My ancestors came to the U.S. before it was the U.S., in 1684. They were immigrants. They were also Quakers and believed in treating all people fairly and with respect. Quakers still believe that in the 21st Century. My ancestors and their community, Pennsylvania, had friendly relations with the people already living here, whose ancestors had come here likely thousands of years prior. Those people welcomed them—people of European descent and assisted them here in Pennsylvania, just as the indigenous people assisted the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Just exactly what are we celebrating on Thanksgiving? How great we are and how terrible others who wish to share the blessings of our amazing country are? That all the blessings of the U.S. are for people of European descent? Not one person of European descent can claim aboriginal rights here. It is our shame that most of us treated the original inhabitants so badly, and that shame continues with arguments that favor people of European descent as new immigrants to the U.S. The U.S. has plundered Central America for so long and so shamelessly that we even have a major retail chain that blithely calls itself Banana Republic. Don’t we owe the people we’ve impoverished with our plunder of their natural resources some relief and a chance to share in the abundance we enjoy? And for those who call themselves Christians—didn’t Jesus instruct us to share what we have and to care for the needy? Restaurant kitchens, farm fields, cleaning services—to name a few—are industries in the U.S. that would find it difficult to function without the illegal workers they employ and exploit. Ask farmers if they want migrant workers sent home. And try to find a workforce of hardworking people of European descent who wish to work the long hours without breaks, benefits, even bathrooms for less than minimum wages—all to put food on their own table and send a few dollars to the hungry people back home. Who among us wouldn’t do this if it was the only way to care for our families? This horrible discrimination about immigration needs to stop.