Dear Kira,

Beats me, too, how this thing really works. But anyway, here's the post I deleted: Thanks so much for listening!

Children born here are full citizens. Children born anywhere, who wind up here, must be treated as such--that is, not as statistics, nor as figures in a financial chart, but as children. Kira, in this article, did not advocate criminal activity. She led us to an important fact--better a tax-paying illegal immigrant than a non-tax-paying illegal immigrant. I hate to be personal. I have no children. Nevertheless, I have supported, with my tax money and in other ways, children all my life. That is a priority for me. Your statistics--Kim's more credible but by no means comprehensive ones, and the Rizolis' usual, fear-mongering, politically-motivated, racist, absurd, invented ones--are not what this story is about. Some people can only survive by persisting in the belief that things are black-and-white. But the world was never that way, and you will never convince intelligent, caring people to treat other people like things.

Dear Kira,

I wanted to share with you the post I put up a few days ago, and took down almost immediately, due to my recent vow not to participate in any more conversations with dishonest, racist, homophobic, mentally deficient (how far does that go, as an excuse? I have asked myself...), occasionally very creepy and vaguely threatening and invariably insulting small-town-political-bosses-manques. But I am happy to share it with you, because you seem to represent a little hope for a serious conversation about the human beings at the heart of this issue.

Thank you for your writing, and good luck!
Dahveed N.