Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, not immigrants
Re: “Immigration reform should bar America-haters,” April 28
I am disappointed that The Washington Examiner allowed two of its contributors, Chris Core and Gregory Kane, to spread ignorance and disinformation by not researching their facts regarding Puerto Rico.
This U.S. territory was gained as war bounty from the Spanish-American War in 1898 and was under military rule and presidential appointment until 1952, when the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was established. Puerto Ricans, like Texans, are United States citizens with a democratically elected governor and a nonvoting representative in Congress, very much like the District.
For Gregory Kane to say that Damascus High School student Enidris Siurano Rodriguez should return to Puerto Rico is like telling her to go to another part of the U.S. and to accuse her of being an America-hater is xenophobic and ignorant. All she did was what any conscientious objector has done to protest forced sterilizations, human experimentation, damage to the environment, and treatment as second-class citizens by people draped in the U.S. flag who call themselves patriots.
Chris Core did no better in objecting to Siurano Rodriguez’s exercise of her First Amendment right to free speech, which is a core value for all in our nation.
As U.S. citizens from the mainland, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Mariana and Virgin Islands, we should all abhor ignorance and bias to be Boston Strong.
Robert Odom
Washington
Guns protect citizens from unrestrained government
Re: “Let NRA be in charge of protecting students,” From Readers, April 26
Emilio Iasiello must be privy to data that no one else has seen when he states that 90 percent of the public supports “basic gun control legislation.” Maryland, D.C. and Chicago, to name just a few, have done everything possible to limit or prevent gun ownership by their law-abiding citizens, yet one finds reports of shooting victims there on a daily basis.
Iasiello’s rush to judgment on the Senate’s refusal to approve his favorite gun control measures reveals his misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers’ reasons for adding the indispensible Second Amendment to the Constitution, which protects Americans from the arbitrary application of unfettered power by an otherwise unrestrained government.
Forget the isolated though tragic deaths caused by unbalanced or criminally minded individuals. They would pale by comparison to the fear, intimidation and loss of individual freedoms all Americans would stand to suffer at the hands of an all-powerful government in possession of the names, addresses, and the number and types of weapons of every gun owner in this country.
David Martinez
Reston
If you want to avoid a fine, don’t speed
Re: “Traffic cameras are a license to steal,” From Readers, April 25
If traffic cameras are a license to steal, then Robert Ness and every other driver who risks getting “robbed” by this process are lucky enough to have infallible protection from being a victim: obey the laws of the road.
Ness was incorrect when he called himself a “law-abiding” person after making excuses for exceeding the posted speed limit by more than 30 percent.His choice to avoid the District altogether instead of driving safely in it makes for a winning proposition for D.C. citizens and their guests.
As the recipient of two camera-generated tickets over the past few years, I continue to regard this method of issuing traffic citations as safe and efficient.
Scott Wathne
Washington
