Letters: Stop bashing immigrants, Byko

HOW DARE Stu Bykofsky ridicule our Mayor, Jim Kenney.

There is no way anyone can understand the Irish psyche unless you come from an Irish background. We can all look back on the stories told us by our ancestors . . . Hard times in the beginning.

We were mostly servants, indebted to the WASP families who came over on the Mayflower.

Bykofsky needs to understand that the Irish weren't fleeing despots like his people. They were starving to death, thrown off their land or forced to pay rent on their own land. There was no vast potato famine . . . there was An Gorta Mor . . . The Great Starvation. So please do not refer to it as a famine.

The word illegal did not exist when our families came here. There were no green cards, visas or passports. If you were healthy, you just walked in.

Kind of like our Irish who came by way of Canada. They just walked in!

Kind of like what our neighbors to the South do. Most of them do so because they want opportunity or they're fleeing a hostile environment.

Now, because of immigration restraints, No Irish Need Apply.

So, the Lady in the Harbor welcomes the downtrodden, the huddled masses, although, lately, she is out of a job. We, America, represent a place of refuge, a melting pot, a safe harbor, but maybe only to those who look like us. I agree that the East and West coasts are crowded but what about the "land, lots of land" in the middle?

I am proud that our mayor is a voice for our illegal families.

Kathy McGee Burns

President, Irish Memorial

Byko is right

about soda tax

Thanks for your article on the mayor's proposed soda tax. It would also lead to job loss, and that equals less money coming to the city from the city wage tax. Coca-Cola and Pepsi will probably move out of the city if this tax goes through. The suburbs and New Jersey will offer some sweet incentives to have these companies move.

I work for Coca-Cola, so now I have to worry about job loss or relocation.

Jeff Kelly

Limerick, Pa.