Low birth rate a nation's undoing

I look forward to reading more about the current trend toward childless families in the United States. Your recent article uncovered only the tip of the iceberg and I assume that this look into the crisis will be an ongoing report.

A civilization which does not have enough children is, in essence, committing suicide. This trend is by no means limited only to the United States.

Among Western nations, only America is having children at a rate above the replacement rate of 2.0 children per family. And not by much. Current statistics show that the birthrate in America is around 2.1 percent. The saddest news is that Europe is far below the replacement level, and in many cases, too far below it to ensure long-term survival.

Some people may be surprised to learn that in America nearly 100 percent of the growth in public school enrollment over the last 20 years is due to immigration, legal or otherwise.

So, the next time you want to whine and complain about illegal immigrants coming to the United States to work and raise their families, remember this: they're doing the jobs that would have been done by the children you didn't have.

Sherman Reinhardt

Elgin

Sarto's words show lack of convictions

With one short sentence, Carpentersville Village President Bill Sarto offers yet another silly example of how weak-kneed people deal with real human problems.

Since they don't have the intestinal fortitude it takes to punish those who willingly break our laws, they dodge the issue and point fingers at those who want the laws presently on the books enforced, not reinvented by manipulative social engineers.

"Why not make sure that all drivers regardless of their legal status are able to legally get a driver's license? That would make much more sense," said Sarto.

That notion is so obnoxious and foreign to right and wrong as to be absurd. If you don't have the moral courage to punish the criminal, take the easy way out. Buy them off with concessions. Sacrifice your principles.

Have we lost our minds?

Eric Isom

Effingham

Tax bill payment schedule is unfair

I am writing regarding the schedule for property taxes in every county in Illinois except Cook.

Our current legislation states that payments are due June 1 and Sept. 1, but Cook County payments are due March 1 and Sept. 1.

Why the difference? Is this old legislation from before the metropolitan areas were booming with people?

For many people, including myself and senior citizens, this is a tight turnaround in ever-rising taxes. For others, it may not be an issue. Either way, it should be uniform across the state.

I only look for answers to make a change in this antiquated payment system, and I am willing to wager the response would be more than well-received, especially by one-income families.

Two large tax bills within three months is a lot to ask and this legislation deserves reviewing. Speak up. Visit

http://www.ilga.gov/ and click on Senate or House members. Or call (217) 782-2000 and ask for your local representative's extension.

I encourage you to speak up about the tax schedule to create fairness for all Illinois citizens.

Aletta Jocius

Elgin

National ID card a dangerous idea

This is in reply to the Froma Harrop column on Aug. 27.

I think Harrop was spot on concerning the CIA's lack of response to terrorism pre-9/11. But no matter how good it looks on paper, the REAL ID Act of 2005 is a bad idea!

What Harrop fails to realize is that once REAL ID goes live, efforts will begin by underground counterfeiters to produce undetectable fakes. REAL ID mostly increases the amount of documentation needed to get a driver's license and the biggest security feature is the "common-readable device" which many are saying will be an RFID chip.

The problem with the RFID chip is that they are easily hackable. All a hacker need do is walk past you with a reader device and they immediately have the code embedded in your chip.

Harrop also fails to mention that with REAL ID, all of your vital information will not only be contained within this new type of driver's license, making it a "one-stop-shop" for identity theft, but that information will also be stored in a national database accessible by any DMV and the government at large.

That brings to mind all sorts of security issues, not the least of which is that large bureaucracies are increasingly difficult to manage, and so the likelihood of the Department of Homeland Security being able to keep our vital information secure is slim.

Harrop also failed to mention some other problems with REAL ID such as the fact that the federal government imposing regulations on the states is unconstitutional.

REAL ID creates what amounts to a national identification card, and history has shown such things are antithetical to freedom and liberty. No one has really mentioned, either, that other governments and even banking institutions have been lining up to obtain access to the national database.

Don't buy into the misdirection that REAL ID might keep us safe from terrorism. The federal government to do its job and keep our nation secure at our borders.

Anyone interesting in learning more could go to www.realnightmare.org.

Jarett Sanchez

East Dundee

In defense of truth, city of New Orleans

I'm not going to pretend New Orleans didn't have its share of problems before the storm. I'm not going to argue that the city has few problems now.

Instead, I'd like to focus on Mona Charen's assertion that New Orleans has always been a coastal city and that irresponsible development led to the physical destruction of the city.

In fact, New Orleans was never intended to be a coastal city. The land between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, commonly referred to as the wetlands, has been systematically destroyed in an effort to provide the rest of the country with roughly one third of the oil used for gasoline and heating oil.

Had the wetlands not been sacrificed in the search for oil, the storm surges from Cindy, Dennis, Katrina and Rita would not have affected the area as much as they did. Had the shipping channel (MR-GO) not been dug, flooding of the lower ninth ward and much of St. Bernard Parish would not have been realized.

Locals have been warning of such consequences for decades. Those warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

When I logged on to the Daily Herald Web site, one of the first things I saw was information on where to pick up sandbags in South Elgin.

Further research on South Elgin's Web site indicated that certain areas of town are located in flood plains. There are guidelines for building in such areas.

Would Charen say that those who build on the flood plain of South Elgin are building irresponsibly?

Laura LeBon New Orleans

Understands impact of illegal entrants

This is in reference to the letter titled, "Have understanding for immigrants."

I am the son of a legal immigrant who served in a world war. Illegal immigrants break our laws, steal our identities and overtax our social systems.

We did all those jobs for years until they came, and worked for a lot less. Since illegal immigration took hold, wages have been going down. They knew what they were doing when they decided to come here, and they came anyway.

They are the reason some jobs have no benefits, because they have no recourse but to work for what is offered to them. They did not come for love of this country, but to find work so they can send money home.

The guilty party in this is Mexico, for not helping its citizens have a better life. The way things are going, outsourcing jobs to China and jobs lost to illegal aliens, the middle class is in big trouble. That is who I worry about.

Richard Markiewicz

Huntley