Mailbag:

Let me get this straight. Some of our City Council members who voted to place the motto “In God We Trust” in their chambers are considering rejecting federal funding for programs to help homeless families within our community (“Council shelves vote on funding,” Sept. 2) because some undocumented immigrants may benefit from it.

I guess Councilwoman Wendy Leece was correct when she said that the motto was secular in its nature. I certainly cannot envision the Judeo-Christian God that I believe in rejecting funds that could help the homeless because some of them may be here illegally.

Throughout both the Hebrew and the Christian Bible, He tells the people that they will be judged by how they treat the widows, orphans and the least among you.

PAUL D. KELLY

Costa Mesa

Furor over speech was out of line

So Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard has decided not to air the president’s speech to the nation’s schoolchildren live, and district spokeswoman Laura Boss has said, “We already know it’s controversial that he’s speaking, according to our community” (“Speech won’t be shown live,” Tuesday).

The reason it has become controversial within “the community” is that the same right-wing blowhards who are attempting to undermine the president’s health-care-reform plan with outright lies and distortions are also at work here with the president’s speech to the nation’s kids.

There is nothing in the speech about indoctrinating our youth with a “socialist” agenda, and the mere insinuation that he is attempting to do so just shows the continuing ignorance of the Fox News crowd. In fact, the speech is all about working hard to achieve your goals and to stay in school — something the right claims it is for.

The truth is they would rather have you continue to be dumbed down and misinformed rather than informed and educated. That way, they can continue to foist their ideology on those willing to listen to their nonsense.

Former First Lady Laura Bush is in favor of the speech, saying it was “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”

Apparently, this is something the right only seems capable of when their guy is sitting in the Oval Office.

MIKE AGUILAR

Costa Mesa