Most Americans don't have to look very
far back in their family history to find an ancestor who immigrated
to America. With the exception of people who are full blooded Indians
and people whose ancestors were captured and brought here as slaves -
our ancestors immigrated to America. All came to find a better life,
to flee from war, to find more prosperous land, to find more freedom.
I look back at my heritage, only three
generations on my mother's side, and I don't really know on my
father's side when my people came here. My great grandmother on my
mother's side was full blooded Indian, Cherokee I have been told. My
great grandfather was Dutch, a farmer in southern Illinois. I gather
from my mother's stories that my great grandmother, Dora, passed as
white. It was not the done thing for a white man to marry an Indian
woman. According to my mom, Dora's brothers, Mom's uncles lived in
houses in the woods somewhere and mostly hunted and trapped to
survive. One of them was a horse trainer. And one of them looked just
like the Indian on the Indian head nickel.
The only thing I know about my father's
side is that my grandfather was a country doctor in west Texas, San
Angelo. He would make house calls in the rural areas, and sometimes
be paid with livestock rather than cash ... chickens and pigs. I have
no idea when my father's people came to America. His last name, my
birth name, was Chambers. A proper English name. Cameron is a family
name on my father's side, derived from the Scottish Cameron Clan. And
somewhere in my father's family history is Irish also. My father was
a veteran of World War II, and his father fought in World War I.
My ancestors on both sides came to
America for their own reasons, reasonably to find a better life. They
did not come as refugees, they came for the opportunities available
in a young country.
The United States only dates back to
1776. Colonists, pilgrims, and explorers came earlier. Few Americans
can trace their family history back more than a few generations as
having lived in America. We are immigrants. Me, born in Texas, raised
in Florida, date my family history back only three generations.
I don't understand how Americans so
begrudge immigrants who come here wanting a better life. We all want
a better life for ourselves and our children. I can't understand how
the descendants of people who fled the World Wars can seek to block
those who flee the current wars. And I will never understand, how any
American can be so threatened by people entering this vast wonderful
country in search of a better life.
