The Tri-County Journal
& Chattahoochee Chronicle
PO Box 850, 71 Webb Lane
Buena Vista, GA 31803
229-649-6397
tjournal@alltel.net

   A friend gave me a pamphlet entitled “What Every Immigrant to the U.S. Should Know … but is not being told,” by Paul Sheetz. Reading it, I thought how little our children are taught about the formation and makeup of our unique republic, or what it means to be an American. I fear many people don’t know or don’t care to learn about our founding fathers or the makeup of our Constitution and government. Some folks seem to want inferior forms like those that are failing in Europe.
   Large numbers of immigrants want to live here legally or illegally. Some want to enjoy America’s benefits while keeping the language and laws of their mother countries. News accounts indicate that in France Muslims have areas within which they govern themselves by Islamic laws and principles. If newcomers can set up their own enclaves in America and rule themselves, what will happen to our great democratic republic?
   All peoples, even Amerindians immigrated onto the American continent from somewhere else. Europeans came to America in trickles or surges until during the 34 years following 1890 when over 20,000,000 people came to America, most by way of New York, “…under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty,” Sheetz wrote. Between 1924 and 1945, when many dislocated people arrived, some ghetto-like areas formed and failed cultures of former countries continued in these areas.
   After the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, Sheetz wrote, anyone showing he was persecuted by his government could apply for entry into the United States. Hundreds of thousands came from Cuba, Asia, the Soviet Union, Africa, and other places. Today, the influx of legal and illegal immigrants seems beyond control and elected politicians apparently lack the will to act as the major parties think of votes and the upcoming elections. As a nation under the rule of law, do we dare waive the law and ignore illegal immigration?
   Sheetz wrote that the real reason people want to come here has been forgotten by Americans. This subject is being neglected by the schools and some politicians and writers are deliberately trying to obliterate. He wrote, “If newcomers are to succeed and take their proper place under the Stars and Stripes, they need to know this.” That is, to know why has America been blessed?
   Mr. Sheetz admitted the un-Christian aspects of those from Spain, England, France, Holland and Portugal who came seeking gold and riches. However the first enduring colonies were founded by believers in God and the Bible, who sought religious and political freedom. They fled from dictatorial state churches in England and Holland or from persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. Sheetz wrote that a spiritual awakening in the early part of the 18th Century greatly influenced America’s history.
   After 1765 settlers from England dominated the east coast in 13 colonies ruled by Great Britain.
   As taxes mounted, along with long distance misrule, the colonists found no relief by protesting to the distant Crown, and events led to the Revolutionary War. After years of struggle, hardships and death, the Americans won independence.

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