A group of Korean-American leaders left a meeting with Comptroller William Donald Schaefer today without the apology they were seeking for comments he made at a recent Board of Public Works meeting....
Schaefer, talking with reporters after the meeting, was adamant in his insistence that he had said nothing offensive....
Korean-American leaders requested the meeting to discuss Schaefer's comments at a July 6 board meeting when, as he periodically does, the comptroller complained about immigrants and U.S. immigration policies.
"I get so irritated that we just open the borders, let everybody in, put everybody in the schools, educate them, all that sort of stuff, and that's the way it is. And Americans [are] going to have to bear the cost," Schaefer said during a discussion of a state contract to teach English to students who speak another language at home. He followed that up with a comment: "Oh, come on. Korea is another one. All of a sudden they're our friends too, shooting missiles at us." ...
Schaefer said he is a longtime friend of Korean-Americans and provided police protection as mayor of Baltimore to owners of inner-city stores that were often targeted by armed robbers.
It's perfectly legitimate (whether or not one might think it's correct) to argue against foreign-language instruction, and to point out that one cost of immigration is that it burdens our educational system in certain ways.
But, jeez, if you're going to do that, at least (1) don't try to tar immigrants with the sins of governments, and (2) even if you are going to ascribe that sort of group responsibility, know a little about the geographical / political references you're throwing around. Recent Korean immigrants are overwhelmingly from South Korea, not North Korea (news bulletin: North Korea doesn't let people emigrate, which is one reflection of its heinousness). And, say, hasn't South Korea been our ally for, oh, over 50 years? Weren't they on our side in a war once upon a time (I forget its exact name, but it was something like "the Korean War")?