I AM AN ITALIAN-HISPANIC-AFRICAN-JEWISH-ETC. AMERICAN

We did our ancestry check a while back and I discovered that while I am 78% Italian, I have blood from most of southern Europe as well as some from Africa. There are even a little Jewish genes in me. But, then, I am no different from any other person in this country. The only exceptions are the real Native Americans, who, sadly because of how our ancestors treated them, are few and far between.

The point is that none of the rest of us is a pure American. We are all mixed breeds, each and every one of us. That means that no one of us better or purer than anyone else. We are a mixed breed and we are all Americans. So why do we label some Hispanic Americans or African Americans? Labeling others because of genetic makeup only separates us and makes it so much more difficult to act as one people, one nation. But, unfortunately, we do. Is it any wonder, then, why there is so much division in our country?

Not only that, if we would check back on our forefathers, they all came to this country looking for a better life. Both of my grandfathers came here from Italy at the turn of the last century with barely the clothes on their backs. One found work in the coal mines in Eastern Pennsylvania and the other on the railroads in Western Pennsylvania. When they had saved enough money, they returned to Italy, picked up their wives, returned to their new homes and began to raise a family. All they wanted was a better life.

All those coming to this country today want is a better life than they now have. They want to find a job, and it is almost, like my grandfathers’, hard labor for low pay. But they take it, work hard, make a living, raise a family, pay taxes, make this country even better. They aren’t looking for a handout or free anything no matter what the politicians have to say. And they certainly aren’t criminals, not the overwhelming majority of them. Some are. Some of my Italian relatives, I suspect, were part of the Mafia. Not everyone is an upstanding citizen.

The truth is that we need more immigrants and not less. Everywhere I look businesses are hiring. We do not have enough workers and we are not reproducing enough. The trucking industry alone needs 900,000 new truck drivers. But we need more immigrants not only to fill out employment rolls but because they make us better. When I was a teenager in the late ‘50s, my Dad opened a pizza shop. Now pizza and Italian cuisine is everywhere and almost considered “American”! And there is Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic – the list is endless – cuisine. And Americans of every genetic makeup dine on it.

What made the United States so attractive to my grandparents was the opportunity it freely and welcomingly gave them for a better life. They took it. People all over the world are looking for that same opportunity. We can’t take it away from them. In fact, we need them as much as they need us.