06/13/2009
From: Norman Blake
Evidence of Santeria, a Caribbean religion that mixes Christianity with African and Native American traditions, is popping up all over Queens — America’s diversity headquarters.
Some of the proof: a dead rooster and a black goat’s head and torso found in Forest Park, headless chickens on an altar surrounded by candles in University Park, the dead carcass of a dog that was shot and eaten by a man and a cow tongue stuffed with pins in Central Park — a "hoodoo" spell to discourage a witness from testifying in court. [Animal-Rites Horror, by James Fanelli and Rich Calder, New York Post, June 6, 2009]
This is yet another result of the failure to enforce the laws against illegal immigration. Third World types who have no right to be here are turning the America into a Third World country with a Third World quality of life.
Blake’s previous letter about multiculturalism in his Forest Hills polling place is here.
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From: John Rice
Re: Saturday Forum: An Angry Chicago Father Says America’s Top Universities Shut Out His Daughter Because She’s White
Letter writer Philip Sanchez’s experience with his daughter Jane alarmed me because I too hope that some day my own child will be admitted to an elite private university.
In fact, as a third-generation Harvard graduate and fourth-generation Ivy League attendee, I expected that my legacy status would give me an advantage. But apparently, that will not be the case.
When I applied to Harvard in 1980, the odds of admission were approximately one in six. Now, with applications topping 22,000 per year, the odds have dropped to less than one in fourteen — and that is among a highly self-selecting applicant pool.
Since I chose a career in academe, I can’t make big donations to Harvard’s endowment, so my daughter’s legacy value will be zero.
Several years ago, according to Patrick Buchanan’s column, Harvard began a tradition of discriminating against American applicants, a problem has been greatly exacerbated by post-1990 immigration. [The Dispossession of Christian Americans, by Patrick J. Buchanan, November 27, 1998]
Our children must compete for admission to a top American university with thousands of Indian and Chinese children with high IQs.
According to my calculations, the combined populations of those two groups creates roughly 120,000 potential foreign high school applicants for about 10,000 slots in the most elite colleges: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Chicago, Stanford, MIT, and Cal Tech.
So Sanchez’s daughter is now in the same boat as a citizen software developer looking for a programming job in Santa Clara, CA or a high school dropout who needs a job plucking chickens in Arkansas.
Because of our government’s ruinous trade and immigration policies to get a domestic job or an educational opportunity, everyone must confront global competition.
As for Harvard, no doubt it wishes to diversify its alumni portfolio. As America’s power, influence and wealth wane in the 21st Century, thanks to unchecked immigration, the country is less likely to produce those rich donors the institution so covets.
Rice, who teaches in the California public school system, has a PhD in science.
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From: Rossianina
I am an American who has lived and taught English in China. I highly recommend that letter writer Sanchez’s daughter Jane eschew getting a bachelor’s degree in the U.S., at least for now.
Jane can spend relatively little money to obtain a Teaching English as a foreign language [TEFL] certificate this summer ($1500 — $2000 for a good program).
Then, she should go to mainland China, support herself as an English teacher, and work toward becoming completely fluent in Mandarin.
After that, Jane then could apply to a Chinese University and get her degree there.
Letter writer Sanchez and other readers might think this idea is radical.
However, because of globalism, it is the way the world will continue to evolve during his Jane’s lifetime. Also, highly successful people like Jim Rogers (read Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip) have moved their families to Asia.
Rogers, for example, hired a Mandarin-speaking nanny to make sure his young daughters mastered the language — which they did within only a few months.
Personally, I'd follow Rogers' lead before I ever took anything to heart that an admissions officer at one of these ridiculous American colleges said.
Although Jane has learned a hard lesson in the world’s unfairness, these schools have done her a favor by rejecting her.
Why would she want to study "foreign service" anyway? I went to a prominent university in Washington, D.C., and know many Georgetown Foreign Service graduates. All they do is push paper around, bankrupt the U.S. and send our soldiers to illegal wars
If Jane wants to be a productive, substantive, and worthwhile human being (as her academic record indicates that she does), then she should educate herself.
Jane can get a diploma from any university. It will not be the key to her success. Sanchez should encourage Jane to develop real skills and to study useful subjects like languages, sciences, geology or history.
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From: Merry Li
Like Philip Sanchez’s daughter Jane, I too was turned down by Yale. I understand how difficult rejection is after four years of hard academic work. And, again like Sanchez, I disagree with affirmative action.
Nevertheless, I find his letter misleading at best.
Many factors contribute to college admission, college rejection or college wait-listing. To simply boil down the entire entry process, which is kind of a crapshoot, to grade point average and test scores (not to mention the fact that admissions officers do not care about advanced placement scores at all) mischaracterizes the applications and applicants.
The elite colleges Sanchez listed are impossibly competitive. Beyond the raw score numbers, students must submit essays, teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities, all of which are closely scrutinized.
That process creates an unlimited number of opportunities to make a "mistake" (i.e., sounding arrogant on the essays, not receiving as high marks on the recommendation as one might suspect, not demonstrating enough commitment to outside activities, etc.). Any error can be fatal to a student’s chances.
What troubles me most about Sanchez’s letter though, which is understandably emotionally-charged, is that it reflects a deep streak of entitlement.
How does Sanchez or his talented daughter really know how impressive the minority students' applications may have been? How can he know that Jane absolutely positively deserved acceptance over tens of thousands of qualified applicants from within the U.S. and across the world?
Having high expectations, as Jane does, is admirable. But one of life’s important lessons is how to deal with disappointment. From what Sanchez wrote in his letter, it sounds like Jane isn’t coping well.
I sincerely wish Jane the best of luck in her college endeavors. If she continues to perform at her high standards, as I am sure she will, then success awaits her.
Li, who is Chinese, lives in Connecticut.
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