Don’t forget our immigrant past

I was pleased to read Tim Carty’s letter “Immigrants helped build our country” in the Wednesday Dispatch. I would, however, like to recommend one alteration: immigrants didn’t “help” build this country, they are the country.

The Native American nations and Africans brought for slavery (who did quite a lot of building themselves) are the only exceptions. Everyone else, Founding Fathers included, was or is an immigrant, refugee or the direct descendant of earlier immigrants and refugees. How can we forget that?

The passengers on the Mayflower might not have needed “vetting” but they were in flight from severe religious persecution in Britain.

For nine years, it was my privilege to work in the state of Ohio’s Refugee Services program. We channeled federal funds to local organizations, such as Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Social Services, Jewish Family Services and Church World Services to help support English classes and employment services for refugees sponsored by local Ohio congregations.

The experience of getting to know and work with our former allies in the wars of southeast Asia was a deep lesson in the strength of the human spirit.

People who had lost their homes, country, members of their families, everything, were incredibly hardworking, goodwilled and appreciative of what America offered.

I was once asked to speak at a meeting of refugees when my boss, the state coordinator, was unable to attend. I told the group how, when the coordinator was a child, his family had flee Germany to escape death at the hands of the Nazis. Afterward, it occurred to me that I could equally have claimed a refugee heritage myself, as the first member of my American family fled Britain in 1630 to help Roger Williams found Rhode Island. We were earlier, that is the only difference.

Geoffrey Brown Grove City