Letters to the Editor - Spring 1997

By
Published in The Social Contract
Volume 7, Number 3 (Spring 1997)
Issue theme: "Restraining the American brain"
https://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0703/article_638.shtml



Re Anchor Babies

Editor

I must tell you that the Fall, 1996, issue of The Social Contract is the most exciting issue I've seen to date.

We have been working closely with Rep. Bilbray, who represents San Diego, and we are very excited about the possibility of his citizenship reform legislation. Unfortunately, the agenda was too full to get his bill on the floor during the last session, even though it had been presented in committee the previous December.

I worked on his campaign for re-election and he has assured us he will fight "tooth and nail" to get it introduced in the 105th Congress. We are also very enthusiastic about getting legal immigration before Congress, as they promised to deal with it when it was stripped out of HR 2202.

Byron Slater

Editor, The Fence Post

Border Solution Task Force

San Diego, California

A Needed Correction

Editor

On page 115 [of The Social Contract, Vol. VII, No. 2, Winter 1996-97] Professor Payne quotes F. Fukuyama about "Eric Benhamou the founder of 3Com...," etc.

Eric B. was not the founder of 3Com; Dr. Robert Metcalfe was the founder and inventor of the Ethernet idea (I know RM from MIT college days). Eric B. was with Bridge Communications which either was acquired or merged with 3Com. Eric B. eventually displaced Robert Metcalfe. The article as written by Dr. Payne, then, sounds silly to those informed on events in Silicon Valley. Also, ER is of Algerian Jewish origins but, as I recall, probably spent most of early life and was educated in France whence he probably migrated to the U.S.

Incidentally, 3Com recently announced plans to merge/acquire U.S. Robotics where RB will again be on top. By most accounts he has done a good job of growing 3Com into a Fortune 1000 company, but his contribution, it seems, is primarily managerial. (The same can be said of Andrew Grove, a Hungarian, at Intel; he had nothing to do with the invention of the "chip" attributed to Robert Noyce.) The technology was invented by Americans, usually engineers, who are not always given to top management roles.

William E. Murray, Jr.

Portolo Valley, California

David Payne Responds

Dear Mr. Murray

Thank you for your comments concerning 3Com. I have been known to sound silly before, and probably will again in the future. In this case it won't trouble me since, for my purposes, the actual founder of 3Com is irrelevant - Fukuyama is the one who made the claim and I was merely commenting on a logical point concerning the structure of his remarks.

I have to admit, though, it would have been nice to have pointed that out to Mr. Fukuyama (and may even have been ironic; I could have said "but if he had been the founder...").

Anyway, your comments were very helpful, and interesting to boot, and I thank you for them.

David G. Payne

Petoskey, Michigan

An Item from the Trenches

Editor

I got a taste of illegal immigrants on July 11, 1996, when my wonderful little car was stolen by illegals. All evidence was there and they drove it north; hasn't been seen since. Along with my car went $200 worth of clothing and a hand lens in my day pack. The day pack got stolen too.

They apprehended 14,000 illegals two months ago just in the Douglas, Arizona, area! Those are the ones that were caught. How about all the others who weren't?

Keep up the fight over immigration.

David A. Jasper

Portal, Arizona

Planning to Move?

Don't miss a single issue of

The Social Contract.

Simply use one of the pull-out subscription cards, write the word 'Change' along with your new address and drop it in the mail.

No postage needed.

It's as easy as that.

Kudos from Scotland...

Editor

I am very pleased to renew my subscription to The Social Contract. The magazine is of an exceptionally high standard. I also like the feel of it; solid, substantial. Something on glossy paper wouldn't convey the academic weight.

In addition to renewing my subscription, I would be grateful if you would send the previous issues listed on the attached.

Alistair D. McConnachie

Edinburgh, Scotland

...And from Australia

[The Winter 1996-97 issue of The Social Contract was reprinted (1,000 copies) and circulated widely among immigration reform activists in Australia. We quote from a cover letter for that distribution written by Graeme Campbell, a representative in the Australian Parliament.]

To Whom It Should Concern "The Social Contract"

I urge anyone with serious aspirations to understanding the urban, national, civilizational and global dilemmas posed by immigration, multiculturalism and multiracialism in the light of world demographic, environmental, economic and political trends to read the enclosed edition of "The Social Contract" from cover to cover - twice!

Whilst our contemporary Australian scene is well covered for the largely American subscription base of T.S.C., any thinking Australian reader will not fail to notice when reading the U.S. and Canadian material that there exists a myriad of disquieting parallels and portents relevant to Australia's future. We are speeding down the potholed American road. Paved as that road may once have been with good intentions, it is now undeniably leading to escalating social tensions and political instability.

The survey of the latest literature in this edition is wide, expert, and sobering....

I consider this scholarly but plain-speaking journal to be the best of its kind in the world on the topics it embraces. I would hope that in your work [as activists] you may be able to draw to it the wider public attention that it deserves....

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Campbell MP

Federal Member for Kalgoorlie

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