Not illegal, but the words still do hurt

In response to Ms. Dinkheller's Feb. 6 letter defending Association for Legal Americans as being against only illegal immigrants, not all Hispanics, I strongly disagree.

Two of my grandparents and both my parents were born in this country, as was I.

Born and raised in Chicago and educated at the University of Illinois, I am as American as you can get. I am also proud of my Mexican heritage. Yet I feel the sting of the angry and ugly words that AFLA uses like a lash to scourge anyone who will not agree with them.

They say they are not racist, which is true, in part, because Hispanics or Latinos, or whatever the label de jour is, run the gamut of races from milky white like my sister all the way to the darkest skin colors of people from the Caribbean.

But their relentless attacks on only Hispanics go beyond so-called illegal immigrants.

AFLA paints all Spanish-speaking, brown-faced people with the same broad brush of being illegal. The statistics they use on their Web site and other materials cite the likes of FAIR, the National Policy Institute and Lou Dobbs, all of whom consistently talk about the threat of minorities taking over our country.

This kind of talk about minorities is a slap in the face of the Declaration of Independence that says "all men are created equal." Or does equality apply only to people we agree with?

By virtue of my good luck of where I was born, I am American. My allegiance and loyalty to this country is as profound as my love and respect for my ancestors who culminate in me.

Accusations and recriminations are not the way to resolve this problem.

I am not illegal, but I find the words used by AFLA to be filled with hate and those kinds of words do hurt.

Jo Ann Armenta

Elgin