Opinion

Burt missed point in immigrant column

Posted April 17, 2009 11:00 pm

A recent Saturday's paper carried an interesting collection of facts offered by Burt Constable. The headline was "Learning to be tolerant trumps need to learn English." Burt is correct when he takes issue with "learn English or do not come here." Just for grins - he uses (no and know) in a couple wrong places. He is also correct when he mentions that the Irish and Polish etc. use flags of their homeland at special occasions and - no one becomes upset over that.

We have citizens in German clubs, Greek descendants gather together as do citizens from Czech/Slovak backgrounds - no one complains about those and other groups of American citizens that gather to celebrate their ethnic backgrounds. So, Burt wonders - why are so many in Wauconda, Carpentersville, etc., upset with Mexican people waving the flag from their homeland?

Burt did mention "illegal immigrant" early on, however, he did not get the real message that so many citizens are offering here! Burt - the key word is "citizen" in this issue! All those other celebrations and flag waving is done by "citizen" groups. These groups can enjoy their heritage in public because their parents or grandparents came here legally!

I know - it is not nice to break up a family when an illegal member is caught and deported. The key here is still illegal and our citizens did not create that condition. Our rule of law has created a stable lifestyle for most here in the USA. Anyone not OK with our rule of law is only going to create problems for themselves and country of origin has nothing to do with that.

Our law enforcement people have not done the best job in enforcing immigration law. Businesses that hire illegal immigrants have created much of our headache with illegal immigrants being here. We may not even need border security if jobs were not available to illegal aliens. Bleeding heart liberals with the message of "you should not break up families" will not rectify the situation, following the "rule of law of the USA" will do the trick, betcha.

Ron Petrucci

St. Charles

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