OPINION:
The Book of Ruth gives us some outstanding verbiage on immigration and assimilation. When Naomi tells her daughters-in-law to go back to their home country, Ruth responds with some words that are quite pertinent to today’s situation.
“Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17 )
People who come legally to this country should assimilate, but many in our nation have not done so. Many, including members of Congress, still have allegiance to their home or other countries.
They take advantage of the many perks and benefits in America but don’t truly love this nation with their hearts. Many pretend to assimilate but actually just exploit our nation.
President Theodore Roosevelt had some keen insight on immigration. He said, “The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land is not an American at all” and “We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else.”
He knew about the importance assimilation. He said, “The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”
MICHAEL IMHOF
Aurora, Illinois
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