Should the contractor have been on the cover?

Correction:

Jimi Hendrix's grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee.

In last week’s Blurt about the movie and music of Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World [August 30], Sarah Milan’s ancestry was misattributed. She actually has both Choctaw and Apache blood stemming back to her great grandparents.

• Sarah Milan
• Allied Gardens

How did we get on the cover?

Dawn Taggett

I’m curious how the business I work for ends up on the cover of your magazine [August 30] without our consent and paints us in a negative light and exudes negative vibes. What is your thought process on that?

By reading the article, it appears the “target” is a contractor and maybe they should have been on the cover.

(I’m a branch manager, Sunstate Equipment Co.)

• Patrick Santiago
• Miramar

He is a fraud or false prophet

My name is Mary. I have been a resident of the Plaza Bonita Jungle for seven years. I am distraught by the article featuring Redbeard [Cover Story, August 24] for several reasons.

First, he is a fraud or false prophet. I’ve encountered him a few times, and never did he mention God or scripture. However, he did ask where he could buy an eightball of meth.

Another time he came to my camp saying someone had told him that my boyfriend, “P.,” had stolen his skateboard. “P.” works, and he doesn’t ride a skateboard. We assured him we didn’t have it; he asked if we had any dope.

A major concern of mine is if Redbeard is the person who changed the names or if it was the reporter Jonah Valdez? Because Julie (whose husband was not found burned or murdered) is “H.” And Deborah is “E.” Nancy is “B.” I’m not sure who Oliver is supposed to be.

Redbeard told me that it takes a certain type of personality to co-exist in the jungle.

And most importantly to me the one who is referred to as Paul is actually “J.” He speaks of finding a woman tied to her house, burned to death. That woman was my friend, “R.” And no jungle dweller found her body. After extinguishing the fire, National City fire and National City police found her. Her death has been ruled a homicide. That may have been a fact that only investigators and the murderer would know.

There are many other lies printed in that article, but I don’t want people thinking that my boyfriend ever said anything like that. We barely know the con artist Redbeard. He’s never preached to us or conversed at any length. He didn’t know Rayna, he doesn’t pass out bibles, he lost all that weight because he is on meth.

Aren’t there any fact checks before an inflammatory piece like this is published? It doesn’t even say that the names have been changed. I hope that you will print some sort of retraction. I am so upset, as are many of my peers. Shame on you.

• Mary Kirkendall
• Bonita

A letter about the letters about the “illegals”

I read with great disappointment and concern the letters in the August 24 issue of the Reader regarding the story about illegal immigrants and the Border Angels, and it’s all because of a word. I am amazed that people cannot see the myriad of problems that illegal immigration causes and that no one is trying to dehumanize anyone. Let me make clear one thing: I am not anti-immigration. I am anti-ILLEGAL immigration.

The short answer would be if these illegal immigrants don’t want to be called illegals then they need to stop crossing the border illegally. Problem solved.

It is disingenuous to say the term “illegals” is dehumanizing. It has nothing to do with humans or humanity. They are still humans, but they are committing a crime which makes them illegal in this country! If the PC police want to call them undocumented, that is their right. By the same token, it is my right to call them illegals, and that is what I will continue to call them.

It seems that the liberals have lost all logic and rationality in their effort to fight President Trump. Are they willing to destroy our country just to get back at the President?

I feel that by allowing the illegals into the country it is a complete slap in the face to not only American citizens but to all those immigrants who did choose the legal course to come to our country. I have always said that if you come to my country legally, I welcome you with open arms and hope you find everything you’ve dreamed of. However, if you come here illegally, get out and come back the right way. The right way is by respecting this country enough to abide by our immigration laws.

Then there’s that pesky little thing called terrorism. Do these people really think that only the innocent poor from Mexico and other countries will be those entering our country illegally? How about jihadists posing as poor people? This is the reality that the supporters of illegal immigration fail to acknowledge. It is a more serious issue than the supporters would have us believe. Do these people not see what is going on in Europe because of the massive immigration required under the European Union? That is one of the main reasons Britain is leaving the EU.

Now I’ll address the ridiculous and potentially dangerous implications of throwing around terms like “unabashed Nazism.” First of all, it has to be just plain ignorance. There is not one thing going on in this country today that remotely resembles Nazism other than maybe the Antifa and BLM. I doubt the writer of that particular letter, along with many others who carelessly use that term, even know what the Nazis really did. I suggest they brush up on their history. Do they know about Hitler’s “Final Solution?” Do they know what “Crystal Night” was all about? Have they ever been to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C.?

In closing, I’d like to remind everyone of the saying “charity begins at home.” Therefore, when there are no more American children going to bed hungry, when we have no more homeless American veterans, no more Americans who can’t get a proper education, no more Americans who are denied financial help because there is no funding, and when we have enough law enforcement resources to devote to really fighting crimes in cities like Chicago and Washington D.C., etc., then, and only then, should we allow more immigration, but even then everyone needs to abide by the laws of the United States.

These illegals suck up astounding amounts of precious resources that should be reserved for American citizens first. We do not have an endless supply of money and resources, and illegals do not pay their way as we citizens do.

• Jan Stockdale
• North Park

Let’s grow from this

The title [“You left water in the desert for illegals?,” Cover Story, August 16] is riddled with problematic labeling and language, semantics are important, and using the word “illegal” or labeling of undocumented people as “illegal immigrants” is dehumanizing and problematic.

If the San Diego Reader does not take accountability for their lack of community awareness, semantics, and complaints then we must question the integrity of the San Diego Reader.

Hydration salvation

Photograph courtesy Jackie Arellano

It’s a real shame, a pity, and a vile reality that what I considered to be a dope news source like the San Diego Reader cannot formulate enough conscious understanding of detrimental language to not include the words “illegal immigrant” to describe another human being.

Dehumanizing language will never be accepted. Please issue an apology and grow from this learning experience.

• Juan Carlos Lozano
• National City

Not legal foreign national

You were correct in using the word “illegal” [“You left water in the desert for illegals?,” Cover Story, August 16]. That word means “not legal foreign national.” Okay?

“Foreign national” is from another nation and not the United States. If they wish to immigrate, they need to get in line, the right way.

• Boregard Bodean
• Santee