of a country. The vast majority of Americans do not have an issue with LEGAL immigrants, our country was founded by immigrants and those immigrants found it fit to make laws and regulations regarding the immigrants who enter America.

Over the past couple of weeks we have witnessed thousands gather for the “civil rights” of “immigrants” and this is where the confusion has set in. These people were not marching for the rights of LEGAL immigrants as a matter of fact the LEGAL immigrants of America are insulted that people who have tried to cheat their way into this country would have the gall to march in the streets demanding their “civil rights”. Just to make things clearer the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines civil rights as “the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; especially: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the constitution and by acts of congress”. Anybody who comes to America illegally, waves the flag of another nation and marches in the streets demanding to be excused for their illegal actions must seriously be confused. Interestingly certain members of congress have been moved by these demonstrations and have vowed to fight for these illegal immigrants. As a result it has been reported that the borders are being flooded with as many as 8000 a day rushing to the United States in anticipation of this bill being passed.

The fact that most of these people represent Mexico does not surprise most here in Arizona. We have been dealing with the influx of illegal immigrants in our schools, hospitals and neighborhoods for years now. What may surprise you is the recent poll done by Zogby International. Zogby found that a large majority of the Mexican population believes the southwest territory of the U.S. rightfully belongs to Mexico (58%), and that Mexicans should have the right to enter the U.S. without first obtaining U.S. permission (57%). By contrast, Zogby's survey of Americans shows a large majority supports reducing immigration levels (58%), wants the military deployed along the border to protect the U.S. from illegal immigration (68%), and opposes amnesty for illegal aliens (65%).World net daily on January 8 2002 reported “A massive influx of illegal immigrants is "importing poverty" and growing an ethnic community with greater loyalty to Mexico than the U.S. This article discusses the goals of radical Hispanic activists for succession of the Southwest United States and the creation of “Aztlan,” (a separate nation to include California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas), as well as how recent political and demographic trends may fuel such a breakup of the U.S. in the future. More information about Aztlan can be found on the website www.aztlan.net .

Many people who are outraged by these recent events do not know what to do in response to the bill being debated in congress right now that would allow illegal immigrants the right to stay in the United States without being held responsible for their illegal actions. For those willing to take a stand I would encourage you to visit www.alipac.us this website has an abundance of information about what we can do to stop congress from passing this bill and ignoring the will of the American people.

I like your points and your data. But it needs to be way shorter if you want any chance of having it published. I usually will stick to one point and keep it to about one paragraph...maybe shorter.

thanks josh! I know it needs to be shorter it is just so hard when you have so much to say.

Try spreading the word over several months. Make each paragraph a separate letter. Then read your paper's policy on the amount of time you need to wait before submitting each new letter. Now you have short, concise letters that have a great chance of being published and getting your word out

You can submit it as an op-ed piece. Those can usually run 6-800 words. I'd try to boil it down a little, even so.

Excellent points, BTW.

thanks for the advice everybody!