Publisher’s Note:  I get a lot of different letters and communications from lots of people about lots of topics.  Some of them grab my attention, some not so much.  The following is a brief story about one immigrant family which no doubt played out countless times with other families in cities all across America in the years following WWII.  

It’s a story of risk, of determination and hard work, and a story that speaks to a time not so long ago when immigrants did what they had to do, sometimes very painfully, to get here LEGALLY; when they didn’t ask for special privileges or handouts, learned to speak English, and when they assimilated into the culture of America.  This is about a time when one came to America looking for a better life with a skillset; about a time when immigrants embraced the opportunities and became Americans, and didn’t expect America to become what they left behind.

As a side note, this is sort of a continuation of this story published on these pages a couple of weeks ago.  

This is the same friend of a friend who, due to the politically charged times we are witnessing, still needs to remain anonymous due to potential retribution because she doesn’t choose to fall in lock step with those who would abuse this great nation.  How sad that we are rapidly arriving at a place where a miniscule minority is getting away with trampling upon our basic liberty of expression.  

Given tonight’s speech by President Trump, this could not be a more timely story.

I will refer to her simply as “Friend of Lee Ann.”

Friend Of Lee Ann:  I know a lot of legal immigrants have had similar experiences, here is mine.

I came to this country at the age of fifteen, but the story does not begin here.  In the 1950s, the doors to the United States had opened for Europeans.  Yes, the doors to this country would open, and the doors to this country would close.  These rules were set by the United States government to control immigration.  My father took this opportunity and decided to migrate to America.  

To this day, I can picture myself as a little girl with tears in her eyes as I wave goodbye to a ship with my daddy on board waving back.  I was the apple of my daddy's eye, and little did I know I would not see him again for a very long time.  It was not easy for him or for my mother who was due to have a second baby.

In order to come to the States, my father had to find a host sponsor that would guarantee food and shelter until he got on his feet.  Leaving his family behind and after eleven days at sea, he landed in New York, and from there, he went to his host family.

Two days after my father’s departure, the baby came.  The only communication we would ever have was by snail-mail that took over a week to reach us.  I can still remember how excited we were when our mother sat us down to read the letters from our father.

As an immigrant here in his new home, my father worked very hard at different kinds of jobs until he found his niche.  Within five years of his arrival, he established a very successful restaurant for himself.  It took him long hours of hard work, but through determination he succeeded.  This was known as the American dream..!

After seven years, and for the first time since leaving, my father came back to his homeland.  I was a lot older by then, and the newborn baby he had never met was seven years old.  It was a very emotional reunion for all of us!  He spent some time with us in our home country, and then returned back to the United States.  Three years would pass, to which my father made one more trip to the homeland, before the entire family would end up in America together.  I was in high school now.

In school, there were no special programs for my brother and me who spoke no English.  We were fully immersed into the public school system, and it was either sink or swim.

Within six months, we were completely aware of everything that was going on in class, in addition to being able to catch up with whatever we had missed.  This is the reason I never supported bilingual education.  In my opinion, it holds children back rather than help them get ahead.

Later in life, I made my daddy very proud again.  I chose to take a husband of my heritage, someone that my daddy could relate to.  Both my mother and father were a big part of our extended family.  They helped raise their grandchildren and were later blessed to spoil six great-grandchildren.  I took care of them towards the end of their lives, and they lived to a good old age.

Life has not been picture perfect for any of us.  We have had our ups and downs, and just like anyone else had our shares of struggles.  One of my favorite sayings has always been, "If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger."  

Through example, one of the greatest lessons my parents taught me is the value of hard work in order to get ahead in life.  

Between my duties to my husband, children and parents, I tried my hand on a lot of different things. Today, I have a very successful restaurant of my own that I've been running for the past twenty-two years.  Not the one that my father gave me, the one he taught me how to build!

Letter to the Editor, 

HB0426, a humane act proposed by Springfield, IL politicians Emanuel Welch, Ann Williams, Elizabeth Hernandez, Kathleen Willis, Gregory Harris, Thaddeus Jones, Silvana Tabares, Kelly Cassidy and Theresa Mah. As a Latino I’m offended that politicians use my race, heritage and my people for political gain and to shame Anglos and other Americans who oppose their bills into silence.  I have nothing but the utmost contempt for these nine malefactors’ attempt to turn American against American.  May God forgive them, for I cannot.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the consequences of making Chicago and Illinois a sanctuary state are many.

There are many laws an illegal must break in order to succeed in the United States; among them, have an identity card and a social security number.  On August 30, 2016, Washington Times reporter Stephen Dinan reported that the IRS had discovered that illegals had stolen more than 1 million social security numbers and despite five years of trying to remedy the problem they never bothered to tell the taxpayers.  

A Safe Smart Living article citing various sources stated that in 2014, more than 1 billion records containing personally identifiable information were leaked.  Medical identity theft is on the rise with 500,000 victims in 2014 alone.  In 2014, $5.8 billion was given to identity thieves from the IRS due to fraudulent returns.  The number one consumer complaint to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2014 was identity theft.  It has ranked 1st place for 15 years running.  Children are susceptible to identity theft because they’re under 18 so their credit is not being monitored.  It is estimated that 19 people become victims of identity theft every minute and the average victim can expect to spend $500 dollars and 30 hours on average resolving each identity theft crime.

Friedrich August von Hayek, a Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences noted, “The history of government management of money has, except for a few short happy periods, been one of incessant fraud and deception” and such is this act, “HB0426.”  On Feb 2, 2017 Forbes reported that taxpayers are doling out $27 billion to sanctuary cities with Chicago being one of the top three recipients.  “Coincidentally” all of the bill’s sponsors are from or nearby Chicago.  This shameless & racist bill is designed to make IL Gov. Rauner look bad and to abscond taxpayer money through a “legislative process”.

--Jesus Alaniz

Publisher’s Note:  I have several friends on Facebook who are GSM’s, all of whom are just amazing women. One of them, Lee Ann, posted the following message by a friend of hers

Lee Ann:  A dear friend who is an Immigrant, and she wanted me to put an emphasis on "Legal," would like me to share this with everyone.

Please take a moment to read.  Everyone has their views and I respect others posts, please respect mine.

Her Friend:  To all “Never TRUMPers:”  I am a legal immigrant who came into this country the legal way.  I never cared for Donald Trump and I thought he was very shallow, but that's not the case at all!

Have you ever read his book “The Art Of The Deal..?”

I always saw him as a very brassie arrogant man.  Now I see that he's very focused on his assignment..! When he announced he was running for the Presidency I decided to research his views on things.  The more I found out about him the more I started changing my opinion.

My thoughts about him were, “we have a country that's messed up and a successful businessman wanting to make things right again.”  I knew that he would surround himself with the right people to do the job right. He was never a 'carpenter' but he built the most wonderful buildings in the world and completed many projects under budget and on time, just to mention a few of his abilities that are very important in politics.

The more the globalists and the mainstream media (which is under the globalist payroll) attacked him, the more I liked him and what he represents.

All the bold statements that he has made during his campaign have been true..! I have done my homework..!

He's not politically correct, he's just correct.  The point comes across loud and clear and the American public stood by him. The more he was attacked the higher his numbers went.  The globalists tried to kill his campaign and even today they're trying to kill the President of the United States.

Their plan is, they remain on top and the rest of the public, their slaves..!  They'll use any measure to secure this..!  He stood flat on his feet and said, “Not in my country you will not..!”

To most of us it looked like he was on a suicide path. It takes a very courageous man to do this..!  Regardless of what the mainstream media portrays him as, he has done more in three weeks for this country than any other President before him..!

Speaking about progress, he's not being given any choice but to stand firm on his agenda and keep on getting this country out of trouble..!  This is no time for political correctness..!

It's time to fix the country..!

Publisher’s Note:  From time to time, I get wind of something written by my friend Dawn Ellen and she is gracious enough to allow me to publish it on these pages.  

Like too few other private citizen activists who are doing their part to expose those who would continue to ruin this great nation, Dawn doesn’t mince words and says exactly what she and many others are thinking. Her brief open letter below is directed at Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck, “Crocodile Tears” Schumer in response to his shameful display when discussing President Trump’s EO temporarily banning refugees from seven specific countries.  The recent words of this man are all the more shameful given that he essentially said the same thing back in 2015.

I could not agree with Dawn or President Trump more.

Dawn Ellen:

Dear Senator Schumer,

Where were your tears when Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty were murdered by Islamic terrorists in the name of ‘allah’?

Where were your tears, after 14 people were slaughtered in San Bernardino in the name of ‘allah’?

Where were your tears after the slaying of 49 people at the Pulse Club in Orlando in the name of ‘allah’?

Where were your tears, when ISIS crucified, tortured, drowned burned, hung, raped and buried alive Christian men, women and children in the name of ‘allah’?

Your tears are politically convenient. How odd that you ‘wept’ because some Moslems were merely detained for hours. It’s not as if they were tortured, raped or murdered. It seems your tears fail to flow for those who have suffered horrible torture and death in the name of ‘allah’. Stop faking anguish and heartache for mere inconvenience and try mustering up some genuine love, concern and tears for the brutal slaughter of hundreds of millions of Christians, Jews and people of other faiths for ‘allah’s’ sake.

For me personally, I found your ‘faux tears’ to be quite offensive. You sir, should be ashamed.