'Disinformation'

Editor:

Your “Sanctuary in the Storm” and “Arcata Earth Flag Measure back in Court” (Jan. 23) are related by a common journalistic tactic, disinformation. The flag article goes to great lengths to examine the relationship of free speech, local, state and federal laws and the order of supremacy of those laws. The issue of pure democracy by passing the measure with 52 percent of the vote and the reliance of impartial judges to sort out the mess. Ignored is the reason it was placed on the ballot and passed in the first place. So many Americans just dislike their own country. Arcata demonstrates this every time an opportunity allows, as with the denigration of President McKinley and the removal of his statue from the plaza and Measure M. I can only assume the pernicious influence of the moldy institution formally known as Humboldt State is one of the primary reasons. The ease of finding a lawyer to continue fighting the court’s decision to keep the divisive issue alive is distressing.

The other evidence of dislike of America by Americans is contorting the English language are the invented term “undocumented immigrants” or “undocumented residents” or “undocumented local residents” or “undocumented migrants” and so on. The number of illegal immigrants in our country may be as high as 20 million with almost 2 million living in California alone. They are not “undocumented.” Mexican and Venezuelan citizens, as examples, have voter identification cards, drivers licenses, passports and other documents from their countries. The rule of law and federal supremacy will soon smack Humboldt Counties Measure K and California’s Senate Bill 54 sanctuary state law upside the head.

A serious lapse in the sanctuary article is the discussion of the 14th Amendment by omitting the six words “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” as well.

Oddly the very fact that peoples from all over the world wish to immigrate to America illegally or legally flies in the face of the Earth Flag issue and obfuscation of terms like “illegal immigrant.” They just want a better life. In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates wrote an essay about his life stating it’s impossible to overstate the unearned privilege he enjoyed to be born in the United States. I wish more Americans were proud of their country as I am, and acted accordingly.

Dennis Scales, Fortuna