Just back in town from an event in Philadelphia, more info later.

Below is one of the many letters to the editor at the AJC that did not get printed. This one on the crisis at Grady hospital in Atlanta.

Dear editor,

It is likely all too xenophobic, nativist and extreme to ask, but how much money is Grady spending to provide medical care to illegal aliens? How many Americans who desperately need the services provided there will be denied or delayed because of the illegals who are “just looking for a better life”?

How much money are the illegal’s criminal employers saving by not paying a living wage to legal labor with a health insurance plan?

Few topics outline the undeniable truth that it is not “cheap labor” – but really taxpayer subsidized labor – than the medical care for illegals for which we all pay…unless it is education, translation or incarceration.

According to a March report from California’s ( Democrat controlled) legislature, half of that state’s hospitals are operating in the red. The report provided specific documentation of how California’s 430 facilities spent $700 million to treat illegal immigrants in 2006. The silence on the possibility of Grady shutting its doors for the same reason is deafening, in any language.

As an American who has been in need of medical care in Mexico, I can tell you that they demand payment up front from legal aliens…and deport more people each year than does the United States.

What a concept. Si?

D.A. King
Marietta