Confused Students March for "Immigrant Rights"
By: Michael S. Class, author of
Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame
Posted: April 8, 2006
Right now, across the country, high school students are walking out of their classrooms and marching for "immigrant rights." But, in the United States, immigrants already have rights. So, what are we really witnessing when we see these students march?
Sadly, we are seeing proof that too many high school students don't know the difference between legal and illegal immigration. But it's not surprising, because their teachers and the news media call illegal aliens 'immigrants' and 'undocumented workers'. The students don't know that legal immigration means Americans are making conscious choices about who they admit for citizenship, and that illegal immigration is simply an invasion.
The students who are walking out of school and protesting today should really be asking themselves why their cities and states encourage illegal immigration by offering benefits to illegal aliens. That's a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who waited in line for their chance to come to America. Offering amnesty to illegal aliens cheapens American citizenship: It's like offering a K-Mart "Blue-Light Special" on a valuable treasure.
My name is Michael Class. I live in the Seattle area with my wife and two children. I am a retired "dot-com" executive who just couldn't sit by and let the mis-education of America's youth go unchallenged anymore. I'm tired of seeing America's next generation being fed a curriculum of guilt and shame.
After 9/11, guilt-ridden Americans poured into the streets to call their own country a terrorist nation. They were confused about the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, heroes and villains. My eyes were opened. I saw that the perverse shenanigans went on in classrooms across America, too. I was appalled at how some teachers presented American history to my own children. My son and daughter learned that Thomas Jefferson had slaves - before they learned that he wrote the document articulating our rights and duties as free people. European settlers killed Native Americans with blankets infected with smallpox, they found out. That "fact" upstaged the stories of courage, perseverance, and curiosity that defined the pioneers. My children knew that more than a hundred thousand people died when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, but they were not made to understand the moral context and the enormous scale of the conflict called World War II in which the atomic bomb story fit.
Illegal Aliens Taboo
"Don't say illegal aliens," my children were told. "It's offensive."
I wrote, photographed, and published a book designed to set the record straight, to teach the real lessons of American history, and to prepare our children for the future. My book is called Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame.
In the book, my real-life son, twelve-year-old Anthony, time-travels to 1907 and meets his immigrant great-grandfather at Ellis Island. Anthony listens as officials question the new arrivals and document their intentions in the United States. Anthony witnesses the personal impact of immigration policy: He sees some people turned away at America's door, causing families to split up.
It's a harsh lesson: The purpose of immigration policy is to discriminate, to make choices about the people we want to admit to the United States.
Even when admitted to the United States, Anthony learns that life in the new land is anything but certain. Anthony's great-grandfather masters the language of America - English - and works his way through school, only to end up in the trenches of World War I, and then back in America during the Great Depression. Eventually, he starts a business, rises from poverty, and raises a family.
To tell the story of America's earlier immigration experience, I used advanced digital photography to insert Anthony into historical photographs. And I didn't stop with family history: Anthony meets famous American heroes and witnesses pivotal events of the 20th century. Anthony is pictured in the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh, on the moon with Neil Armstrong, in the laboratories of Thomas Edison and Jonas Salk, and on Normandy beach on D-Day. Throughout the book, historical accuracy rules: Even Anthony's conversations with America's heroes are based on things they really said.
While writing and photographing the book, I spoke with relatives of famous scientists and inventors, Holocaust survivors, award-winning biographers, and others who could help me ensure that the facts of the book were both accurate and vivid. The book includes more than 500 footnotes.
But the book goes beyond a simple recitation of historical facts: the book presents the moral lessons of American history. The chapter about Lindbergh's flight is really about choosing one's destiny. The story of Lou Gehrig is one of a virtuous life. The chapter about Thomas Edison is really about business. The story of Apollo 11 is about wonder, taking risks, and courage. The story of Dr. Jonas Salk and the cure for polio is really about dedicating one's life to a higher purpose. Anthony's observation of D-Day and the liberation of the death camps during the Holocaust is a testament to the reality of evil and the need to fight it.
When Anthony meets his immigrant great-grandfather at Ellis Island, it's really a story about what it means to be an American. Anthony's great-grandfather says: "I became an American because I believe in America, and it's my belief in America that makes me an American." Anthony comes to realize the simple truth of the statement, and remarks: "America is an idea as much as it is a place. I am no different than my great-grandfather and all the immigrants who came to this land: I can only be an American by choice."
It's not an easy book. The book challenges the reader to see the modern world in the light of the lessons of the past. Anthony compares the people and events of the past with the people and events of his own time. Anthony discusses the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, war and peace, what it means to be an American, honor and discipline, success and achievement, courage and destiny, marriage and family, God and purpose.
I hope that you will read the book, remember the truth, and share it with your children.
We can't afford to raise a generation of Americans who do not value their country, their heritage, and their place in the world. As Abraham Lincoln said: America is the "last best hope of earth."
Thank you.
By: Michael S. Class
Web Site: MagicPictureFrame.com
Blog: MagicPictureFrame.blogspot.com
