Closed minds, not immigrants bring the country down

Dear editor,

In regard to Mr. Futini's letter, "Save the country; close the border" (Dec. 9), I am absolutely dumbfounded. I can not believe that a man by the last name of Futini actually had the audacity to write that letter. If the borders had been closed when his ancestors came over from Italy I'm sure he wouldn't have written that letter, now would he?

My grandmother and my mother also came over from Italy about 35 years ago, and now we are all hard-working productive members of society. I completely agree with the idea that people running across the borders at any given moment of any given day is completely absurd and if people from other countries want to come live in America they should be going through the proper channels, for population and terrorist purposes, but I do not agree with "booting" out legal immigrants. That's not what America is about. America was founded by immigrants and in my opinion is made better every day by other cultures. I can't help but wonder what his favorite food is. Mexican? Or perhaps it's Chinese. Was "home of the free" said simply for show? I think not. I also hate to be the one to burst Mr. Futini's bubble over in fantasy land with the leprechauns and pots of gold, but immigrants are not what is bringing this country down. It is people like him that have closed minds and can't take a deeper look unto themselves and their backgrounds and ask a couple of questions as to where he actually came from. I highly doubt he is a distant relative of one of the actual Native Americans that were once butchered on this great soil we've all learned to call home. Let's just call that one of this country's problems. I would hate to start on a reason number two, such as Mr. Bush, or even, God help, us Mr. Schwarzenegger.

E. Dickson

Napa