Mr. President. I support the actions of President Ford directed at taking care of the Vietnamese refugees who have come to our shores seeking the freedom and the care and compassion for fellow man that is our heritage as Americans. I am shocked and baffled at the antirefugee attitude being expressed by some people whose ancestors were immigrants at one time. Letters arriving at congressional offices are signed by people with "foreign" names. people who are proud to call themselves American but whose surnames clearly depict their national origins. These people are also proud of their ancestral backgrounds. and rightly so. since they have contributed to this great "melting pot" our young people are reading about in their history books. Is the "melting pot" concept past history? Are we now ready to deny our own immigrant backgrounds. to refuse the welcome and the compassion that greeted our ancestors when they came to this country seeking a better life. seeking the kind of life America is supposed to be all about? We must remember that inscription on the Statue of Liberty. "Give me your tired. your poor. your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. . . ." They are not meaningless words that have no support from people whose hearts have turned to stone like the statue itself. I am sure of this. And for this reason. I do not understand the reports that vast numbers of Americans are opposed to receiving any Vietnamese refugees in our country. As President Ford so aptly stated. these reports do not typify the America I know. They must represent a bad sampling of opinion.
Keywords matched
immigrant immigrants refugees