Teddy Roosevelt, on immigration...

From the letters section of today's New York Daily News:

President Theodore Roosevelt's thoughts on immigration, 1907:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birthplace or origin."

But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Why are today's leaders so utterly incapable of replicating Teddy's down-home common sense?

And what would Teddy R. think about the so-called "immigrant rights"(?) leaders, whom are planning huge demonstrations on May 1st, and say things such as:

"You have to think of other creative ways to make it clear to Congress and the Bush administration that we expect them to behave responsibly," Gutierrez said. Organizers chose May 1, he said, because of "its special symbolism" as an international workers' day...

Jesse Diaz, president of the local League of United Latin American Citizens, predicted that the boycott idea "is going to take off like wildfire. There's so much emotion in the air. You're going to see something like you've never seen in the United States."

Don't know how much our great ex-President would love the idea of ILLEGAL immigrants making demands, and threats...(from today's Washington Post)