Critical Thinking Skills Fail Wordsmith

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles recently released a grade card on the quality-of-life-services for Los Angeles County. Does it surprise you that the grades are not all that spectacular? In fact, they are rather dismal. Troy Anderson wrote an article for the Los Angeles Daily News entitled “County so so for Latinos.” Needless to say, Latinos are consistently at the bottom of the barrel.

A couple of the things I expect from my local newspaper are accurate reporting and critical thinking skills. Anderson fell a little short with this statement:

And despite a burgeoning Latino population that accounts for nearly half of the county's population, the scorecard showed little improvement since the first one was issued three years ago.

"Despite"? This one is a no brainer. The Hispanics immigrating to Los Angeles are for the most part the unskilled, uneducated and without financial assets. Just how do you expect these people to contribute to the welfare of the county when their mere presence overwhelms the services? No wonder the county gets poor grades.

If you can’t think clearly, you can’t write clearly. I’m glad that Anderson is not a public policy maker, not that clear thinking is a prerequisite to public service.