To the editor:
Diversity and prejudice are two sides of the same coin. Free thought and speech are the foundation stones of all rights and freedoms.
Ben Franklin is credited with saying that we have a republic if we can keep it when asked what form of government we would have. He was an advocate of freedom of expression, though he could not reconcile and forgive his son for being a loyalist during the revolution.
I’ve spoken often my opposition to prejudice discrimination in its many forms. I am often saddened by many news reports of assorted groups speaking out in the name of free speech expressing opposition to free immigration and desires to seal our borders.
Our country has existed for close to two centuries with minimal border control. The border on our north to Canada is the longest undefended border in the world. The insisted border control is primarily set on our other primary border with Mexico to the south. I will not go into the varied political and criminal activity or just the desire to escape the poverty that drives the seeming constant flood of people currently flooding across the border.
The lack of an up-to-date national immigration policy is the cause of the problem, not destitute refugees streaming to our southern border. The laws and regulations regulating orderly immigration have not been changed or revised since the Depression-era laws were passed to protect American workers.
If we look at any family across this great land, we soon realize many families trace their roots to the many immigrants who came here on ships from Europe through immigration processing through Ellis Island. Or they were among those who fled Europe to the New World and just took it from the natives who were already here. The oceans on the east and west coasts prohibit the flood of refugees from Asia and Europe.
It was this controlled immigration that allowed us to become the strongest and most diverse country in the world. It is the diversity of this nation of immigrants that is our strength. We are among one of the best-fed along with the best-educated countries ever to exist. As a nation, we can absorb those desiring to work and live here.
For over 30-plus years, Congress has been unable to pass reasonable immigration legislation to solve our border issues. We need a strong immigration policy.
William Gerhard, Scipio