Four days before Joe Guzzardi’s column “Is the U.S. full? No, It’s overfull” (published June 8), the Summit Daily News published Tom Purcell’s column “Hey, America! We need another baby boom!” Letter writer James Tuthill, you embraced Guzzardi’s words as gospel truth. But did you miss or dismiss Purcell’s clarion call to procreate?
How blasphemous for Guzzardi to hijack the term “sustainability” and twist it into the depraved concept of maintaining “a quality of life … consistent with the American way.” Such an arrogant sense of entitlement. No, the U.S. is not full; it’s full of itself! Mr. Tuthill, what “natural resources” are immigrants going to deplete that Americans aren’t already over-consuming? Oil? The U.S. military is the largest consumer of oil in the world. They also have a trillion dollars to squander on the F-35 fighter jet, so don’t worry about financial resources either. Don’t get emotional. Food? Hire more immigrants to harvest. Guzzardi laments land loss. Look at Summit County, where in 2010 we had 80% absentee homeowners. Second and even third homes! Blame immigrants?
“More immigration creates more competition for jobs and requires costly social services.” This scapegoating by Guzzardi is dismantled with unassailable evidence in Aviva Chomsky’s book, “They Take Our Jobs!” and 20 other myths about immigration.
The U.S. is the richest country in the world. Yet, 2017 data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found 49 nations that accepted asylees and refugees more than the U.S. No, our asylum system is not broken, Mr. Tuthill. Please read the book, “Tell Me How It Ends” by Valeria Luiselli — an inside look at the vetting process.
You prefer facts to emotion? Detained immigrants are fed rotten food and denied adequate medical care while in overcrowded facilities with broken and overflowing toilets. See democracynow.org (June 12), but don’t get emotional.