With the president now making all decisions for the country like last week with illegal immigration and executive privilege, I though it useful to share an e-mail I received. Yes Virginia, there once was an American where people came from foreign countries to find a better life for their families.
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 goodbye 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 1st 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, 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 sacrificed so much to be here.
These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the
melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are 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.
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