A Candidate Perceived as Being Elitist

Fence Along the Mexican Border
"Brownsville's Bad Lie" (May 5), about the planned U.S.-Mexico border wall west of Brownsville, Texas, made good points. Paradoxically, the huge 12-lane Trans-Texas Corridor, now being planned, will start in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, follow the coast and end in Texarkana, to be continued north. Both projects are controversial and are challenged by environmentalists. One blocks Mexicans from entry into the United States and one encourages it. Both are land grabs to benefit the wealthy and well connected.
Penny Fruth
Claremore, Okla.

"Brownsville's Bad Lie" failed to consider the continuing environmental degradation caused by large numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the desert, or the long-term environmental impacts of population growth. There may be adverse effects from building this border fence, but more-severe results would come from not constructing it. The damage illegal immigrants cause to the environment in southern Arizona is well documented. A Bureau of Land Management study found devastating impacts, including thousands of newly carved-out roads and trails in pristine desert, fragmented habitats, destroyed vegetation and tons of trash. Illegal immigrants residing in Texas increased by 280,000 in 2006. And the Southwest, one of the United States' most populated areas, is suffering severe droughts and water shortages.
Sharma Hammond, Staff Attorney
Immigration Reform Law Institute
Washington, D.C.

Must Art Be Inhumane?
An "artist" smears her menstrual blood on a sheet ("Art Aimed to Shock," May 5). I'm disgusted and choose not to go see it. Her right to free speech remains intact. But Guillermo Vargas's "conceptual art" of a starving dog, tethered just out of reach of food, is an entirely different matter. When a sentient creature is forced to die a slow, painful death as callous humans gaze on it, we no longer have art of any kind. We have animal cruelty. How is Vargas any different from Michael Vick?
Michelle Mehlhorn
Richmond, Calif.

This One Is a Keeper
Rocker Kevin Cronin's May 5 heartfelt, cautionary tale, "You Need to Fall to Rise" of his son Paris's victory over heroin addiction, brought to mind a NEWSWEEK piece from almost 10 years ago ("My Son's Unfinished Life—And Mine," Feb. 22, 1999). Boz Scaggs bravely described the tragic loss of his son Oscar to heroin. I've saved Boz's words all these years to share with my little boy when he's old enough. Now we have Kevin and Paris's story, too.
Tracy Leverton
Vienna, Va.

Correction
In "Questions For Obama" (The Last Word, may 5), George Will said Obama favors eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax. The tax (currently limited to the first $102,000 at 12.4 percent) of the couple cited in the column's example was assessed on their combined income. But because the Social Security tax is assessed individually, and the couple each earns less than the current cap, any elimination of that cap will not have an effect on their tax burden. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.

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