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U.S. xenophobia is not flattering

Posted on: Jun 14

Letter to the Editor    Register Guard    Eugene OR   June 14, 2010

All this xenophobia is so unbecoming. What made the country done taking immigrants right after my relatives got here — or anyone’s relatives, for that matter? Give us your tired, your poor — unless they’re from Mexico? I don’t recall that the Statue of Liberty has that last clause.

 Anyone watching their kid suffer with inadequate food, housing or education will do anything to make things better, including risking life to cross a border to another land to do bottom-level work no one else wants to do for wages no one else will work for in an atmosphere of racist ignorance.

 You want people to stop coming? Help our poorer neighbors upgrade their standards of living so that remaining at home, which is what most of them would prefer to do, is a tenable solution. We sit here in the lap of luxury, where being poor means having an old car and only basic cable, and punish our neighbors to the south for wanting a better life.

 Furthermore, to the people who rant against signs in Spanish: learn a little. It will make you smarter. Very few countries in the world speak one language. Children in Europe speak at least two at the end of their schooling. People who demand we speak one language make us look bad.

 Spanish is the easiest language to learn, and there is no excuse for not trying, at least, to be more worldly.

 Ruth Maura Atcherson, Eugene OR

The Register Guard