On invasion and immigration

I regularly read in this column that people are angry about illegal immigrants in our country. Let me say up front that I wish we could process all the people who come to this country so they can be “legal” immigrants. But I wonder if people like John Briar even realize that when White men came to this country approximately 90% of the Indigenous people were killed by violence and the introduction to diseases.

From the perspective of the people who were here first, we, the White men and women, are the immigrants that invaded this country and have spent the last 200-plus years trying to make people who don’t look or pray like us, whose customs are different from ours, conform to our way of living. What would the history of the United States look like if the native population had sent back the population that invaded their country?

Kathy Heikkinen

Batavia