Thursday, July 22, 2010

Immigrants Today and Then

This piece came to me in an email from my friend and coworker Johnny Mac. This is so true, yet so sad.


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 craftsman ship 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, 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 have 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.

4 comments:

Right Truth said...

This has been such a busy news week, I simply cannot keep up. I think is sucks what is going on with immigration, or the lack of the feds to enforce the law. It's depressing.

I took most of the day off away from news, the computer and everything. Much needed break.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

Right Wing Extreme said...

Debbie,
Lately it seems that every week is full of news. I try my best to keep up with what is going on around the nation, but I too find myself falling behind. The illegal alien invasion is the biggest external threat to freedom right now. With all that is going on, it is hard to lose sight of even the most important of issues, but if we keep our focus, and keep the pressure on, we can get it done.

-Warren Zoell said...

There's a lot of us up here in Canada praying your nation doesn't turn into a Euro communist crap hole like ours almost did. Thankfully Canada is slowly turning back from the brink. Please don't make the same mistakes we did and please wake up your people. God bless America.

Right Wing Extreme said...

Warren,
While Canada never made it to "Communist Crap Hole" status, You definitely attained Socialist middleweight. Maybe I am to far removed to see the steps back that you speak of, but I would like for you to drop me a line about what those steps are. I am insatiably curious, and you assertions intrigue me. I am working my hardest to wake people up and get them involved, but many want to sleep on through the coming disaster in a vain hope that when they finally do awaken, it will all be better. What the sleepers fail to realize is that change is effected only through action, or the lack thereof, and that to do nothing is a greater evil than the attacks perpetrated by the leftists. Thank you for reading, and I hope to here from you soon.