Since I started my own little presidential campaign, one of the issues I've wanted to cover is the hot topic of immigration. I suppose I'm what you would call a moderate. On one side we have rednecks who hate everyone and want to keep "them" out of America. On the other hand are the extreme liberals afraid of offending anyone - and who are willing to drop all borders and let everyone in so we can feed them, house them and take care of their medical needs.

Come on, if we all move to the same side of the globe, Earth is going to wobble from uneven weight ditribution. Can't we all work together so the rest of the world is a nice place to live too? I really do understand why the people who come here want in so badly. The parts of Mexico that are seen by American tourists are all nice and pretty but you need to get out and see the extreme poverty and horrible third-world conditions these people are living with in the OTHER parts of Mexico. You'd sneak across a border too.

Somewhere between the two extremes, I'm thinking that the old days of Ellis Island were just fine. Most of us are descended from immigrants. This is what makes our American culture so unique and diverse. My ancestors came here the old fashioned way; they got on a boat, waited their turn, did it legally, learned English and got jobs. Is that really so terrible?

I personally LOVE people from other countries. They're interesting, have wise stories to tell, a lot of them are really good chess players, and they're making my country a better place to live. I thank them for that. The people I'm talking about here are the ones who are here legally and have taken the steps to make this their new home by becoming Americans.

The people I'm not so fond of are the ones who sneak in illegally, squeeze out a child on American soil so they can stay, take improper advantage of benefits, don't work and commit crimes (this includes "stealing" from Social Security into which they have never paid because they've never held a legal job).

Below the colorful bar I have pasted the contents of an email that was forwarded to me by my father. It's a letter to the editor of the Orange County Register in California. It was never printed because her views aren't popular in that location. Her husband started this email and it's been forwarded a lot since then.

This letter says it all as well as I ever could, so in the spirit of "forward this if you agree" I'm displaying it here in its original and unedited form.

When I'm President, I intend to appoint Rosemary LaBonte to be my Immigration Advisor. I don't know who wrote the first two paragraphs, but I'm including them here.

This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good points For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments when arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions. This lady made the argument pretty simple. NOT printed in the Orange County Paper..................

Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been published; but, with your help it will get published via cyberspace!

New Immigrants

From: "David LaBonte"

My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined.

Dave LaBonte (signed)

Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States , people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people. When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2007 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life . I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!!

(I hope so too - Mikey for President)