Time for Freehold to embrace new reality

The anti-immigrant crowd has spewed much hate in recent years. But it seems that Dave Landry managed to be all-encompassing during his xenophobic and ill-informed diatribe in his letter to the editor, ("Town Must Keep Going After Residential Overcrowding," News Transcript, March 12, 2008).

In his letter Mr. Landry accuses illegal immigrants of overcrowding, of living off his taxes, of blasting horns 24 hours a day, climbing through windows, and of course he says most likely engaging in some type of activity that we read about in the papers every day.

Mr. Landry, how do you know these immigrants are illegal aliens?

Of course I tremble when questioning Mr. Landry's wellinformed and well-researched opinions, but I'll take my chances. Mr. Landry, where is the empirical evidence to substantiate your accusations that those engaging in these behaviors are illegal immigrants, and in this case Latino immigrants specifically?

Boy, this gentleman really has a vivid imagination, doesn't he? His hate-filled ethnocentric views are so closed-minded that he seems to be convinced that everyone engaged in this type of behavior is not only an immigrant, but an illegal immigrant as well, wait, let me rephrase that, "hordes of illegal men, women and children."

Mr. Landry, about the value of your homes, yes, they are dropping because of an economic downturn in the housing market as has been talked about in every news outlet for the past couple of years.

But more importantly, intolerant attitudes such as yours do more to damage the reputation of Freehold Borough than anything else, and certainly do not help with the value of the housing market, so before you criticize immigrants for bringing down property values in Freehold Borough, you might want to examine your own behavior and how your actions are bringing down the property value of hardworking homeowners in Freehold Borough.

It seems there is a fringe element

of a few individuals in Freehold Borough that is always embarking on some type of bigoted behavior and can't seem to

accept

change very readily.

Immigrants have been called promiscuous, they have been accused of being a quality of life issue, of loitering, and one of my favorites, of polluting the streets of "their" Freehold Borough by abandoning shopping carts through town. To this, we now need to add Mr. Landry's latest angry and misguided outburst.

You see, Dave Landry's illinformed comments are offensive to the great many hardworking people who are striving daily to provide a plate of hot food and a roof for their family.

Mr. Landry seems to be living in some sort of parallel universe with donkey blinders on. He seems unable or unwilling to accept the fact that his town is turning brown around him. It is time for Mr. Landry to stop living in the past and embrace the future; only then will he be able to experience the prosperous town that surrounds him.
Lazaro Cardenas
Deputy Director
Monmouth County Chapter
Latino Leadership Alliance
of New Jersey
Freehold Borough