A good friend of mine shared with me a Letter to the Editor by Rosemary LaBonte, whose letter did not get printed in her hometown newspaper. I believe some of the expression is so appropriate for our 4th of July remembrances. I hope you will read all of it, pasted below. For all I try to convey to you from time to time, her message cannot be said any better. I hope you will read her letter despite my taking the opportunity to make one comment. When considering the humanitarian issue concerning the current influx of mostly children illegal immigrants, I ask you to consider... --the increase in crime by gang members who are part of this massive influx of illegal immigrants --the health risks, as those who already have been discovered with communicable diseases that could spread to our school children with whom these immigrants will be commingled in our schools (Disease from Europe killed most of the Indian nations in early America.) -- the influx of cheap labor that will displace legal American workers - many of whom are already jobless (See NOTE); BUT MOSTLY --the requested $3.7 billion dollars...(from our almost bankrupt government with a $17.5 plus TRILLION national debt) for clothing, feeding, housing, transporting, and entertaining these illegal immigrants, and possibly providing their legal fees... that could be used INSTEAD to help find and care for our own legal American children who are being beaten, raped, neglected, killed, abandoned, left uneducated, left to live in the streets, and who knows what other horrors is being done to them and suffered by them. How we can ignore our own children is beyond my understanding. Please be aware of this travesty in our country and the injustice towards our own children, and then follow your heart. NOTE: In 2009, the number of individuals relying on food stamps -- the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- stood at 33,489,975. In 2013, the number was 47,636,084, an increase of 42.2 percent. Spending on SNAP has reached an all-time high. Last year, SNAP cost $79,641,880,000 - a 164 percent increase over the past decade. Here is her letter: 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 [illegal immigrants] arent 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 todays 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 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 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 countrys 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. Im sorry, thats not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900s 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 wouldnt start talking about dismantling the United States just yet. (signed) Rosemary LaBonte
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:23:37 +0000
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