MAILBAG:

I was struck by the comments of Robert Reich (former Clinton Administration secretary of labor and now economic advisor to President Obama), concerning his proposal to make sure that “white male” and “experienced” construction workers not gain all of the jobs that may be created by the impending stimulus package.

What in the world is this wing nut thinking?

Personally, I am not real keen on some trainee refitting some bridge over which I may have to travel to work.

Oh yes, there was another gem that those listening closely were able to gather.

He wants to install regulations to “nudge” (his words, not mine) contractors to hire unskilled labor and train them when working on government contracts.

Sounds just like my directive to hire cheap illegal labor when I was a construction foreman in the 1970-1990 era in an effort to drive costs down.

Didn’t work then and will not work now.

A complete and totally absurd mind set.

JACK STRATTON

Costa Mesa

‘Change’ not as progressive as hoped

“As Joseph Lowery, a civil rights icon said, ‘White will embrace what is right.’ I hope so. I am embracing Obama. I don’t fear any longer. I, too, have seen the glory,” Karla Paniagua said in the Jan. 4 Sounding Off, “Now a citizen, now proud of America.”

Sometimes one person’s glory is another person’s fear.

During the inauguration ceremony, the reverend got smiles and laughs from Obama for a future when “white would embrace the right.”

An economic advisor to the president says he is concerned, as many of you are, that no money from the stimulus package will go to “white male construction workers.”

It is as though the words of Martin Luther King Jr. never happened. Frederick Douglass never lived. The Quakers never existed. Abraham Lincoln never spoke. D-Day was just a child’s story. Our history of sacrifice to end injustice only began with the election of President Obama.

It is acceptable in the politics of today just to give lip service to the liberal concepts of tolerance and natural rights. And then continue the policies and words of the past, that separate us along racial, cultural and economic lines.

One has to wonder if those who risked their fortune, honor and life was all in vain. Especially, from those among us who have no history nor do they remember the past.

Those of the past who embraced what was right are forgotten. Those of the past laid the foundations of the nation that allows Paniagua to enjoy the benefits of which some do not know.

There is “change” but it is not the kind of progressive change I hoped for. I had hoped for progressive change that would rescind all federal laws and programs and policies that reward or punish citizens based on race, culture, language or religion, in the likeness of King, not the Klan.

AUGUST LIGHTFOOT

Newport Beach