A Nation of Immigrants and Ingrates

By Burt Prelutsky (Archive) · Saturday, January 16, 2010

For a very long time now, special interest groups have attempted to label those of us opposed to illegal aliens as racists. The truth, of course, is that those who argue for amnesty are the actual racists. The very same people who are so eager to roll out the red carpet for Latinos would be the first to demand closed borders if 15 or 20 million Aussies, Poles or South Koreans, were sneaking in.

Frankly, I personally find it offensive when folks who come to America, be it legally or illegally, continue to maintain their allegiance to their birthplace. Whether it’s carrying foreign flags in parades and demonstrations or rooting for foreign soccer teams or baseball teams in international competitions, I regard them as riff-raff who don’t deserve to be here. If they want to cook and eat ethnic food, that’s one thing, but how dare they continue to identify with their nation of origin? To me, it’s like a married couple continuing to celebrate wedding anniversaries with their ex-spouses.

After all, each and every transplant is in America for a very good reason. Whether they were escaping a potato famine, religious persecution or an evil and corrupt government, there was a compelling reason they left their home turf.

The exceptions would be those who were rounded up in Africa a few hundred years ago and brought here as beasts of burden. But even their descendants should be grateful to be living here now. Those who continue to grouse about what a racist society this is have had ample opportunity to get back to their roots. The fact that they haven’t taken advantage of cheap fares strongly suggests they’re not oppressed, but simply ungrateful.

As a Jew who gives thanks every day that he was fortunate enough to be born in Chicago and not some Soviet shtetl, I take umbrage when black Americans aren’t equally grateful to have been born in a place where ambition, education and taking responsibility for oneself, and not simply the ability to out-run a lion, determine one’s level of success.

Slavery, we all agree, was barbaric, a terrible sin, but if I were a black who was lucky enough to be born an American, I would have to acknowledge that God truly moves in mysterious ways. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be God. He’d only think he was, sort of like Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

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