•Pass this to 10 friends •Who cares if the grass is green? Pass this to 10 friends The letter to the editor titled “Social Security changes” (Letters, July 31) rattled my cage big time. Ms. Ditch-Crosby takes issue with “illegal
•Pass this to 10 friends
•Who cares if the grass is green?
Pass this to 10 friends
The letter to the editor titled “Social Security changes” (Letters, July 31) rattled my cage big time.
Ms. Ditch-Crosby takes issue with “illegal aliens” having access to Social Security. She states: 1. “The Senate voted this month to allow ‘illegal’ aliens access to Social Security benefits” She did not say what kind of benefits. Does she even know? 2. She goes on to chastise the media for not telling us about this outrage. “We would not have known except for a petition being circulated via e-mail…” 3. Then she asks/states (presumably about these SS benefits), “U.S. citizens who have not contributed into it are not eligible.” (Double negative is hers. Double negative was always a positive in my English classes, but I digress.)
1. First and most important point: Petitions on the Internet are not petitions at all. Think about it. Ms. Ditch-Crosby sends her petition with her name on the top of the list to 10 friends. Her name is now on 10 petitions. Those 10 people, after adding their names, send her petition to 10 of their friends. One hundred petitions. Those 100 send the petitions to 10 friends. In just three cycles her name is on 1,000 petitions. You get my point? Anyone in Washington receiving these petitions files them, appropriately, in the round file. When I get them I send them back to the person who sent them with a note pointing out this little piece of idiocy.
2. Second, and probably just as important: The Senate did indeed take up this Social Security matter but they did it in May 2006. Quote: “The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment — even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents…” was published in the Washington Times on May 18, 2006. However, the vote was to table the discussion and the issue was prior SS benefits for aliens who had since become legal. If you don’t believe me, look it up at www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/petition.asp or any other legitimate hoax-buster site. The current petition referred to is not only worthless, given the multiplication rates above, but can you just imagine how many petitions would have the originator’s name on them after more than four years of circulation?
3. Many U.S. citizens who “have not contributed” should be getting benefits and they do get them every single day. Non-working spouses and the (under 18-year-old) children of deceased workers are entitled by law to the Social Security contributions of their deceased relative who contributed to the system. Many a widow and orphan thank the government for this system.
As for the illegal aliens getting or not getting benefits, look first at their employers. They are the ones who are supposed to be withholding and matching the withholding on the earnings of these illegals. Where are the W-2 forms? Point a finger at them. But remember the adage, which I’m probably not quoting properly, “If you point a finger at me there are four more fingers pointing back at you.” (Yes, I know about 1099s and self-employment but you know the employers are the ones making that decision not a Spanish-speaking illegal alien who crossed the border looking for work. That is not my issue so please don’t make it one.)
Please, folks, don’t proliferate garbage. If you get an e-mail “petition,” or “pass this to everyone you know” type of missive, first check it on Snopes, copy the facts from the Snopes site and return it to your friends with the Snopes quote attached and do it every single time you get one. Millions of people with e-mail will thank you. Every day when they open their e-mail they will say, “How wonderful so-and-so hasn’t sent me any petitions or pass-this-to-10-friends-or-meet-a-dire-fate-e-mails today.”
Sandra Makuoale, Waimea
Who cares if the grass is green?
Last year, we sent you a letter around this time, describing a walk we took on a trail from the Westin hotel in Princeville to Anini Beach. It had not rained but the water was a murky color of green coming from the Princeville golf course.
It formed a pond at the end of Anini where little children were playing. My husband and I talked to the mothers of the children and relayed our concerns about the runoff.
We also spoke to a ranger at Anini, who said that it was a mixture of pesticides and other muck accumulating at the top. The ranger said that it was going on for years and that since the Princeville pays so many taxes the proverbial blind eye was directed at them.
We voiced our concerns and wrote you a letter.
Look around you Kauaiians, these golf courses are destroying your land and your beaches, not to mention your health.
Tell them to go organic. The oceans need our help.
We watched a PBS program recently and the grandson of Jacques Cousteau was the moderator. He said that the coral has been depleted in a vast majority of the oceans.
Wake up and stop the pesticides. The ocean needs to be there for everyone for the future. Who cares if the grass is green?
Cliff and Cecelia Waeschle, Kilauea
