Nevada Barr

I have read most of her books thus far. I enjoy 'visting' parks that I have never seen, and might never see. Just finished reading her latest - Borderline - which is set in Texas. If you read it, the last paragraph on page 113 pretty much sums up how much of my feelings have grown over the years.

One of the people in her book talks about immigrants....and the fact that every American wasan immigrant...possibly including "Native Americans" as it is thought that they walked across from Russia or wherever....

Anyway, it goes on to have this character state that what he doesnt like are the the immigrants who want to be Americans to get all the goodies as they can....and yet still want to be recognized as whatever they were before - Iranian, French, Mexican, African, etc. And how they want the borders to be opened so that others from their country can come to the US to get all the goodies too....the last sentences sum it all up for me, and I quote:

"...they didn't want to be Americans. They wanted to use Americans."

And that is how I feel about so many of the immigrants these days - and yes, I am generalizing because there are ALWAYS excecptions to everything. In the past, the immigrants embraced becoming American, sometimes to the point of trying to erase their culture - which I do not agree with. Now - they appear to only want to become American to take advantage of all that they can and yet not have to really BECOME American...

shoot, you dont even have to read or write English to get a driver's license - even tho the signs are in English! And all the companies are bowing to this - with all their postings in Spanish as well as English. Do the non-Spanish speaking/reading immigrants resent the fact that retail only seems to value English and Spanish speaking consumers???? I often wonder about that...