Letter To Wall Street Journal

Letter to the Wall Street Journal


On July 31, 2008, the Wall Street Journal had an article

titled, "Where's the Outrage? Really." I can

tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this

middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The

outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The

outrage is here, but no one is listening - for who am I?

I'm not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an

entire political movement. I'm not a celebrity like

Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press

to promote political candidates. I'm not a film maker

like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading

movies to the public. The outrage is here, but unlike those

with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who

feel similarly in order to effect change.


Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the

United States of America is in a state of moral and ethical

decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's

fair. Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached

and borrowed more than they could afford are now being

bailed out by the government and lending institutions to

stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be

made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment? When

my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to

purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are

much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to

have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior

and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not

the house that we couldn't afford. The notion of

personal responsibility has all but died in our country.


I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as

an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required

that she and her family learn English now allows itself to

be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to

those illegal immigrants. I am outraged that my hard-earned

taxes help support those here illegally, that the Los

Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I

felt it incumbent to send my child to private school,that

every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to

continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I

call the bank, the phone company, or similar business, I

hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish."

WHY? This is America, our common language is English and

attempts to promote a bi or multi-lingual society are sure

to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in

English.


I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of

new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this

week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit

Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor

Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim

population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee.

Tennessee, last I checked, is still part of the United

States. If Muslims want to live and work here they should be

required to live and work by our American Laws and not

impose their will on our long history. In the same week,

Random House announces that they have indefinitely delayed

the publication of "The Jewel of Medina ," by

Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife

A'isha due to fear of retribution and violence by

Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what

other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large

corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the

principles that built this country.


I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a

political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is

exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also

published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through

over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been

and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman

no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral

compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go

in and destroy Iran's nuclear program? Would we rather

wait for another Holocaust for the Jews one which they would

be unlikely to survive? When does it end? As if the battle

for good and evil isn't enough, now come the

environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that

they want to put a bag tax on grocery bags in California, to

eliminate Mylar balloons, to establish something as

insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my

share for the environment; I recycle, I use water wisely, I

installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit, but

when and where does the lunacy stop?


Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the

California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants,

and the United States of America no longer knows right from

wrong, good from evil. So what does California do? Tax

grocery bags. So, America, although I can tell you where the

outrage is; this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper

middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I

don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so

outnumbered by those who disagree with me.



Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills, California