Letters to the Editor: A response to out-of-state conservatives who insist L.A. is failing
If only President Obama had visited the Grand Park of Anaheim or Inglewood when he had the opportunity, he would have realized he was just another political celebrity speaking to a captive audience. I was there when he spoke at the Anaheim Convention Center. I know for a fact I saw the face of hope and change that was supposed to make us proud.
The audience was made up of people who have been told that they are helpless, that they are just part of the problem. People like the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, the Orange County and L.A. commissioners, City Councilmen and other local office holders and members of the media.
They said all the right things, but they said nothing to make their argument seem more believable. Like our president, they didn’t give the people what they really want, they gave them the same old story. They talked about crime. They talked about immigration. They talked about welfare fraud. But no one would call it the most serious problem in America today. Nothing is more serious than the fact that millions of Americans live in poverty and most jobs don’t pay enough to keep a family on its feet.
For instance, a woman named Janelle Cervantes worked at a Home Depot in Chino Hills for 30 years. She was laid off last week. She applied for unemployment, but after a 30-minute interview with an unemployment investigator, she was told she wasn’t eligible because even though she was able to support herself, she didn’t have anyone to pay her bills. The unemployed woman called her brother. He talked to the unemployment investigator and she got her unemployment benefits.
She wasn’t the only person in Chino Hills who is living on the unemployment benefits.
According to the Census Bureau, in 2010, the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 10.3 percent. But in Chino Hills, where most of the people have lived, the unemployment rate was 28.7 percent.
In 2011, the local unemployment rate was 26.1
