I grew up in Minnesota. It is where I learned to ride a bike, where I first laced up a pair of ice skates and where I stood shivering beside a frozen lake learning how to ice fish with neighbors who treated me like family. Minnesota, with its lakes, its kindness and its ethic of hard work, shaped me. It is the bedrock of my American story.
Like many immigrant kids, I believed in America’s promise: that through faith, discipline and perseverance, you can build a life of dignity and purpose. That belief carried me to Georgetown University, where I graduated with honors, and it led me to found businesses, including a Minnesota-based start-up. Every step of my journey has been rooted in gratitude for the opportunities this country gave me.
That is why President Donald Trump’s references to Somali immigrants as “garbage” struck me so deeply.
The Somali community in Minnesota contributes about $67 million in state and local taxes every year, according to estimates made by Concordia University economist Bruce Corrie.
Let us be clear about who Somali Americans are: We are teachers, entrepreneurs, veterans, engineers, rideshare drivers, homeowners and college students. We raise families, volunteer in our neighborhoods and contribute daily to the vitality of our cities. We embody the Minnesota values we grew up with: resilience, hospitality, humility and grit.
Somali Americans are not “garbage.” We are not outsiders. We are Americans.
Abdullahi Asir, Seattle
America was built on immigrants
Regarding the Dec. 3 news article “Trump disparages migrants from Somalia at Cabinet meeting”:
As President Donald Trump repeatedly called Minnesota’s Somali community “garbage” at a Cabinet meeting, I wondered how many people at that table had relatives who emigrated from broken countries. I wondered which Cabinet members had ancestors who began their lives in America with nothing and sacrificed so their children could one day prosper.
My family came from Sligo and County Mayo during the Irish famine. Trump would have probably labeled 19th-century Ireland a “s—hole country,” as so many Irish immigrants arrived half-starved and penniless. My ancestors went to upstate Pennsylvania because the coal mines didn’t have “Irish need not apply” signs in shop windows like in New York and Philadelphia. They and thousands like them lived hard lives working in coal mines and factories when safety regulations and legal protections for employees didn’t exist. Over time, many coal families made their way down to Philadelphia. They got jobs, their kids attended neighborhood schools, and they became part of church and local communities. With each generation, they further assimilated into American life.
Are my ancestors also “garbage”? In America, we are almost all children of immigrants; some of us are just “closer to the boat” than others.
Maryellen Donnellan, Falls Church
This reference shouldn’t have been repeated
As executive architect of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, I worked for 15 years with Frank Gehry, the designer of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. The most glaring problem in his Dec. 6 obituary, “Creative mind stretched architecture’s boundaries,” was the reference to testimony at a congressional hearing, in which a speaker paraphrased the opinions of a friend who saw the memorial’s innovative tapestry as representative of the fences at Nazi concentration camps.
In one extended conversation I had with Gehry, he spoke of how about 30 of his relatives were put to death in such camps during the Holocaust. It is rather inconceivable that he would intentionally create a design with such imagery.
The initial reference to the Holocaust was misguided. It definitely did not bear repeating, let alone in Gehry’s obituary.
Daniel J. Feil, Fairfax
Watch out for ‘fake clinics’
Kathleen Parker’s Dec. 7 op-ed, “Progressives ramp up their war on pregnancy resource centers,” misunderstood what occurs in so-called pregnancy resource centers.
As an OB/GYN with 45 years of experience, I have seen countless women harmed by misinformation that delays their medical care. The pregnancy resource centers, which are also known as “fake clinics,” overwhelmingly rely on lay volunteers without medical backgrounds. Over the years, I’ve seen many patients whose care was delayed after receiving medically inaccurate information at fake clinics.
Pregnancy resource centers chiefly promote pregnancy and birth, and they do not help women beyond superficial support.
Those seeking pregnancy resources should consult licensed clinicians at medical facilities where professionals are free to provide honest, complete, nondirectional, patient-centered care.
Sara L. Imershein, Washington
The writer is a clinical professor at George Washington University Medical School and co-founder of Meadow Reproductive Health and Wellness, a not-for-profit medical facility.
The ACC doesn’t deserve this blame
Barry Svrluga’s Dec. 4 Sports column, “Long after starting the realignment fire, the ACC may get burned again,” which offered an assessment of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s current football problems, gave the conference undeserved credit. He said the ACC “set off what turned out to be an endless era of conference realignment,” but that distinction rightly belongs to the Big Ten, which informally announced in December 1989 that Penn State would join its ranks. (Penn State was officially accepted in June 1990.) The ACC did not get into the act until September 1990, when Florida State accepted its invitation.
The ACC should not be credited (or blamed) for the constant churn among power conferences.
John Soares, South Bend, Indiana
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