[Batrachian]

"What do we have in common anymore? If Bush's ally-ally-in-free immigration policy is embraced, the old America we knew will be nothing more than a global hiring hall and what Teddy Roosevelt called a "polyglot boarding house for the world."

And if it doesn't work, there is no going back. It is the end of the America we all loved. Why is President Bush taking this risk with our country?"

Pat Buchanan makes the assumption that this hasn't already happened. I think it has. Actually, I think that Pat knows this but isn't ready to concede the point.

[Wallace T.]

I have relatives in El Paso, Texas, and have been visiting the city regularly for over 20 years. It is, of course, a border town, and has had a Mexican-American majority for decades. However, in recent years, the city has experienced white flight similar to what has occurred in Southern California. Many former El Pasoans have moved to Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and other points in New Mexico.

My brother-in-law graduated from high school on the city's east side in 1979. About two-thirds of his graduating class had non-Hispanic surnames. By 1997, the same school had a large Hispanic majority. Two decades ago, the church (Presbyterian, USA) that my in-laws attend had over 100 attendees on a given Sunday and an active children's and youth Sunday school program. Average Sunday attendance has dropped to 40, many of whom are retired servicemen and their wives, and there are no children's or youth activities simply because there are no children or teenagers to minister to.

Trends like this go usually unnoticed in the local media, much less in the national press. We may not like it, but as long as the Feds are unwilling and/or unable to enforce immigration laws, such trends will continue.