Burton Calls on Hapas
Editor’s Note: The following statement was made by Sen. John Burton, who urged San Franciscans of mixed European and Asian descent to get a blood screening to help locate potential donors for Enrico Console, an
8-year-old Marin County boy with leukemia.
Dear Editor: Enrico, a third-grader, is one of three children. His father, Tony, is from Italy and his mother, Debra, is from Taiwan. Mrs. Console is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Bone marrow donor matches are tough to find, and the odds get even tougher for someone who is Eurasian. I’m joining the Console family in asking people of Eurasian descent not to leave their hearts in San Francisco, just about two tablespoons of their blood…
To help the Console Family pay for the $30,000 cost for the testing, a trust fund has been set up at the Bank of Marin, P.O. Box 2039, Novato, CA 94948. More information can be found at www.helprico.org.
Sen. John Burton
Sacramento
Ashcroft Would Restore Integrity
Dear Editor: One viewpoint says John Ashcroft’s personal beliefs would detract from his performance as attorney general. However, his record reveals ethnic sensitivity and judicial fairness.
As Missouri governor, he appointed the first African American judges to the Missouri Court of Appeals and the St. Louis Circuit Court, and the first woman judge to the Missouri State Supreme Court. He also enacted the first legislation to punish hate crimes in Missouri.
He voted against Judge Ronnie White’s appointment only because of his judicial record, not his race. In State of Missouri vs. James R. Johnson, Judge White voted to overturn the death-penalty conviction of Johnson, who callously murdered three law-enforcement officers and shot and killed the wife of a sheriff. Judge White’s opinion was that Johnson received “ineffective assistance of counsel” and was entitled to a retrial. However, a lower court previously ruled Johnson had indeed received adequate counsel.
Mr. Ashcroft is the first Attorney General nominee in U.S. history who served as State attorney general, governor and U.S. Senator. While Missouri governor, he was chairman of the National Governors Association. As Senator, his voting record displayed expediency without partisan wrangling. He voted to confirm all Clinton Cabinet appointees, and all but 15 of Mr. Clinton’s 1,686 other appointees.
In the 106th Congress, he served on three Senate committees: Judiciary; Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Foreign Relations.
Mr. Ashcroft’s record shows he is an honorable person who, when confirmed, will restore integrity and fairness to the office of attorney general.
Esao, Cheryl and Brian Tada
Mill Valley, Calif.
Conservatives Reject Reverse Discrimination
Dear Editor: How embarrassing. Just after Emil Guillermo attacks Linda Chavez (“The Chavez Affair,” Jan. 11) as an opportunist, right-wing ideologue, the president appoints Elaine Chao as labor secretary.
Like Guillermo, so many Democrats obsessed with race preferences are careful never to use the “P” word. They are quick to label anyone opposed to preferences as far right extremists, while their own race agenda can be found on the shelves of any Marxist bookstore.
In his book Why There is a Culture War, author John Fonte outlines the strategies of two Marxist intellectuals — Italian Antonio Gremaci from the leftist Frankfurt School, and Herbert Marcuse. Both are brilliant architects of social change who have extended orthodox Marxism into the form of today’s ethnic identity politics, with strong emphasis on group rights over individual rights and race preferences.
Today, this Marxist concept of democracy is being advanced by hundreds of coalitions: labor unions, activist educators and campus radicals. But there is also a growing number of minority conservatives who have the courage and wisdom to reject reverse racism in the name of diversity.
My advice to Guillermo: Lighten up. Elaine Chao will make an excellent choice for labor secretary.
Phillip Melnick
San Francisco
Diversity of Thought
Dear Editor: In Emil Guillermo’s column “It’s About Inclusion,” (Dec. 7, 2000), he wrote of the State Supreme Court’s Proposition 209 decision: “It’s all Ward Connerly rhetoric now embedded in California law as a kind of legalized hate speech.”
Is diversity only skin-deep? Clearly, if you regard a differing opinion as “legalized hate speech,” you aren’t very tolerant of diversity of thought.
Concerning Guillermo’s reference to the infamous Proposition 209, the only thing that was infamous in 1996 was the campaign waged against the proposition. It was a constant effort to equate people who merely sought to restate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the Ku Klux Klan.
There were no comparable attacks made by the supporters against the opponents.
Albert Alioto
San Francisco
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