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Environment

Who is America?

August 14, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 33

July 10, page 88: The term "ploughman's lunch" first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1837.

Thank you for the reasoned and reasonable editorial "Who Is America?" (C&EN, April 17, page 3). Most of my ancestors came to the U.S. more than 150 years ago, but I attended a Catholic high school in Baltimore during the 1940s where most of the students spoke a different language at home.

It was my ambition to live in the "old country," and I achieved my ambition by retiring to Portugal in 1989. I have learned a lot since living here, and I am sure that the exchange of knowledge helps both the U.S. and the country of origin of our immigrants.

Gilbert Wells
Azenhas do Mar, Portugal

Pamela Zurer missed one of the points of the debate over immigration. There is a vast difference between people who wish to obey the law and who lawfully apply for entry to the U.S. and those who go over fences or wade through rivers. Her last paragraph, in which she seeks to "create an environment in which all people, U.S. citizens or illegal immigrants can apply their talents to bring about a better world" ignores that honest group of "legal immigrants."

Some 30 years ago, I petitioned the U.S. government to allow my sister-in-law to come to the U.S. After waiting several years for her legal visa, she married and remained in her home country. If she had not married, eventually she would have been granted legal permission to immigrate.

We should never stop legal immigration, but we must at least stem the tide of illegal immigrants, many of whom are not Mexicans but people from many nations, some of which are enemies of this country. By the way, if I were to move to Mexico for a better life for myself and my family (my income would go much further there than in the U.S.) without legal permission of the Mexican government, I would be imprisoned. Sauce for the goose?

R. Everett Langford
Shanghai

Yes, we or our not-very-distant ancestors are all immigrants, except for Native Americans. But the real issue is whether we should limit rates of further immigration or let anyone come and become a citizen who wants to.

If we agree on limits, of course we should enforce them. If we decide the limits are too tight, we can loosen them. But it is a mockery of our immigration laws to periodically grant amnesty to those who have broken them by entering the country illegally. It also makes fools of those who had the patience to enter legally.

John Tanner
Idaho Falls

Correction

July 10, page 88: The term "ploughman's lunch" first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1837.

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