WESTMINSTER-Daily, one reads and/or sees unbelievable stories about how this country mistreats immigrants, legal or otherwise. I want to tell a little story that helped me form a clearer mental picture of what we are giving up with the current insane rejection of immigrants.
Last month I needed an operation. It was a major operation that took over seven hours. It may very well save my life.
Of course, one does not simply pop up off the operating table and go home after such a procedure, so I was in hospital eight days afterward to ensure everything was as it should be. About three days into my stay, my mind and other vital functions had fully returned, and I noticed something interesting about the doctors, nurses, and others caring for me.
They were immigrants.
Of course, there were several immigrants with European backgrounds like all of us non-First Peoples, but we are old hat and think we are somehow different from the newer immigrants. Silly us.
The doctors, nurses, technicians, and support staff who were clearly new immigrants came from India, Mexico, Haiti, Tanzania, Jamaica, Nepal, Columbia, and the Philippines. They were professionals all, and a few were in school to learn more and go forward in their chosen profession.
I made a point of offering my personal welcome to America to each of them, asked tolerance for our national government's ignorant racist attitudes, and thanked them for their service to me and to others who needed their help to get well.
David L. Deen
Westminster
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