Reply #20: I don't know. Why did Bush** (apparently) get (re-)elected?

[KamaAina]

Voters have on occasion been known to do screwy things, even voting against their own interests, when the passions are stirred by issues such as race and nationality.

Pennsylvania native Kim Lopez and her husband, Rudy, a Mexican immigrant, closed their grocery store Oct. 1 after business tailed off dramatically over the summer. They lost more than $10,000 — their life savings.

"Everyone was running scared and left town," said Lopez, 39. "We had customers who came in who were legal citizens, and they didn't want the harassment and hassle and told us they were leaving."

I have no idea whether Ms. Lopez is Latina, or whether it's merely her married name that is. The point is that this extreme xenophobic demagoguery may play well with Anglo voters, who are still a substantial majority in Hazleton, but it harms legal as well as undocumented Hazleton residents who are being singled out because of their (or their husband's) ethnicity.

You obviously are entitled to your opinion as a non-resident.

As are you.