EDITORIAL: AN OPEN LETTER TO JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, REGARDING ALAN BERSIN--A TOP CANDIDATE FOR U.S. CUSTOMS & BORDER PATROL TOP SLOT

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By Ernie McRay Editor’s Note: Alan Bersin has served as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego City Schools and was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as California Secretary of Education. He is now in the running to head up the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol. Dear Secretary Napolitano: April 1, 2009(San Diego)--I write this letter because Alan Bersin is rumored to be on a short list of people who seek to run the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. If I didn’t say anything against the possibility of him rising to such a position I would feel as though I was letting my fellow citizens down, especially in light of the faith that so many, like me, have placed in President Barack Obama.

Obama has declared before the world that he is about reaching across aisles, about collaborating, about listening, so that better minds can make the changes our country and, indeed, our world needs if our troubled times are to be turned around. His recent outreach to the Iranian people said volumes about how dedicated he is to working with others, no matter how different their ideals and ways of thinking might be compared to ours.

 

Well, whales will be dancing at the Apollo before Alan Bersin works in collaboration with anyone, before he listens to anybody, before he treats anybody with the human respect and understanding they need to feel satisfied that they’re contributing to the creation of a better world. Oh, he’ll give you and Obama and any upper level person in the administration a smile that will sweep you off your feet. He’ll shake your hand in standard ways or like a soulbrother, whatever will make him seem like “the man.” He’ll say whatever needs to be said to impress but, Lordy, the people who work under him will face a level of humiliation and stress no well meaning human would deserve. There will be no “Yes ‘We’ Can” under his command. He’s the epitome of the cliche: His way or the highway.

 

As a principal when he was at the helm of San Diego City Schools I saw him dismiss people’s concerns and ideas as though he was trying to set a “Guinness record for ignoring people.” At a meeting in my neighborhood at the beginning of his term he literally turned his back to Latino activist friends of mine because he didn’t “respect” them or their questions. That sure showed. He took us principals on a yacht cruise around the harbor and before we had barely sailed he made it clear that parents would have very little to say regarding what happened in our schools. Wasn’t long before that was old news. He demoted some principals for reasons never disclosed. Now that was his prerogative but some in that group were among the most outstanding educators on this planet, let alone San Diego City Schools.

 

I once made a statement at a meeting reacting to something he had said, nothing contentious, just a different slant - and when I was done he went on to the next agenda item as though I didn’t even exist. I had never experienced anything quite like that and I have sat at the back of a few buses. I spent my entire career in the school system working to make it human and caring and respectful and child oriented and he, in his first moments on the job, blasted that kind of thinking to kingdom come. The school system, years later, still suffers from a lack of morale.

 

This will be your U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency if you select Alan Bersin to run it. It will be a sore thumb, an hypocrisy in an administration that is promoting hope and change. As a native of Tucson, a “Sonoran” to my very core, I shiver at the thought that this man would have anything to do with the Arizona border. I don’t know who else is on your list but there has to be somebody available who will be tough on terrorists, who will “serve the American public with vigilance, integrity and professionalism” without going about it like the Godfather.

 

This editorial reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily represent the views of East County Magazine. If you wish to submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.


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Comments

Immigration

This comment is to adress the fail immigration system, Ms Napolitano need to retrain her immigration officers, and make sure that they intepret the law correctly, and dont go by the way they feel when it comes to adjusting people status.Ms Napolitano need to look into the CSPA INA203(h)(3)and inforce the law that allows children that are age out, as a derivative beneficiary to be converted to the 2b category and retain their old priority date, because these officers are not doing that ,instead they are calculating the child age and if the age is over 21, they are dening these children their gc, and this is so unfair, because the law state that if the child age is believe to be over 21, they will be automatically converted to the appropriate category and retain their old priority date,however they are not doing that. Some of these children was waiting along with their parents for many years, because they were very yong when the petition was filed for their parents,along with them being derivative beneficiaries and only to get left behind, with a denial letter or a removal letter. This situation is very serious and need immediate attension, and no one is looking out for these children,this is a need that must be adress now.