Who is most discriminated against?

The basic tenets of the Constitution of the United States do observe basic human rights. It has been the best creation of laws for restraint of government ever put down. If you look at all of the great nations of the past, the reason why they eventually failed is that they did not give "rights of the individual" or citizen the power of self-governance. We worry more about groups!

Take Congress, for instance. There is the congressional black caucus, the Hispanic caucus, the congressional women's caucus –– groups, groups and groups. You cannot tell one from the other without a scorecard. We have representation for every group out there, but over the past 60 years, the individual has been considered less and less. This is what has become most discriminated against –– the "individual."

Where has the basic right for the individual gone? Where is the law for protection of the individual? I'll tell you where it is –– it is in the trash heap, along with the single greatest laws written on behalf of "the individual." Think about that right before it is said which group is divisive and which is not.

Coleman Moreing

Hemet

Pro-quarry name-calling

Ezra Chapman (Community Voices, June 26) claims to have read several pro-quarry articles and letters without finding a single personal attack against opponents. He must have amnesia, because his own letter of June 11 ridicules Robert Martinez (June 5) for stating that "Granite Construction is only interested money and does not care about the health or the environment."

He criticizes my letter June 20 for suggesting that people who don't like local residents fighting the quarry "can move to the beach," yet living at the beach was originally quarry supporter Bob Kowell's (June 11) solution for those people concerned about silica dust.

Larry Lepley (June 30) calls quarry opponents "NIMBYZ" and erroneously denies they are a grass-roots movement. He further attempts to insult opponents referring to them as grass-smoking hippies from the 60s. How's that for negative and personal, Ezra? Larry's lame-brained attacks fail to address any important quarry issues, such as where all the water is going to come from for this extensive and ill-conceived project.

To paraphrase a great American, "NIMBYISM in the defense of quality of life is no vice." If pathetic name-calling is the best that quarry supporters can do, maybe we really can beat this darn thing.

Chris Dejan

Murrieta