Monday, May 01, 2006

Day without an immigrant or a day without Latinos?

I'm a little miffed that the May 1, 2006 boycott is being called "A day without an immigrant." I think a better name would be "A day without a Latino." It seems to me the only immigrants that are calling for a boycott are Latinos.
Probably the biggest reason this bothers me is because my grandpa was an immigrant. He came to this country from Holland when he was 12 years old. He went through the proper channels and died as a U.S. citizen. There are no Caucasian Native Americans. All of us have immigrants in our heritage. The biggest difference I see, is that the majority of our immigrant ancestors came here legally.
My grandpa considered America his country. He learned English, even though it was not easy for him. He taught his children to love America. I never saw a Dutch flag in his hands. Did he love Holland? Yes! He talked with fondness about the canals and the flat country, however, the United States of America was his country.

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