Well said, Lev! I attended the same rally that you did and am also the descendant of Jewish immigrants from Europe, as well as my grandmother's parents who were Christian Syria refugees. I appreciate you sharing your family's history with us and am glad that kids like you are interested in helping our community support everyone.

Lev, I think it's wonderful you're interested and engaged in the current issues with immigration. I'm a bit confused though about your comment that Trumps ideas are absurd and ridiculous (and may I add a bit of skepticism here and wonder who exactly is writing this letter. I have a third grader myself and frankly have yet to hear any of that class use such phrases or euphemisms.)

Regardless, I truly am interested in what exactly (and I mean specifically, I'm not interested in name calling or finger pointing, I truly am interested in hearing some facts here). What specifically is absurd and ridiculous. Again, looking for specific quotes, facts and phrases related to immigration.

Wow, @Explain, big person coming in here to debate the third grader. Take that little kid to task!

No wonder you didn't want to post this under your real name. I'd be embarrassed, too.

A nice little essay, but highly doubtful a third grader composed it. One has to wonder why Christopher Chiang, former MVWSD board member who resigned, posts it here. Using very young children to push political agendas is also distasteful. Disturbing. Posting it online gives it eternal life. Just imagine if he were making an argument from the other end of the political spectrum.

Thank you English Teacher, that's exactly where I am coming from as well but once again Randy has graced us with his caring, engaging rhetoric. I wonder when the extremes of these politics will finally understand how divisive they are and will we ever heal and be able to come together?

@Explain, totally, the people anonymously harassing a third-grader are who we should look to to unify us and heal this community.

Come on, have some guts and post under your usual account ;-)

Dear All,
The apple does not fall far from the tree. Lev appears to come from a family who has passed on its history and convictions to him so of course he's grown to be an articulate 3rd grader. You don't know kids like that? Mmh... What conversations do you have with your children?
I teach children younger than Lev- even they can tell you what is absurd and ridiculous about Trump. It's a bit disconcerting I agree that such young children are not afforded the innocence that older generations had, that they are becoming cynical towards the office of the Presidency but there was never a President (as absurd and ridiculous) quite like Trump . It is what it is. But I trust Lev's generation will survive this and may even be the better for it.

I have yet to see a specific example of absurd and ridiculous aspects of Trumps immigration plan. Provide this and we can engage in a legitimate discussion.

[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

@ Explain

See the facts for yourself first

Web Link

and, because given the facts Trump's plans are absurd and ridiculous, feel free to laugh

Web Link

I find it amazing that links to "facts" are actually links to propaganda sites. I was really hoping to see some actual quotes from President Trump so I could at least say either "yeah, he did say that and it sounds bad", or "no, he didn't say that and his comments were misinterpreted.

The first link conflates a number of different issues. First and foremost, as with every article I have seen from left leaning sites, there is either no distinction made between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration, or they throw in facts that apply mostly or solely to legal immigration. I have yet to speak to anyone from any political view that is not in favor of LEGAL immigration and the vast majority of people want to reform the immigration system so that there is an end to the exploitation of people of color that are flooding across the southern border.

For example, the article says that "immigrants are more likely to start a business that native born americans". I would like to have seen that claim broken down into percentages of those who immigrated legally and those who entered illegally.

Another claim is "A border wall would be an ineffective immigration restriction" and points to the fact that 40% of people who are illegally in the country are here because they overstayed their visas. Ok so I have 2 comments about this. First, if 40% are here on visa overstays, wouldn't building the wall have an effect on reducing gah either 60%? Second, if the wall will be so completely ineffective, then what is everyone so upset about? Let the wall be built and it will just be a waste of time and money like many other government projects. ( High Speed Rail comes immediately to mind )

A third claim is that "Higher immigration is associated with lower crime rates". Again here, they are conflating lega and illegal, but let's forget that. The kicker for me is that they have actual statistics. How can you have statistics for people who are UNDOCUMENTED? If it is illegal ( or at least unpopular ) to require that people have id, show id, or tell you their immigration status, where is this data coming from? Data cannot possibly accurately collected from people that you can't even ASK for information.

Now the second link was for a Conan O'Brien video. Really? Conan O"Brien as a factual source? Talk about absurd.

So 2 links provided, but no actual facts or quotes from President Trump.

_______________


I'm also anxiously waiting for Randy to reveal the identity of the mystery writer! I can understand why the person using the pseudonym might not want to say, but I'm not sure why Randy doesn't just tell us so we all know?

Lastly, I don't know who wrote the letter that was published, but I will say that children learn very well, good or bad, whatever they are taught. That is why if you want to change a society, the easiest way is indoctrinate the youth with dogma and inflame their passions. (Note that I am not necessarily saying that this applies in this case). What I am saying is that while children can be fonts of wisdom, I would not rely on them exclusively for my information. I've known one or 2 children that have been wrong occasionally.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

Now, now, @Jim Neal, you know it's against the terms of service on this website to post the personal information of others. I'm shocked that you would encourage such reckless rule-breaking, since you clearly portray yourself as a "law and order" type.

@Randy, so you're saying that you have the personal information of all the people that post here and the reason you don't give them is because you're a law-abiding person?! Perhaps the Voice should investigate if you are one of their employees or a hacker!

LoL, @Lilly. If that's your interpretation of what I wrote, I'd have to say your reading comprehension is lacking just a bit. It's wonderful that we're discovering all the ways in which our local third-graders can teach the average Voice commenter.

@Randy for days you're asking Explain to post with is real name, and in one post you told him"Come on, have some guts and post under your usual account ;-)" This means that you know which one is is "usual account", then you should explain how do you have that information! Or you are just trying to look smart with the opposite result, what a shame of man!

First, @Lilly, please don't be sexist on the comments section here. "What a shame of a man"? This toxic invocation of gender roles is quite sad.

I have no patience for people anonymously sniping at our local third-graders, going so far as to accuse them of having not written this at all! Despicable.

@ Randy still not explaining how do you know the true identity of Explain after telling all of us that you do know it! What a shame of a person!

@Lilly, it's sad you've chosen to double-down on this rather than just apologize for your rude sexist comment.

I guess I was just raised differently than some of you, but it seems to me that people should apologize when they've wronged someone, avoid sexism, and not anonymously attack third-graders.

@ Randy I'm really sorry I called you a man that is really sexist as you said, and plus I was raised to believe man don't bully people just because they don't agree with them, so I changed to a person it suits better who you are. BTW you're changing the topic and not answering a simple question, how do you know the real name for Explain!?

@Lilly,

My goodness, you really can't lay off the sexism. To insist on one's gender having some essential characteristics is really sad, and to try to denigrate people for their perceived failure to live up to the gender roles of society is flat out inappropriate. That you continue to go back to that well in order to attack others is just wrong.

@ Randy, now you're playing the victim role! A person is a gender neutral so no sexism there, and still no response on the main topic on how do you know the real identity of Explain?! I'm a registered user and would like to know that my info are protected but apparently, they aren't!

@Lilly,

Come on, you know what your "apology" meant. You've repeatedly tried to use masculinity and conceptions of "manliness" to try to diminish your opponent. "It suits better who you are"?

To be completely honest, @Explain's writing style is what tipped me off. It's quite clear to a regular poster like myself. I will apologize for letting you flail about, and I'm sorry if you were worried about nefarious deeds, but as with most things in life, it's the boring answer that's the truth.

@ Randy, so you were just fishing in the pond pretending to know there is a fish there to catch and end up with nothing but a sensation, my mom used that tactic with me wen I was a teenager to try to know my business! Never worked also for her ;-)

@Lilly,

You're not very good at this, but I appreciate your continued effort. Go back to throwing around sexist insults and defending people anonymously harassing third-graders. Pretending to be the puppet-master is funny, but sad.

Well Randy, I have to say that you are much better than me when it comes to being absolutely certain about who is writing what based solely on what they wrote. I always just use my real name so people are free to judge or comment on what I write and so they can consider the source. When someone did write a comment anonymously and then claimed to be me, I notified the Voice immediately and they took the comment down and disabled the account.

People have also frequently used pseudonyms when they attack me and I haven't had any luck getting them to use their real names either (and I am not relating this to any comments on this thread so far). I respect greatly that fact that although you and I disagree and have very spirited debates, at least you do use your real name and I cannot recall you having ever resorted to personal attacks against me (although the innuendo is sometimes very clever!) ;)

I enjoy our debates and hope that one day we will have the opportunity to meet and have a civilized discussion over coffee or in my case hot chocolate.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View