DACA + Free college + Venezuela’s economy + Confederate monuments
Dreamers
Re “Trump didn’t show ‘compassion’ by ending DACA. He was a coward” (Editorials, Sept. 6): President Barack Obama said DACA was a stopgap measure. The Constitution gives the legislative branch, not the executive branch, the power over immigration legislation. While Congress debates DACA, it needs to develop a more efficient path to citizenship and create a viable guest-worker program.
Frank Isaac, Roseville
Free college
Re “Free college” (Letters, Sept. 6): Letter writer Martin Owens criticized free college. Registration at Sacramento State in the early 1960s was about $20 a semester; graduate school fees at UC Davis were $120 a quarter including some measure of a health care plan that paid my on-campus thoracic surgery for a collapsed lung. Two to 10 days summer work salary would pay for both fees respectively. College then wasn’t quite free, but you get the picture.
Spencer P. Le Gate, Sacramento
Failing economy
Letter writer Martin Owens invokes Venezuela’s failing economy was he criticizes the free college movement. What he doesn’t mention is that Germany also offers free college. Germany also has better infrastructure, a good educational system and lower unemployment than the U.S. One has to be completely committed to ignoring the rest of the world to know that socialism always fails.
Mark Dempsey, Orangevale
Monuments
Re “Feds should put Confederate monuments in their proper places: museums” (Viewpoints, Sept. 6): Sen. Steve Glazer’s op-ed strikes a familiar chord in today’s culture: marginalize all unpleasantness lest some be offended. We should remember that politicians, not soldiers, create war. If we learned anything from Vietnam, it should be that we must castigate the politicians who start such wars, not soldiers who answer their country’s call to service. Place monuments to Jefferson Davis and Southern congressmen in dust heaps, but leave monuments to fighting men, many conscripted, even if their country was the Confederacy.
Jim Ramsey, Red Bluff
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This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 2:00 PM with the headline "DACA + Free college + Venezuela’s economy + Confederate monuments."