A Mirror to How I feel About Illegal Immigrants
Forwarded to me by a friend.
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 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 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 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
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING. FOR THE WRONG THINGS TO PREVAIL THE RIGHTFUL MAJORITY NEEDS TO REMAIN COMPLACENT AND QUIET!! LET THIS NEVER HAPPEN!!
I sincerely hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!!
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 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 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 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
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING. FOR THE WRONG THINGS TO PREVAIL THE RIGHTFUL MAJORITY NEEDS TO REMAIN COMPLACENT AND QUIET!! LET THIS NEVER HAPPEN!!
I sincerely hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!!
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2010
Afraid of Hard Work?
Here is what our founding fathers said: Frequent traveler John Adams in a letter to his wife Abigal, "The education of our children is never out of my mind..Fire them to be useful and make them disdain to be destitute of any useful or ornamental knowledge or accomplishment. Fix their ambitions upon great and solid objects."
The Founding Fathers were not inclined, as today's parents are, to lavish their students with praise. "Good job" was not in their vocabulary. Nor did they leave it up to their children to "make good choices". Instead, they moralized endlessly on the perils of indolence, time-wasting and thriftlessness. Jefferson reproved his daughter Nancy, "If at any moment , my dear, you catch yourself in idleness, start from it as you would a precipice of a gulph. Be assured that it gives you much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article which we may seem to want."
The Founding Fathers would be twisting in their graves if they could see how we are producing a greater Welfare State than the one created by Lyndon Johnson. We are creating a nation of wimps (See my blog "Safe Fat Kids With Wimp Supervision". And certainly not just overweight kids. Also, "Opinion" in the Times-Observer on 8/20/08, "Employers want people with a healthy work ethic. Employers complain they see young people coming to them totally unprepared for the world of work."
Too many young people are growing up without the slightest perception of what the term "hard work" means unless of course they are learning from watching MTV.
Sorry, the "wrong" skills that may require "hard work" are being taught on that TV Station. Maybe they are learning more by text messaging at all hours of the night. So now these "so chic" kids are also worn out by lack of sleep or both.
So sad.
Another article written by Leo M. Murray of Belvidere, NJ who writes about times in 1933-36 and beyond, that "families in my working-class neighborhood reduced their trips to local merchants and started buying only the absolute necessary necessities". Those working-class workers would have taken ANY job, not today's products of computer games, text-messaging, welfare families and schools whose teachers mistakenly or are forced to "teach for the test".
On 1/20/10, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council in D.C., wrote in the WSJ "No Role Model", "I fully support what Barack Obama's election means to my fellow Americans of African descent, I totally dissent from his policies. The Obama administration is presently working to undo welfare reform-the most important bipartisan achievement of the past 20 years. That reform stressed marriage and WORK over single parenthood and dependency.
It is not only black people who often shun hard work, it is also a large culture of white people who seek government largees, welfare and entitlements.
Some in Peoria, think all kids should go to college. I disagree, especially right after many of them have been partly "socially promoted" (75% of the kids going to "college" at ICC through Peoria Promise need to take remedial reading) but I do agree that the "college" experience is often a waste of parental and taxpayer dollars and are similar to our prisons where "inmates" come out more unprepared to be a society contributor than when they entered. Most parents have no idea what some of their kids are doing in either place. And the "elite" in Peoria, of which there appear to be many, do not wants kids and especially their kids to take Vocational training when their friends at the "clubs" brag that THEIR kids are graduating with a law or business degree.
Unfortunately for a lot of people, they are now forced to learn how to work and now perhaps harder work than they have previously done.
Some wonder why so many of the Tea Party types are upset with the way the country in descending into welfare Socialism. Perhaps, even worse if the public new all the subtle changes this administration is making or trying to make. Some Democrats are also seeing that the "change" promised may not get them re-elected.
The Founding Fathers were not inclined, as today's parents are, to lavish their students with praise. "Good job" was not in their vocabulary. Nor did they leave it up to their children to "make good choices". Instead, they moralized endlessly on the perils of indolence, time-wasting and thriftlessness. Jefferson reproved his daughter Nancy, "If at any moment , my dear, you catch yourself in idleness, start from it as you would a precipice of a gulph. Be assured that it gives you much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article which we may seem to want."
The Founding Fathers would be twisting in their graves if they could see how we are producing a greater Welfare State than the one created by Lyndon Johnson. We are creating a nation of wimps (See my blog "Safe Fat Kids With Wimp Supervision". And certainly not just overweight kids. Also, "Opinion" in the Times-Observer on 8/20/08, "Employers want people with a healthy work ethic. Employers complain they see young people coming to them totally unprepared for the world of work."
Too many young people are growing up without the slightest perception of what the term "hard work" means unless of course they are learning from watching MTV.
Sorry, the "wrong" skills that may require "hard work" are being taught on that TV Station. Maybe they are learning more by text messaging at all hours of the night. So now these "so chic" kids are also worn out by lack of sleep or both.
So sad.
Another article written by Leo M. Murray of Belvidere, NJ who writes about times in 1933-36 and beyond, that "families in my working-class neighborhood reduced their trips to local merchants and started buying only the absolute necessary necessities". Those working-class workers would have taken ANY job, not today's products of computer games, text-messaging, welfare families and schools whose teachers mistakenly or are forced to "teach for the test".
On 1/20/10, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council in D.C., wrote in the WSJ "No Role Model", "I fully support what Barack Obama's election means to my fellow Americans of African descent, I totally dissent from his policies. The Obama administration is presently working to undo welfare reform-the most important bipartisan achievement of the past 20 years. That reform stressed marriage and WORK over single parenthood and dependency.
It is not only black people who often shun hard work, it is also a large culture of white people who seek government largees, welfare and entitlements.
Some in Peoria, think all kids should go to college. I disagree, especially right after many of them have been partly "socially promoted" (75% of the kids going to "college" at ICC through Peoria Promise need to take remedial reading) but I do agree that the "college" experience is often a waste of parental and taxpayer dollars and are similar to our prisons where "inmates" come out more unprepared to be a society contributor than when they entered. Most parents have no idea what some of their kids are doing in either place. And the "elite" in Peoria, of which there appear to be many, do not wants kids and especially their kids to take Vocational training when their friends at the "clubs" brag that THEIR kids are graduating with a law or business degree.
Unfortunately for a lot of people, they are now forced to learn how to work and now perhaps harder work than they have previously done.
Some wonder why so many of the Tea Party types are upset with the way the country in descending into welfare Socialism. Perhaps, even worse if the public new all the subtle changes this administration is making or trying to make. Some Democrats are also seeing that the "change" promised may not get them re-elected.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010
Phil Luciano's JS Column
On 2/10/2010, Phil wrote in the Journal Star, "Are some jobless just afraid of hard work?" Phil asks a question I could have answered years ago. Why do you think we have some many illegal immigrants seeking and often find hard work in the U.S.?
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