7/21/2006
Guard our borders
Notice there are other blogs referring to this here, here and here. Snopes found it necessary to print a response to it, apparently they didn’t appreciate the message, although a lot of people feel this woman had a point.
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.
Dave LaBonte (signed)
Not to worry, I think we can handle it! I took the liberty of posting this on the blog to get it more coverage!
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 Statute 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 in 2006 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 t he early 1900s deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to reate 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 Statute 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
P.S. Pass this on to everyone you know!!! KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING!! I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!! ~~ r.p.
July 21st, 2006 at 2:19 pm
About the previous post - blogspot has no code to create trackbacks. It’s terrible. Sorry - wish I could be part of your trackback gang!
December 8th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Dear Author,
This nonesense has found it’s way into Canadian e-mail chain lettering (and American has been substiuted for Canadian in a find and replace manner) and eventually to me. I feel compelled to respond to this factually incorrect Xenophobic nonsense.
Any letter that refers to over one million people, this first wave of post-war immigrants, as a homogenized group, as one large collective whose motivations for coming to this country are conveniently glossed over, and my favourite, as a purely grateful bunch who apparently had only one very rose-coloured experience once they got here, is suspicious for its generalizations and frankly, its ignorance of history in favour of a far more manipulative goal.
“None of these first generation Canadians ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from.” Excuse me? That is perhaps the most ridiculous “assertion” or “truth” this letter sets out.
All four of my Ukrainian Canadian grandparents waited in those long lines in Halifax. All four of them kissed the ground of a country that didn’t shoot them on-sight, and all four of them broke their backs in exchange for the right to live somewhere that didn’t make them cower in fear. They did so, however, while being mocked for their accents, their Catholicism, and their heavily-voweled last names.
But they worked and voted their way, right alongside you, Author of The Letter to The Editor, into building a society that ensures the freedom for everyone to retain their ethnic names, the right to practice any religion they want, study and speak whatever language they desire, without fear of being jailed, and for the ability to have their grandkids, and yours, do the exact same thing.
So please, do not include me in this tirade against “the new immigrants” whose principal offence to you, Author, seems to be demanding the same human rights as this first-world nation affords you. They aren’t privileges. They are the bare minimum of a civilized society.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Um…in case you didn’t notice, I quoted an email that was being circulated there, so your addressing the author is idiotic.
Who included you? I don’t see a link to your website, either.
In addition, that little letter was refuted at urban legends, I believe. It’s an old post from July; I’m constantly amazed how people find these old posts to troll.
Especially when you can google tons of other sites that referenced it.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
The Author refers to the Author of the letter, whoever wrote it. And urban myth or not, it didn’t appear spontaneously out of the ether. Neither does your blog seems to disagree with the sentiment, fabricated or otherwise.
My information is available as requested by your ‘leave a comment’ software.
As for who invited me, it appears your blog is public.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
oooh I love it when commenters lecture. Are you going to spank me, too? It might be public, but what makes you think I welcome your diatribe and caustic remarks?
Your condescension sends thrills to my very core. Please. Do it again so I can slap you down.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
You can invite your friend via yahoo email from Ontario to watch, but if he jumps in the fray I’ll cut him off at the knees. By the way, Mr. Canada, I didn’t know Unilever in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey was in Canada; that’s a new one! But thanks for the laugh.
December 10th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
you’re funny.
like watching a drunk yell at a mirror funny.
if you’d like to cut anyone off at the knees, try arguing the points rather than hurling insults. (and so far that was the only ‘caustic’ remark - the rest is an actual argument, in the political sense).
you haven’t actually refuted a thing i said, which leads me to believe you can’t.
December 10th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Look snowflake, saying ‘don’t include me in this tirade’ is really kind of idiotic (&* caustic), and that’s not meant as an insult, if you understand the definition of the term.
I wouldn’t characterize it as a ‘tirade’, for one thing.
It’s an observation, considering I’m not the actual author of that letter and I don’t know you from Adam and have never corresponded with you previous to your taking a dump in my comments section.
So, bottom line is, you included yourself, otherwise you wouldn’t have decided to drop a **** here.
Beyond that, I know you think you own the internet, and think you’re better than everyone else; an obvious elitist, which is why you come here telling me what to do on my website, what I meant, what my intentions were, like you’re some kind of mind reader or have a crystal ball, and object to what I chose to post or point out to people as interesting, but honestly, I own this website, you don’t, and believe it or not, I’m entitled to my opinion, whether or not it agrees with yours!
So. My advice is look up Rosemary Labonte, or maybe her husband, and ***** at them directly for circulating that email, if you have such a big problem with it. Or go back to the person that originally sent it to you through email, I’m not going to take responsibility for that, and your holding me responsible for it shows me that you’re a couple of cards short of a full deck. Your directing objections at me for having received it through email is stupid, your directing objections at me for posting it are equally as stupid.
As far as caustic remarks, how about that ‘like watching a drunk yell at a mirror funny’.
Guess you’ve had some personal experience with that. I know watching you implode in comments here has been rather amusing for me!
Any more incoherent comments from you will not be published here, as I don’t appreciate being insulted and ordered around in my own comments section. Good riddance.