Dear editor,

I would like to say a few things of why I hold our government to high standards of always being proud of America, like my dad did.

My dad came from Italy when he was just a boy, about 17 years old, to the state of Rhode Island. He later was put into the U.S. Army and was sent over to England to fight the Germans and his own people, the Italians, in World War I.

He spoke very little English, but was given a rifle and asked to kill others to protect the rights of America. My dad never went to school and had not one ounce of education. He also never had a driver’s license, nor owned or drove a car. He had a book on how to learn English, and he would spend hours by himself studying and trying to learn to speak the language. He had seven children.

Some of us were given the chance to get an education, a chance he did not have. Others were taken out of school to help support the family. I always remember my dad saying in his broken English “Goda blessa America.”

My dad passed away at 90 years old and never said a bad thing about America. He was given a veteran’s burial and is buried at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery. The only thing he kept saying was “Getta the education, no be likea me, and Goda blessa America.” He was a simple man but a proud man, and I only hope I can be a son he would be proud of to stand up for America and never let anyone disgrace this nation, which he never turned his back on. This is an example of a man who came to America, had no education, fought for America and died a proud American, someone in life to follow.

He also believed in God and prayed every day at his altar he built down in his home cellar.

He was my dad, my father.

Don Lombardi Sr.

Napa