Thank you Mr. Karjalainen for your letter (News-Times, May 24), which has inspired me to write mine. I am also an American citizen but my parents weren’t. They came legally from Yugoslavia and Germany and met while attending night school to learn how to speak English. My father served in the U.S. Army before they married and later got a job as a factory worker. Not a glamorous job, but a legal one with health benefits and a retirement plan. My mother was a seamstress for many years.

They managed to put a roof over our heads and provide us with a good decent life. They didn’t expect anything to be handed to them, but worked hard for it. My dad worked up until the day he retired and also never took a dime of government assistance. I was six years old, my sister three years old, when they both became American citizens. They followed the laws of this country and did it legally. This is a wonderful country and should be respected as such. My parents came here for a better life and found it. Now they are enjoying their retirement, one well earned as hard working legal citizens.

A. Johannsen

Oak Harbor