SOUNDING OFF:

Deserved what glory? (“Staffer deserved the glory,” Feb. 26) “Congratulation on your office’s accomplishment?” What accomplishments?

This is just part of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s demagoguery when it comes to undocumented Latino immigrants.

Orange County has long been acknowledged as one of America’s most conservative and anti-Latino counties. So Rohrabacher is very safe pandering to the prejudices of many of his constituents.

I know this may surprise or offend some people in Orange County, but if one thinks racism has been completely obliterated because we have a black president, I have some beachfront property in the Mojave Desert I would like to sell you (for after the “big one” hits us). After all, this is the home of the Minutemen. The John Birch Society thrived here. There was de facto segregation in the Anaheim schools as recently as the 1950s. And most of all, my friends on the Westside of Los Angeles think Orange County is made up of a bunch of Neanderthals when it comes to social justice and compassion for your fellow man.

We should remember that Rohrabacher proposed impeaching President Bush if he did not pardon the ex-Border Patrol guards, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. How crazy is that? We have to consider that the erudite Rohrabacher is still denying global warming against a mountain of scientific evidence. He probably has some reservations about the validity of the universally supported principles of evolution, too. Sadly, there obviously is a serious need for immigration reforms. But as long as we have extremists like Rohrabacher proposing draconian legislation to solve the problem, the U.S. will be as successful as the Palestinians and Israelis. I wonder how much time and effort his office would have devoted to the cause of saving Ramos and Compean if the victims of their attack would have been garden-variety killers or gangsters. I think it is time for some Orange County residents to see and evaluate issues in a more objective and rational manner.

I am so tired of the hackneyed and simplistic mantra of, “What part of illegal don’t you understand?”

I think Sen. John McCain had the right idea until he sold out to the crazies of the Republican right.

JAVIER REGALADO lives in Huntington Beach.