http://www.gulflive.com/opinion/mississ ... 227580.xml

Culture, heritage hold a country together
Saturday, December 23, 2006

To the Editor:

The following is a letter that I sent to Mr. Henry Cisneros in response to an editorial printed in The Mississippi Press on December 18, 2006. I hope you will see fit to print it:

With all due respect, Mr. Cisneros, I was appalled by an article written by you which was printed in my local paper recently. I am referring specifically to your call for homebuilders in this nation to rethink their building strategies to accommodate an "expanding Latino housing market." In short, you task builders and home designers to recognize what you call a "burgeoning Latino population" and to respect those Latino families, "who are increasingly manifesting pride in their heritage", when designing new homes. You even went so far as to demand that builders take this "Latino expansion" into consideration in the determination of "distinctive exterior and interior colors, cultural touches, furniture selection, art, fabrics, plants, landscaping and elevation details."

In the first place, Mr. Cisneros, we do not have a "recent Latino expansion" as you call it.

What we have is a huge wave of illegal immigrants sneaking across the border from Mexico. It is not something we welcome with open arms and want to bend over backwards to accommodate. On the contrary, it is something we wish to stop! And the people who are coming into this country illegally are predominantly Mexicans. You may wish to call them Latinos as if there were a negative connotation to the word "Mexican," but the last time I looked, people from Mexico were considered Mexicans! Is this an example of the "pride in heritage" to which you so deftly refer?

Mr. Cisneros, as a proud citizen of the United States of America, I too have a rich heritage. I wish to recognize Columbus day, not denigrate the discoverer for whom the holiday was named. I like to celebrate Thanksgiving, which has little or no meaning for or is of no importance to illegal immigrants. I wave an American flag on Independence day, not the flag of another country. I wish to keep these customs alive, not let them be trampled on and brushed aside by people who want to come to America but do not want to become Americans. That is exactly what you are "accommodating" whether you realize it or not.

Culture and heritage is what the glue is made of that holds a country together. Without it, a nation simply falls apart. I don't want to see that happen to the United States of America.

Sincerely,

Vernon Steele

Pascagoula