LIANE HANSEN, host:
To your letters now, and we received many about the conversation two weeks ago with Kevin Applebee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, about Cardinal John Mahoney's criticism of the Immigration Bill.
Marguerite Nelson(ph) of Laramie, Wyoming, writes: After listening to the Catholic Church's response to a proposed reformation of our immigration laws, I am left with the opinion that they think its okay for us non-Catholics to finance illegal immigrants in the form of welfare, education and health care. I'm also left with the opinion that these higher-ups in the Catholic religion should help these people at the source, in Mexico.
Furthermore, the church's entrance into the political arena should cause them to lose their tax-exempt status.
Last week, Ira Melman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, responded to Cardinal Mahoney's criticisms, and presented a different side of the issue. That also drew many responses, including this one from Katherine Kramer(ph) from Pontrovida(ph), Florida.
What is Ira Melman and his organization doing to promote economic development in Central and South America so that people can find jobs where they live and do not have to make a journey at least as perilous, if not more so, than our ancestors' ocean crossings. If immigrants were suddenly to vanish from our economy, where are the hordes of American-born workers willing to harvest our food and scrub our toilets for minimal pay?
I would also like to remind Mr. Melman that, unless his ancestors were among those already on shore when the Mayflower landed, all of us are descended from immigrants who once faced a hostile land and society.
Margo Adler's story about New York's post office as a lifeline for the homeless prompted many letters.
What a brilliant idea your general delivery piece was, writes Jack Crowell(ph) of North Pontford(ph), Vermont. It was a wonderful, heartwarming way to help us better understand the many problems of homeless people, and at the same time point out that not all postal employees are nuts or cold automatons.
Finally, a correction in Bonny Wolf's piece on Irish stout. She referred to the shamrock as a four-leaf clover. Dan McGarry(ph) of Kalamo, Washington was one of the many who wrote in.
Your piece on stout was very informative and entertaining, with one glaring exception, he writes. A shamrock is not a four-leaf clover. In a piece on St. Patrick's Day, perhaps it would be appropriate to remember that St. Patrick used a shamrock as a symbol of the Holy Trinity; three in one, not the Holy Quartet.
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