Immigrants, beware a return to what you fled

As the proud son of a legal immigrant who was raised in a converted two-car garage in an immigrant neighborhood, I am stunned by how far our immigrant culture has fallen.

In our immigrant neighborhood, we were incredibly proud and thankful to be in America and free. My family had to flee Italy because Mussolini was going to execute my grandfather because he opposed his dictatorship. Many of our neighbors had similar stories and we were all thrilled and thankful to be in America legally.

Whenever my grandmother started to speak in Italian, my father would always say, "We are Americans now and we must speak English." All of us kids in the neighborhood spoke English and we all worked hard in school to learn how to be good Americans.

We were surrounded by incredible war heroes that fought for America in World War II to earn their citizenship like my father did. It was the same in the Polish immigrant neighborhood next to us. Today, those values of pride in America, the rule of law, and assimilation into the "Great American Melting Pot" seem to have disappeared.

Now, we have millions of illegal immigrants that jumped the line and break the law with no consequences. When you go to the ATM, you might find 10 different languages, and our schools are plunging to the lowest common denominator as immigrants don't make adoption into their new country priority No. 1.

Now, we have an "Immigration Day" protest against anybody who still believes in the rule of law, respect for our nation's great values and assimilation into "The Great American Melting Pot."

One word of warning to those new immigrants, if you help destroy the rule of law here, you will turn America into the land you fled.

Randy Rossi

Grayslake