Dear Editor:

I write in response to a May 11 Glenwood Springs Post Independent article, “Basalt woman fights on two fronts to stay in U.S.”

Might I remind legal U.S. citizens as well as the millions of illegal immigrants in this county that Norma Galindo Gonzales lived in this country for 14 years illegally before she “borrowed” someone else’s identification to obtain a state ID card.

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Call it what you want to relieve your guilty conscience, but I call it “stealing.” She stole from our government and U.S. citizens the privilege of living in this country all those years – and since then as well.

I have been unemployed for a year now and have been diligently seeking work and am tired of reading help-wanted ads in the papers that prefer bilingual applicants and even go so far as to offer a $5,000 bonus for such applicants. Many of these people are getting the jobs I am qualified for and have ample experience doing.

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On a recent visit to the closing-day sale at Kmart in Glenwood Springs, a saleswoman could not speak English and completely ignored my attempt to ask her for assistance as she waited on Spanish-speaking individuals instead. There is no excuse for this. This is America, folks. If I were applying for a job in Mexico, I would be more than happy to learn to read and write Spanish.

My grandfather came here from Italy as a very young man in the early 1900s. He went to school to learn the English language and went through the legal process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

It seems like everyone is more interested in being politically correct today than standing up for what is being taken away from them at an alarming rate.

I truly do not blame immigrants for wanting to live in the most blessed country in the world, but there are rules and guidelines in place for a reason. If a driver goes through a red light at 40 mph instead of 60, is it any less illegal?

Kathy Buettner

Carbondale