Daniel Poynter, who wrote the letter, “Why Indiana needs a nonprofit to protect our heritage,” misunderstands American identity. America has never had a uniform ethnic, religious or linguistic identity.
Even if we look back to 1776, we see German immigrants, Dutch colonists, Irish Catholics, English Anglicans, Unitarians, Quakers, Jews and Africans speaking dozens of tongues and hundreds of indigenous nations with their own languages.
What we see today as American identity has been forged from this mixture and added to by subsequent waves of migration.
Our scientists, writers, politicians and businesspeople testify to the beneficial influence this immigration brings. If people like this are the returns, money invested in immigrant education is very well invested.
I am the proud descendant of revolutionary soldiers and of a recent citizen. Both sides are immigrants.
If Poynter thinks he has a biblical reason to reject people like my family, he should remember Leviticus 19:33-34 (New American Standard Bible), which says “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman lives in Indianapolis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana anti-immigration group misunderstands American identity | Letters
Reporting by El’ad Nichols-Kaufman / Indianapolis Star
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