An Aug. 17 letter regarding gubernatorial Bobby Charles (“Maine’s non-American heritage is obviously worth celebrating“) celebrates how immigrants have enriched America, and the letter writer is right regarding groups that have assimilated. However, some groups resist assimilation and, as the Wall Street Journal reported in April of last year, chant slogans like “Death to America” at rallies in Dearborn, Michigan.

The Daily Mail reports of a video, made at a “Stories for Liberation” event in Dearborn on Feb. 7, 2025. In the video, a man states that “this empire, the American empire, that’s been hurting our people since the beginning, the imperial Western powers, they must fall. And inshallah, inshallah, they will fall. And my message to people of Gaza and oppressed people across the world is that there are people here, both young and old, who are going to be willing to fight and are willing to put their lives and everything they can on the line to bring these empires down. Because they must come down.”

Perhaps the letter writer is ignorant of this unwillingness to assimilate by recent arrivals to the U.S. Bobby Charles attempts to raise awareness of this failure to put the U.S. first in pointing to statements made by South Portland’s mayor. Of course, she is not alone. In August 2025, Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Illinois, stated, in Spanish, “I am a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.” Recognizing the need for loyalty, George Washington implored: “Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections.” In other words — they should be loyal to the U.S. first.

Timothy Michalak
Cumberland