RSSGuest Editorial on Immigration
Gene Lalor | April 20, 2009
(Received as an e-mail forward, what follows is an American citizen’s letter to the editor the Orange County [California] Register. That newspaper didn’t print it, despite being very well thought out argued–on the subject of immigration. It was requested by the husband of the letter writer that those interested spread it around the internet which I normally wouldn’t do but in this case I am, first, because it’s a great method of sticking it to America’s politically correct rags who print “all the news that fits” and, second, because it presents an excellent, succinct, and provocative defense of who real Americans are and what we stand for. Only very minor punctuation changes were made in the original.)
From: ‘David LaBonte’
“My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC
Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to ‘print’
it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel
so inclined. 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 alongside men whose parents had come straight over from
Germany, Italy, France, and Japan. None of these first-
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’s one people.
When we liberated France, no one in those villages was 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 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 in 2008 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
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