June 01, 2011
I am appalled at the trivialization that Dan Rodricks has placed on the issue of the "Dream Act" being about education of international students ("Seeing Dream Act students as 'our own," May 25). The issue he fails to address is the proper spending of our state taxes on legal Maryland residents and the drive to stop the continual misuse of funds by our state legislature and our state executive branch.
I am a Maryland resident, but I cannot always say I am a proud Maryland resident because of the continual missteps of our elected officials. Too often, the back-door deals that our state legislature makes are an embarrassment to me and many of my fellow residents. This past session produced two very notable examples: The Dream Act and the diversion of alcohol tax revenue from helping the disabled to assisting specific school districts instead.
In response to Mr. Rodricks' query "if any of my fellow Marylanders who want to repeal the Dream Act have been to a college campus recently," I do visit our state university campuses often since I hold degrees from three fine Maryland universities. I recognize the skills and diversity that international students and workers bring to our state in many ways. However, please do not continue the embarrassing trivialization of linking legal international students and legal immigrants with the illegal students and illegal immigrants.
I am a first-generation American, having benefitted from two legally immigrating parents. They both legally came to this country with not much more than the clothes on their backs. They worked and paid taxes legally, learned the language of our land, and earned their right to apply for citizenship after many years. They raised three children and taught us both English and their native language. We went through our public education system, and we paid for our own advanced educations. This is the true Dream Act that continues every day with many legal immigrants and their children and this is what we must celebrate and encourage.
Walter Dirndorfer, Linthicum
