Letters to the Editor
atlben
Published Letters: 7 Editor's Choice: 2
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Hwve to disagree with you Joan
[Read the article: Michelle Malkin plays the victim card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a Filipino-American, I feel prefectly fine with criticising that hate-mongering Malkin for being a Filipina. That woman is embarrassing to me and I hate to include her in with other logically-thinking Filipinos.
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Linemen don't grow old. They merely fade away.
[Read the article: Where have all the line technicians gone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I used to recruit linemen (politically incorrect word, I know, but it's pretty accurate since I'd only met 1 linewoman in my entire time doing this.) The utilities have known about the shortage for a very very long time. We tried many avenues to address it. Scholarships and sponsorship to line schools. Headhunting other utilities. Contractors, contractors and more contractors.
The shortage of skilled (or craft) labor is no secret nor is it a mystery. More kids these days view a 4 year degree as the way to success (whether it is true or not for them.) Vocational school is looked down upon. Even if one were to go to vocational school, why do something as strenuous as line work when you can learn programming and stay in a cushy office?
Yes, as a well-off society, it's a good issue to have. However, to put it bluntly, SOMEONE'S got to do it. And that's not what our government is planning for. If we can't create a talent pool with American talent (and believe me, we tried), we need to go elsewhere. However, the current immigration climate is not conducive to that as well.
The American public is in for a very rough ride when all these guys retire. Outtages will become the norm. And I'll just shake my head and try not to say, "I told them so."
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Not quite the whole story
[Read the article: Where have all the line technicians gone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dong and others....
Yes, utilities are deregulated, but all a utility would have to do to bump up pay is to create a business case and request a rate hike from the PSC. They'd probably get it. At least where I live they would.
Pay wasn't even the issue. A good lineman could easily make $60+/yr after a few years. There's plenty of overtime to be had. The issue was getting a "qualified" candidate from the get go. One poster mentioned failed national drug poilcy. I agree with that. Many perfectly good lineman candidates washed out because of a drug conviction. Most, however, couldn't pass the pre-employment written tests which mostly were placed at an 8th grade level. (Another failing from a broad societal perspective.)
Our challenge was to find someone who 1) liked working with his or her hands 2) didn't mind hard dangerous work 3) was "smart" enough to pass the written tests while 4) were able to pass the criminal background.
Not an easy task in this day and age.
Utilities are also complicit. They're too conservative. They don't like change. They don't attract young employees. They're top heavy with older employers. And when we did workforce planning, it was like pulling teeth to have them fund extra slots to account for all projected attrition during lineman training.
Finally no, it's not the government's responsibility to prop up utilities. However, it is their responsibility to ensure reliable electrical service. That service is going to seriously be compromised in short order.
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Half-Japanese or Half-Asian?
[Read the article: Biracial, but not like me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I’d like to thank Gary Kamiya for an intensely personal essay on racial identity. However, as an Asian-American, I find it curious that he refers to himself not once, but twice as “half-Japanese", rather than “half-Asian.”
Yes, I understand that his father is indeed from Japan, making Gary half-Japanese. Unfortunately, such is not the racial politics of this country where such fine-grained analysis takes place. Or, as I’ve often explained to newly arrived Asians, you may think of yourselves as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, etc., but to the average white guy on the street, you’re probably Chinese.
Rather than continue to fight this unfortunate tendency (or promote in-fighting among particular Asian ethnicities), it would be wise to transcend our own ethnic politics and recognize who we are and who we are preceived to be as a race. We may feel, for example, Japanese on the inside, but in this country, it is wiser (and more pragmatic) to simply be Asian.
And thus, Gary’s downplaying of himself as half-Asian undermines his entire essay. One final thing: away from the west coast, the one drop rule still definitely applies, even for the hapas.
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I was just talking about this with an Asian co-worker of mine
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: The Asian-American choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was just telling her of my displeasure that so many Asians went for Hillary over Obama. (Disclosure: I'm Filipino-American.) I just didn't get it. Since Obama was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, he's the closest we'd ever get to an Asian-American president in my lifetime at least.
But then again, as a reader of AngryAsianMan and seeing all the Asian media endorsements, I too thought that most Asians would go for Obama, so I was a bit taken aback by the results.
However, as an Asian raised here in the South, I've learned that I don't understand those of you out on the West coast almost as much as you guys don't get us who didn't grow up around lots of Asians.
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Pigeonweather
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: The Asian-American choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The idiot who wrote that column, Kenneth Eng, is a noted crank and pariah among the Asian-American community. In other words, he's an idiot. Using his rantings to judge Asians is on par with using Fred Phelps to judge all Christian, David Duke to judge all whites, etc.
Facts. Use them.
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One last piece of info
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: The Asian-American choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My parents, both a little older than baby boomer age, are immigrants who came over from the Philippines in the 60s. Both are upper middle class professionals. They (and seemingly all their cohorts) are all die-hard, Bush-loving Republicans. Maybe it's the fact that they've spent the past 35 years in the South. I don't know. They were Republicans back in the Nixon days.
So my perspective on the Asian-American experience is all over the map. In fact, where are these liberal Asian of which you all speak?