Letter to the Editor

Published: January 3, 2008

To the Editor:

To my dearest namesake, Dan O’Hara (Letters to the Editor, The Georgia Bulletin, Dec. 13). The name we share, Dan or Daniel, is a venerable Hebrew one. In my case I was named for the Jewish obstetrician who helped my mother bring me into this world. Dan means judge, Daniel, God is my judge or judged by God. So I salute you my brother judge!

Thank you for taking the time to consider one aspect of this most gnarly question of immigration and immigration reform. Thank you, too, for taking the time to write to The Georgia Bulletin, thus making this paper a forum for open and thorough discussion of what may be one of the defining issues of this presidential campaign season.

I am terribly sorry that I spoke so poorly or perhaps the reporting was not clear. I am not as eloquent as our Archbishop nor as prudent. I did not intend to say, nor do I believe, that those who oppose undocumented aliens are racist. What I intended to say is that the policy of harassment by police in Cobb County sure looks like racism. But it may not be. Puffins, for example, look like ducks and walk like ducks but are not ducks.

My larger concerns about this issue are the following. We have agriculture, poultry, carpet, construction, and service industries in Georgia that have significant undocumented worker populations. They are able to work because of the poor and porous federal laws regulating employment and the lack of federal enforcement. The undocumented buy homes, cars, clothing, food, electronic goods and any number of other things. They contribute to the tax digest through sale tax, income tax and property tax. A punitive, shortsighted policy, like the approach Georgia took to drivers’ licenses, may cause the general population more harm than it limits or punishes the undocumented alien.

Lest I misspeak or be misunderstood again let me restate: I am not in favor of undocumented immigration. I support “handouts” to no one nor do I favor giving privileges to scofflaws.

What I do support is very, very careful, prudent and farsighted considerations that will lead to policies that will benefit everyone.

Father Dan Stack, Cartersville