Life In My Empty Nest

A Letter To The Editor

O.K., I need to preface this entry. According to www.snopes.com. This email is NOT true. I have to say that the author brings up some good points. I have read a few blogs blasting this ‘letter’ and anyone that would spread hate by forwarding or posting it. I am not ignorant about immigration. I believe in LEGAL IMMIGRATION. An woman of American Indian decent wrote in her blog that of course people came here illegally in 1900 and not always through Ellis Island. So that makes it O.K.? She propesed that 'we' all go home. Well, then lets comsider this. I am of Native American decent on both sides of my family.  My great-grandfather was an anchor baby. His mother, a full blood cherokee, married an irishman. He had come through Ellis Island.  How many of 'US' woul dhave to leave then?  I was not part of those decisions that happened in 1900.   I can effect a change now.  I can be a part of what happens now. 

I am for LEGAL IMMIGRATION and assimilation. How is it that people are blind to what is going on around them? I have said this before, a little piece of me dies when I hear press two for English.

Did you know that Mexico sends school children in Oregon text books? Why? So they can be taught about Mexico and their ways. Oh the best part, the books are in Spanish. I am not telling people to leave your culture. I am saying learn ours as well. DO not look down your nose at me when I do not speak your language.

There is a restaurant near where I live that employees 20 illegal immigrants. How do I know this? Well, one of the cooks is sweet on me and told me this piece of information. He just married another illegal immigrant and they are planning on having an anchor baby. So he could be sent back but his beautiful child would not; that is the risk you take for coming into our country illegally! Stand in line like the rest!

Written in response to a series of letters
to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan . None of these 1^st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people. When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrifices so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what t meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red , white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2007 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte