A nation of mostly immigrants

Where did your brave ancestors originate?

Unless an American is Native American (about 2.9% of the U.S. population), he or she is descended from immigrants. Where did your family roots originate? I am the lucky descendent of immigrants from many countries: Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal and Brazil. I came to the U.S. as a baby with my American father and my Brazilian mother. How about you? 

Would you deny your ancestors the chance this country gave them for work, safety and citizenship, the opportunity that made your life possible? It took courage for all of our ancestors to leave home and cross oceans and/or borders to make new homes and lives for their descendents. 

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Immigrants now are the people caring for the elderly and sick as health aids in many nursing facilities. They are changing the beds in most hotel rooms in this valley and cooking in the restaurants, washing the dishes. They are building the houses, fixing the cars and mowing the lawns. When Ellis Island began in 1892 as the landing point for immigrants coming mostly from the landless poor in Europe, those people became workers sewing clothes, cleaning houses and offices, digging in coal mines, and working in the burgeoning industrial revolution in many capacities.The Pevec part of my name comes from Slovenia: coal miners, factory workers and farmers.

Our country is built and enriched by each person who comes and shares their personal talents and labor. Allowing people to get work permits more easily than we do now would decrease stress for these immigrants and the costs to our national budget of immigration workers reviewing the vast paperwork necessary for a person to get permission to work. Welcoming immigrants instead of accusing them of stealing jobs and eating pets would make for a kinder country for us all. Let’s try uniting for mutual respect and kindness in cultural diversity we can all share in and enjoy.

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Illene Pevec, Carbondale

Mike Samson serves the people

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter in favor of Mike Samson’s re-election race for Garfield County Commissioner. He is one of the three Garfield commissioners who are responsible for the county having $86 million in the bank, making GarCo one of the five most financially healthy counties in the country (out of 3,244).

His focus is on protecting our water, our environment and our public lands. He also understands we need sensible immigration policies.

He is accountable and is a non-partisan listener who understands that the government serves people, not policies.

I urge you to vote for Mike Samson for GarCo commissioner.

Thank you!

Lori Andrews, Carbondale

Vote with your brain and not your heart

Joy and hope are warm, cuddly sentiments but these feelings won’t pay for your groceries, gas or mortgage. 

Caring and compassion are also heartwarming traits but our unbridled open border empathy has resulted in millions of foreign nationals taking hundreds of billions of tax dollars away from the poorest of U.S. citizens.

Rehabilitation and second chances are audible ideologies, but no-bail laws and defund police policies have massively increased violent crime.

We had peace through strength, now we seek non-escalation of wars through appeasement. We’ve become reactive rather than proactive, sending signals of weakness across the globe.

Please, vote on facts with your brain instead of feelings with your heart — vote a straight Republican ticket.

If you’re better off now than four years ago, you are probably a recent illegal arrival.

Bruno Kirchenwitz, Rifle

The best candidate to fight inflation

I wanted to share some thoughts on inflation and its impact. It really hits those who can least afford it, and it’s important to understand what drives it. Simply put, when demand for something goes up but supply doesn’t keep pace, prices rise. A great example is the housing market in the Roaring Fork Valley — more people want homes, but the number of houses hasn’t increased, so prices go up.

Economist Milton Friedman explained that inflation happens when the money supply grows faster than the economy can produce goods and services. For instance, when the U.S. government borrows around $1.5 to $2 trillion each year, the Federal Reserve has to increase the money supply to cover that spending. This leads to more dollars in circulation, which lowers the value of each dollar.

To tackle inflation, we need to either lower demand or boost supply. To reduce inflation, the Harris/Walz ticket believes in price controls and significant spending for the Green New Deal, but most economists believe this plan will fail. They argue that price controls will reduce supply, resulting in higher inflation. In addition, increasing taxes and spending by trillions of dollars, including the Green New Deal, will also worsen inflation because the additional spending increases demand for goods and services with no corresponding increase in supply.

On the other hand, the Trump/Vance ticket thinks increasing production is key. They want to Increase gas and oil production, bring manufacturing back to America using tariffs, tax incentives and subsidies for certain products and industries, and increase the percentage of people working by requiring those receiving government assistance to work if they are able.

Under four years of the Trump administration, wages increased more than inflation, but the opposite has been true under the Biden/Harris administration. Many people are now relying on savings and credit cards more than ever. If Trump/Vance are elected, I expect inflation to return to 1- or 2%. If Harris/Walz are elected, the sky is the limit.

Bill Barnes, New Castle