Steve King has forgotten his immigrant roots

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Des Moines Register LTTE

It is interesting to me that Rep. Steve King’s comment regarding diversity vs. assimilation should come while the contribution of the Navajo code talkers has been so recently recognized. The efforts to assimilate the Native American population were numerous, strenuous and cruel. Had the efforts succeeded as planned, there would have been no speakers of Native American languages to talk code in World War II.

Those in America who were fluent in German and Japanese were also valuable. Today Americans fluent in Middle Eastern languages serve our country in important ways and well.

Americans are lucky in other ways. We don’t have to travel to other countries to learn about and meet interesting people of those cultures. They come here. They come here because our willingness to accept people of different cultures and faiths. No one believes more strongly in American values than those who have packed all they have in a few bags to come here.

Immigrants do assimilate and start as soon as they touch American soil. It’s only natural. But they need to be careful not to assimilate to the degree that they start talking like Congressman King, who has forgotten his immigrant roots.

— Karl Schilling, Des Moines