The Ideal of America

David Vander Pool

[In a letter to the Editor: NY Times: June 4, 08]

I along with millions of other school students, committed to memory these words of Emma Lazarus:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

For me these words continue to form the foundation of what I believe about America. The suggestion that the bounty of our country is diminished by sharing with less fortunate men, women and children from anywhere in the world is sickening. America is not about how much we have; it is about how much we share.

Selfishness, as a national ideal, is un-American, un-Christian, un-Muslim and un-Jewish. It is time for the anti-immigration zealots to abandon their claims of patriotism; they are the ones destroying America I love. We are in sure need of more, not fewer, brave souls willing to make any sacrifice to share the ideal of America.