Is America becoming a nation of cowards whose people are afraid to stand up for what they believe — afraid to live their ideals? I am speaking of the anti-immigrant hysteria that is a shame and embarrassment to me as an American.

Since 2001, this country has admitted 780,000 immigrants and two, only two, have been implicated in terrorism in that time. Maine has admitted nearly 1,000 immigrants in the past two years, two from Syria, and none involved in anything more than raising families and fleeing terror. Our European allies are admitting tens of thousands of immigrants daily.

This is not only a question of generosity and altruism. Immigrants serve to revitalize communities, such as is happening in Lewiston and Downeast Maine. The arrival of immigrant families is a chance to bring young people to a state that is otherwise aging and shrinking. These people are this state’s future.

We have just finished marking Veterans Day. Did those veterans we honor die crassly projecting American power, or did they die defending our ideals? I believe the latter.

Let us not forget this nation’s ideals of inclusion and opportunity for all who seek it here. Who among us, indeed, is not of immigrant stock?

Stephen Bien, Jay