To the editor:

Many letter writers have based their liberal arguments on illegal immigration on how this land was originally made up of immigrants. Some have gone so far as to suggest 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 a history lesson is in order so that everyone can understand why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer, especially since they are taxing the social services we established for our legal American citizens to the limit.

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. (You read it right, documented).

Some immigrants would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground of their new homeland.

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 on a silver platter in their new home. 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 grandfather on my mother’s side came from Germany and her grandmother from Ireland, and my father fought along side men whose parents had also come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan.

He never gave any thought about what country his fellow soldier’s 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 looked for the French-American or the German-American or the Irish-American soldier. 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 about.

I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900s deserve better than that for all their toil, hard work and their 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 as for those “sanctuary cities” here in America, they should be ashamed of themselves. As 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 don’t think I’d try that anytime soon.

C. M. Sawyer

Greenbank