The best crime bill and welfare reform would be an extensive jobs program. There is nothing as effective as decent jobs to boost people onto a positive and self-sustaining track. Jobs with wages above the poverty level would bring people into the system, making them a contributing part of the community who could then be role models for others.
In contrast, people without jobs are hard-pressed to have self-esteem and a positive outlet for their time, so it should not be surprising if sooner or later they turn to self-destructive and anti-social behavior.
Education is stressed, but essential for good schools are students who are motivated and disciplined, qualities that begin in the home and are more prominent in families strengthened by decent jobs.
So crucial are decent-paying jobs to the emotional and physical well-being of individuals and families, whether in suburbia or the inner city, that the right to a decent-paying job should rank with the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Any doubters should imagine the condition of themselves and their families without such a job.
If the private sector cannot provide these jobs to people who want and need them, then government should create jobs by sponsoring needed projects. Paying people to do useful work is certainly preferable to paying people to remain in the limbo and despair of welfare.
MEMORIES OF WAR
Your news article, “Japan’s emperor honors U.S. war dead in Hawaii” (June 25), was very touching. We, veterans who served in the World War II South Pacific theater and for those who died during the unprovoked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and on assaults on South Pacific islands, find Emperor Akihito’s visit to an American cemetery a disgrace in that he would set foot on such hallowed soil marked by rows and rows of white crosses.
One wonders whether the emperor will go to China to “reconcile” the rape of Nanjing, or to Bataan to walk the path of the death march, or parachute onto Corregidor Island and visit the memorial for dead paratroopers. Then visit Manila and the site of the prison compound where American and Filipino prisoners of war were tortured and starved to death and without medical aid.
Should we forgive and forget the past, or does his visit to honor our war dead in Hawaii make bad memories come alive?
