The American Spectator

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Moving On Up

3.31.06 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

Guest workers they are not. A Guest does not come in through the basement window and take up residence in my rec room without my permission; a Guest comes to the front door, rings the doorbell, and waits for me to admit him before he comes in -- and when his visit has expired, he goes home. People who come in on visitors' visas and never go home are not Guests. And they all need to go home
-- Kate Shaw

If I hear that phrase one more time, my head will explode. When 89 to 90 percent of the people in this country have been born here, stating that we are a nation of immigrants is insulting.
-- unsigned

Legal vs. illegal immigration is much in the news these days, in columns, blogs, cable news programs and talk radio. I'd like to share some information about my own immigrant ancestry which may be of some interest and. perhaps, shed some light on the problem.

My paternal grandfather James Boe emigrated from Bergen, Norway, as a boy of eight along with his father, mother, and four brothers. At the immigration center much trouble with spelling his name occurred because "oe" is an umlaut pronounced by extending the lips while saying "o." The official tried Bough, Bow, and others until in disgust he wrote Johnson, which was the family name of a Swedish family whom the Boes had met on the ship. The fact that this was OK with the Boes is the first indication that they were agreeable with assimilation.

As with many Scandinavians of the time, James Boe's (now James Johnson) father was solicited by our government which was passing out parcels of land along the Northern Pacific Railroad's right-of-way through the Dakota Territory and points west. It was advisable to populate that strip of land with farmers in order to generate shipping for the railroad. Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns were sought because of their familiarity with agriculture in frigid climes.

However the devastating weather in what is now North Dakota froze the Johnson family out and they moved to Iowa where some of them remain. James Johnson moved to Chicago where he met Theresa Kretz, daughter of a gentleman slipper-maker and symphony violinist who had emigrated from Strasbourg (then in Germany, but in France since 1919). They married and had seven children, two girls and five boys, the youngest of which was my father Benjamin James Johnson.

My grandfather died before I was born but my grandmother lived until I was six years old. In that time she taught me quite a bit of German, which has stayed with me to this day. She did so with my father, uncles, and aunts as well. But none of the children learned any Norwegian, and when asked why this was so, my grandfather would say, "We are in America now. We are Americans and we speak American."

The reason my grandmother spoke German is that she was born in Chicago in a German ghetto where German was the primary tongue and she didn't learn English until she married my grandfather. Does this sound like our Spanish-speaking enclaves, not to mention Korean and Chinese?

There will always be Mexican-Americans who don't learn to speak English because they don't need it. That's OK by me if that's what they prefer, but until they die of old age, their families will not assimilate. If that sounds harsh, remember that the Old Testament teaches us that God kept the Israelites wandering in the desert until all the old Jews who retained traces of Egyptian culture died out. Only then could Moses lead them to the promised land.

Our country is much different from the one which attracted my ancestors over one hundred years ago, but the situation has one thing in common: the immigrants who are raising the hackles of our citizens are needed in our economy in much the same way as the Scandinavians were needed along the Northern Pacific Railway. They perform services that we cannot -- or will not -- perform ourselves.
-- Bob Johnson
Bedford, Texas

This immigration mess that the Senate is trying to pass is a joke. Do these idiots really think that terrorist, criminals and such are going to rush to sign up and be checked out? If they do believe that then they need to be sent packing. They are mixing apples and oranges, yes we need immigrants, but they need to be LEGAL. Just how are you going to be able to deport these people that don't sign up, since the police can't even ask to see if someone is here legally. Do the people we sent to Washington really think Americans are that stupid? YES, they really do. If you want to help fight ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION go sign up at www.numbersusa.com you can send free faxes to the jerks in Washington.

Saw one of the protesters saying "we are not criminals." Well wonder what he thinks ILLEGAL means? Our immigration service missed a great chance to round up thousands of ILLEGALS and ship them home. They are carrying the flags of their countries so we should send them back to the country they love...poor things, maybe they can not afford to go. Swimming that river takes a lot out of you.
-- Elaine Kyle

The government knows who I am, where I live and can access my criminal, driving and tax records. I want the same thing for aliens while here in the U.S. The immigration policy that we have right now has a scary resemblance to that of the American Indians. They needed us for trinkets and we ended up owning the place. History might repeat itself if we are not careful.
-- Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee

WRONG SIDE OF THE ECONOMY
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s The Rise of Boltenism:

Seems the only RED ink the President does not like is in the VETO pen. Both houses are spending like it is not their money... Oh, wait it isn't their money it is ours.

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