I was recently sent a copy of a speech given in 2005 by then Governor of Colorado, Richard

(Dick) Lamm by conservative relatives. I’m not going to reprint it here but it made me so angry
that I felt I had to try a rebuttal. I am sure that greater and better minds than mine have done this
already, but I need to express my outrage at the faulty assumptions that he makes. I also
researched former Governor Lamm. He is a democrat with serious Libertarian leanings who ran
on the Reform Party bill. Most of his other views would appeal my relatives—his positions on
abortion, Social Security and Medicare, and the environment to name but a few. Because my
relatives are senior citizens. You will often find people clamoring for other people’s protections
to be taken away, but never their own.

Again, I repeat, I am not an expert. I have researched these topics only lightly. This is my
opinion, but what people forget when a man like Lamm stands up to speak, is that his too, is only
an opinion. I will try not to comment on things about which I know little.

I am, however, an immigrant, legal and for a brief time through no fault of my own, illegal.

***
Lamm was praising a book called Mexifornia, by a man the article misnames as Victor Hanson
Davis. His real name is Victor Davis Hanson. They are odd bed fellows as Professor Hanson is
a neoconservative historian. Hanson believes that immigration, both legal and illegal is
destroying California (emphasis mine).

Lamm’s first point is that bilingualism is inherently destructive. He does add that “It is a
blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual.” I
will say that I do believe immigrants to America should make a great effort to learn English.
This is not for the country’s benefit, but for their own. Their lives will generally be easier, more
doors will be open to them, and success in their chosen fields will be less difficult. That said, my
neighbors have been here for nearly 40 years. They were born in Italy. Their English is broken
at best, at worst, incomprehensible. They own a successful iron works and their children are
strongly bilingual. Lamm cites Canada, Belgium, Malaysia and Lebanon as countries facing
“crises of national existence.” Having recently driven through Quebec to Montreal, I was
surprised to hear it was a region on the edge of collapse. I am not going to downplay the times
of turmoil that each of these countries have faced, but I would not take the alarmist tone that the
former Governor employs. Evidently he was known as Governor Gloom during his term. Yes,
there are conflicts, but he does not cite countries where hegemony has not led to peace. He does
not mention religion, not language as the major part of those conflicts. He does not mention the
turmoil faced by countries that attempt to repress with force the separate identities of their
people.

Second, former Governor Lamm says, “Invent ‘multiculturalism’ and encourage immigrants to
maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no
cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due
solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority.” I believe he should do some research on
the term. Just a brief search on my part leads to this quote by William James in his Pluralistic
Universe (1909) "…the idea of a plural society would be crucial in the formation of
philosophical and social humanism," that the embracing of a multicultural society could help
build a better, more egalitarian society.

How does Lamm propose that we rank cultures? By age? “Americanism” should then be
abolished. By productivity? Of what? Goods? Art? Peace? The production of McDonald’s
and the export of Brittany Spears?

His attempt to say that Black and Hispanic dropout rates are somehow due to their respective
cultures is spurious at best. By that standard, then the high rate of alcoholism and drug abuse
among white suburban youths is due to American culture. Is Paris Hilton’s behavior or Ted
Kaczynski’s due to “American” culture? Yes and no. The answers to this are far to complex to
sum up in a sound bite—but no politician on any side seems willing to admit that.

I know of a country that believed it was one race. That its culture was superior to all others. It
shut its borders for over two hundred years – in order to “protect its culture” and fostered
nationalism amongst its people. When it’s border was finally forced open all that nationalism
went into aggression and imperialism until it attacked a giant neighbor on November 7th, 1941.
Nationalism scares me more than multiculturalism. I find it’s a misguided loyalty to that
principal which leads to most wars and aggression. It’s a slippery slope from “some cultures are
better than others,” to believing oneself part of the Master Race.

His third point is really just a restating of the second, that diversity is the opposite of unity. He
quotes Benjamin Schwarz editor and writer of a startling array of articles for The Atlantic
Monthly, “The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have
been achieved, not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated
ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and
pluralism to hold us together.” We are left with only tolerance to hold us together? I thought
that was part of the definition of tolerance.

I am not naïve. I am, in fact, something of a cynic. I don’t believe that we can all hold hands
and it will be all right. I am a Gen-X’er, not an ageing Boomer with visions of the summer of
love in my head. I believe that multiculturalism is an admirable goal but that some give and take
must be made by all cultures. Like I said, I think immigrants should make every effort to learn
English. But I don’t think that means that you toss your home culture out the window.

Remember my neighbors? I’ll bet you the inside of their home is a little piece of Italy. And it
hasn’t made them bad Americans. That’s another thing about this rhetoric. Lamm believes that
we must stop quoting George Santayana. That the past cannot tell us about where we should go
in the future. I don’t agree with that. You see, I’ve heard these things before. About the Irish,
and the Italians, and the Chinese, and the Vietnamese…and on and on. That they are destroying
America. That they have disgusting habits. That the country is going to hell because of them
and not the “right” thinking Americans. Hanson’s book put forth that California would collapse
in three years if immigration were not stopped. It came out in 2003.

In fact, his next three points are simply continuations of his first three—that the drop out rate
amongst Blacks and Hispanics is out of hand. I would argue that the very dropouts that frighten
Mr. Lamm are those who are imitating American culture the most—a culture of instant
gratification, that cannot see the end result of staying in school. I would point out too that it is
America’s stubborn resistance to teaching languages in elementary school that leaves us behind
the world economy upon graduation.

That big businesses are investing in “ethnic identity,” and the “cult of ‘Victimology.” Funny, I
thought old white America was exploiting the Victimology angle just fine. Again, is that their
culture or our culture handed to them on every TV station?

That dual citizenship is a tool to divide loyalties and encourage diversity over unity. He cites the
unity of Athens and Sparta against the Persians, but then draws the conclusion that local
patriotism led to Greece’s downfall. He seems to forget that Athens and Sparta were always
disparate city/states with radically different “cultures” that united briefly against a common
enemy. I cannot fathom his objection to dual citizenship. I know very few people who keep it
for a variety of reasons.

He then says that “PCism” is keeping things from being discussed. That charges of racism stop
discussion. He does not mention that Victor Davis Hanson is a part of that cabal of
neoconservatives who do not permit discussion of current American foreign policy without
crying traitor.

***

As I said, I am not blindly naïve. I believe that immigration reform is desperately needed in this
country, but not for the reasons that former Governor Lamm suggests. I know that America
cannot support all of the tired, poor, huddled masses or wretched refuse of the world. But to
forget the words on The Statue of Liberty, to forget that America is “Mother of Exiles,” is more
dangerously un-American than anything the immigrants can bring.

Most Americans have no idea how extraordinarily difficult it is to become an American citizen.
It is difficult to become a citizen of any country, but I can only speak as one who has gone
through the American system.

I was born in the Republic of South VietNam, in a town just south of Saigon, as far as I know. I
was in an orphanage for the first year and a half of my life. I was then adopted by an American
Air Force Major and his wife, brought to the United States and raised as an American. Due to
either the incompetence of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or the convoluted nature
of immigration laws, I did not become a citizen. Most people do not realize that foreign
adoption does not make a child a citizen. If a child is adopted from a foreign country, and
his/her adoptive parents do not make him/her a citizen, then at 18 he/she will find themselves an
illegal immigrant—no matter how little control he/she had in the process. Many people I have
met who were also adopted from VietNam during the war had to instigate citizenship
proceedings after they turned 18. Believing that I had a Green Card, I filed for citizenship in
1995 as I was finishing college. After holding my paperwork for a year, the INS informed me
that they had no record of my having had a Green Card and that I would have to start from
scratch. At that point I had been in the country for 23 years. They told me this a month before
my wedding when I had hoped to go to the Caribbean for my honeymoon. I had to shelve those
plans. Now, I believe that my parents did instigate citizenship papers for me when I was a small
child, based on things in my file which I demanded from the INS under Freedom of Information,
but the INS will never admit this and I have no way of proving it.

I was told that my best option was to apply for citizenship as though I had entered the country to
marry my husband.

This meant a wait of three more years. Three years in which I could not vote, serve on jury duty
or get a passport. After my citizenship was approved I had to wait a further year before my name
came up to be sworn in. I was sworn in 10 months before 9/11/2001. Five years of trying to be a
citizen—trying to do the right thing. Approximately $500 in fees and that was after I told them
that I was not giving them more money to initiate citizenship proceedings until they gave me
back my money wasted on trying to convert my non-existent Green Card, and not counting the
time taken off from work and school to come to Boston and the cost of transportation. Not
counting the stress and grief.

This was also with English being my first language, with an excellent education behind me. I
had been a valedictorian in high school. I attended Amherst College. I was precisely the kind of
person to whom they would want to offer citizenship.

I cannot imagine doing that when English is not your language, when you do not understand the
procedures. Since 9/11 the price has increased. From approximately $100 for initial filing to
$250. I believe that it would now take well over $1000 to file for citizenship and that isn’t
counting translator fees and legal fees.

A few years ago I began working for a firm that placed home health aides to allow the elderly to
stay in their homes, rather than having to go to nursing homes. I would say that 99% of our hires
were foreign born. They were all legal immigrants as I checked their backgrounds thoroughly. I
encouraged every single one of them to become an American citizen, not for America, but for
themselves—for the rights they would be afforded, for the protections. Yes, there were bad
eggs, but for the most part, those women and men did an extraordinarily difficult job that
American citizens didn’t want to do. They did it with good humor, grace and skill. Often with
faith. Most of them were paying $265 dollars/year to renew their work permits because they did
not have the larger fees required to become citizens.

Oh, and when I did report fake ID’s to the Homeland Security Immigration Services they did
NOTHING. They did not take a report from me. They did not take action, because the same
person with illegal ID turned up a few months later. They told me it would be looked into and I
would be interviewed. I never heard from them again. I guess they were too busy spending tax-
payers’ money on new stationery.

This country was based upon a few words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness.

Notice that it does not say that Americans are created equal, but all men. We have extended the
definition of “men” in subsequent generations, to include Black men, to include women. I do not
think we should limit its definition.

Do you know why people want to come to America? Because in many cases if they stay where
they are they will have no life. They will be murdered, or the quality of their lives will be such
that they wish they could die. They have no liberty in their home lands and so they pursue
happiness by coming to America. Will America cease to be a land that grants those three things?