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MY KIDS?AND THE PERSON OR THING THAT BROUGHT ME HERE SO I CAN ASK ONCE AGAIN "SOOOOO WHAT AM I, SUPPOSE TO BE DOING AGAIN???"AND THE DEGENERATE THAT THOUGHT UP HR 4437Latinos srramos Says: April 20th, 2006 at 6:29 am I love my country deeply. I am American. I owe my parents for that. They left their country and home a long time ago with nothing more than hopes and ambitions of a better life for me and my siblings. They came here for the promise of American prosperity. Rumors of it reach every corner of the Earth. It captures the imagination of even the tiniest, dirtiest, 3rd world infant. Wanting the best for me, my parents wanted to grant me all the advantages they could possibly afford. They knew then, just as we all know now, that America offers the best; America keeps her promise.My parents did not come here to be rich – most immigrants do not come here to be rich. They come here to sacrifice. They sacrifice years of their lives so that others in their family won't have to. They do the most menial of labor for the most laughable of wages. They do this because they love their children.I have grown up here. When asked my nationality, I say it proudly and with conviction: I am American. My parents are Mexican, but I am American – for what is America if not a country of immigrants and their children? Even every single white American is a descendent of people who, like my parents, wanted a better future for their children. They did what my parents did: bestow upon their children the blessed gift of birth in the United States of America – the land with endless opportunities for those with the courage and will to act on them. Every American should give thanks for their parents, grandparents, great grandparents and beyond who had the strength and fortitude to venture to this country.As much as I love my country, however, I am absolutely distraught over America's consideration of turning my parents into felons; not only my parents, but also some of my cousins, my friends, and even my grandparents. These people are not illegal aliens. They are all legal now, but because they were illegal sometime within the last 20 years, or have helped an illegal before, they could still be arrested now. I don't understand what is so much more horrible about what my family has done than what families of European descent have done in the past. I don't want to believe that it is simply because of the color of their skin. For the life of me, I want desperately to believe it is something else. Even after watching Tucson residents burning the flag of my father, my mother, my aunts and uncles, I fight hard to deny it. This was never part of America's promise.In that moment, watching the familiar red, white, and green engulfed in flames amidst chants of "burn baby, burn", I felt things I had never felt before. I felt lied to. I felt fear, betrayal, resentment, anger, uncertainty, pride, love, and hate all at the same time.Later I asked the really important question: is disregarding and ignoring this type of blatant hatred (and racism) also part of the sacrifice my parents made for me? It is. And now I realize I have not appreciated them enough for it. For the most part, up until now, I have taken it for granted. Their gift was not so easily given to me as I had always thought. So what can possibly be the best way to repay our folks? By making as much out of all our American opportunities as we possibly can.