We need to figure out what unites us

Kudos to Lynda Waddington for a super column in the May 12 Gazette '10 years past, reform still needed.”

The Mexican immigrants coming here now, in this era, want to make a better life for their kids. The only people who didn't want to come here came in slave ships, shackled to their oars from Africa. The conditions on those ships were horrific. And when the arrived, they became slaves. My white race persecuted the Native American Tribes who had lived here long before the coming of white people from Europe and look how their lands have been pillaged and the tribes persecuted by the white race in our day. Think about the horrid 'Trail of Tears” and other events that dislocated so many people from their tribal lands and destroyed their way of life. Many Mexicans do very hard stoop labor, so our grocery bills are less than it would be if growers relied on white folks to do this very hard work.

One thing I hope people realize is that there are four blood types, plus the positive or negative Rh factor. I think that if I were lying on the ground somewhere, bleeding out, I wouldn't care who the person and what his race might be if I needed the blood from that individual who shared my blood type. I would be extremely thankful to that individual who gave her blood to save my life. We need to figure out what unites us, and not what tears us apart.

Bobbie Paxton

Iowa City