Compassion, purely for our own sake

The following is my reply to a piece in today's Naples Daily News by Jeff Lytle, editor of the editorial page. This refers to a cover story that ran in the Daily News a week ago, and about which I have blogged previously this week.

Hi Jeff,

I disagree with your stand on the Cynthia Lopez article. While I could try to convince you that we should be compassionate, I’m going to try a different tack instead: we legals need to protect our own interests in cases like Cynthia’s.

The dropout rate of Hispanics (legal and otherwise) in this country, and this area, is huge. Immokalee has a 50% dropout rate, for instance.

Hispanics are disproportionately poor. They are below average in college matriculation as well.

Dropouts, Hispanics, and poor people commit more crimes than the average population. Poor people, legal and illegal alike, are also a drag on our economy.*

For all of these reasons, it is in our very selfish interest to help good, ambitious students such as Cynthia attend college and enter the middle- and upper- economic classes. We need her example. Paying for a few Cynthias to go to school as in-state students is going to return the investment many times over through the inspiration and hope it gives those who follow her.

To fight crime and poverty, we need to treat Cynthia just like she is a legal resident of this state. That’s it. That’s my pitch. Call it Enlightened Self-Interest.

It is often the case that our gut reaction to a problem is less effective than a carefully thought-through solution. Acting in moral indignation may make us feel good, but it only rarely gets the results we really want.

Thanks for making me think, Ted

[Note: I think that Hispanics are over-represented in jail and under-represented in college because many children fail to see opportunity for themselves; they lack hope. I do not think that they are culturally, mentally, or genetically inferior in any way. They're people, neither better nor worse than the rest of us.]