Farrakhan’s church visit shows one Nation under God
As I read the news story on Minister Louis Farrakhan speaking from a pulpit of a Chicago Catholic church using the Bible (“Farrakhan delivers speech at Chicago Catholic church,” May 31, 2007), I couldn’t help but see this event as eye-opening.
For too long, many have looked upon the Nation of Islam as a radical and racist religion preaching hatred of whites. However, a closer look at Farrakhan and his religious beliefs makes it perfectly clear that his views are neither racist nor hateful.
In our City of Boston, there are many neighborhoods in which order has ceased to exist. Mattapan, parts of Dorchester and Roxbury have started to resemble Iraq.
Parents need to get more involved in their children’s lives. Community leaders must lead. Church leaders — whether they come from the black church, the Nation of Islam, the Catholic churches or anywhere else — all have a role to play in making our communities healthy places to call home, rather than war zones in which we must survive.
You can’t just pour money into an area to fix it up. You must pour hope into it to strengthen it from the foundation up to the sky. Our neighborhoods are where we live and grow. They should not become killing grounds.
Sal Giarratani
North Quincy
Senate view on immigration way out of order
I oppose the Senate immigration deal. I have been on the ground and visited a lot of nonprofit immigration refugee and advocacy groups all over Massachusetts. I have witnessed parents separated from children in New Bedford as if it was 1939 when the Nazis were taking hardworking people to concentration camps just because they were Jews. In the 21st century, 67 years after mankind witnessed the ultimate evils in World War II, still we have not learned.
Is it a crime to be Hispanic, want to work and do the things other Americans will not do to support one’s family? Future immigration is the first key domino to make everything fall into place properly. I hear of “Y & Z” visas, but you skip “X” — capable, educated, English-proficient people living in limbo who are housed, fed and clothed by families! They are one Social Security number away from family health insurance, jobs, taxes and self-reliance. They make up 50 percent of immigrants.
The solution is to accelerate visas for spouses, adults and minor children and siblings of U.S. citizens. The wait is just too long — now serving January 2001 visas.
Forget the 570-mile barricade and unmanned aerial vehicles systems that will only line the pockets of defense contractors. Hire more USINS visa workers and speed up things by a $2,500 expedited X visa form. USINS and Homeland Security can raise funds quicker from existing immigrants already here and who are capable of paying this $5,000 fine. Keep the Jan. 1, 2007 date and do this first.
By this time next year, funds to extradite or deport will abound from taking these first steps. Why go after cash from the people who are already 150 percent below the poverty line? How in the world will they pay these fines in 18 months while making decisions on what to eat?
Four hundred years ago, we forced a group of Negros to labor hard in the fields under brutal conditions. Now, without the physical whips and shackles, these new Negros are enslaved once again.
Paul E. Simon
